Reframing Binge Eating: Pathways to Recovery

Many people face challenges with binge eating, and it’s helpful to look at this by creating an understanding of our unmet needs instead.

Understanding Binge Eating

Binge eating is often a response that helps us deal with feelings of stress, frustration, or loneliness, rather than as a response to our actual physical hunger.  It can be seen as an attempt to numb or avoid dealing with our uncomfortable emotions.  In recovery, reframing binge eating means looking at it purely as a symptom of our deeper emotional needs that are aching for attention.  Needs we are often unaware of.

Identifying Emotional Triggers

Part of reframing our overeating involves having more awareness about what caused it.   You could start taking notes of the times when you find yourself overeating.  Are there particular times, situations, people or feelings that regularly occur before you end up overeating?  Once you start taking notes, you might be surprised to find patterns appearing.  This is real information you can use to help yourself.

Learning about your Unmet Needs

If you have managed to identify some triggers, discovering new non-food ways to cope with them could be a next step.  And the first part of this might be in learning about what your needs are, this is where the language of Nonviolent Communication is invaluable.  The Centre for Nonviolent Communication provides full vocabularies of feelings and needs to help us get acquainted with how we might be feeling and what we might be needing instead of food.  https://www.cnvc.org

Build Your Own Version of Self-compassion

In the book “Eating Out Of Control”,  I emphasize the importance of self-compassion in our healing.  When we understand that our emotions are a natural part of our human experience, we can be more willing to treat ourselves with kindness and understanding, we create space to heal and make room for recovery.  Imagine how good it could feel to have some support and understanding about the meaning of your eating issues.  When you can truly understand it’s purpose, then you can do something to change it.

Embracing the Journey of Recovery

This journey isn’t about achieving perfection.  Perfection doesn’t exist, and there is a part of us that already knows this.  We’re all human and we have human needs.  We can aim to be “perfectly imperfect” instead.  We can take baby steps in moving towards a healthier relationship with food and our bodies.

By reframing binge eating as an opportunity to understand ourselves better, we will be better equipped to handle our difficult feelings without needing to turn to food as a crutch in the long run.