Happy Thursday everyone, hope you are all having a great week so far, enjoying life and the last sunny days in Chicago! I am sucking the sunshine in until the last one disappears for the next long couple of month.
I have been reading the book ''Brain over Binge'' by Kathryn Hansen. I thought I have a lot of knowledge, when it comes to the topic of bulimia, but I was impressed and very intrigued on how she looks at the vicious cycle of binging and purging.
Kathryn is a ''recovered'' bulimic herself and describes in detail her unconventional approach to recovery. She offers a very unconventional perspective to the canvas of eating disorders, meaning she doubts therapy and that binge eating and/or bulimia is more about self-control and free will.
When young girls and women develop and eating disorder,they are usually send to therapy.In conventional therapy, they are told that binging and purging has to do with deep issues. Experiences in their past or present that they haven't coped with. From the beginning on, eating disorder patients have to resolve their problems and emotional feelings to get in control of the disease.Eating until you are sugar drunk and purging because you feel guilty are signs that you want to shut out the real world and always have to do with deeper issues! Really?! Bulimia, Anorexia and other eating disorders are looked at as a disease. But is it really a disease? Do we really have no control over if we want to stuff ourselves until we feel sick and numb? Are our lives suddenly, magically improving and problems fade away, because we are not binge eating anymore?
I can speak from my own experience that sometimes you make excuses for binge eating! ''I had a tough day'', ''That idiot doesn't get me'', ''I am bored", ''It is OK to binge, as long as you get back on track''. The last statement is something you hear a lot in therapy. You will have setbacks, but it is important to keep on fighting.I get it, but for how many years are you supposed to have setbacks, how many excuses can you make?!
Just to be clear, I do not want to offend anyone, I know that struggling with an eating disorder is an awful, time and life consuming thing.
But do we really have no control!!!!!????
As Kathryn states in her book, most eating disorders start in teenage years, most of them are girls. Our society puts pressure on us, especially on young women, how to look a certain way, skinny equals perfect. We all know how influenced we can get when we are teenagers. For some it might be cigarettes, for some alcohol and for others it is the wish to be skinny. You probably just have to go into a class of High School students, and I can guaranty you, that a big topic under girls is diet and how to lose weight.
Maybe that is why bulimia and binge eating develops! When we starve our body, sooner or later our brain is gonna go crazy. Our brain and body doesn't know that we live in the time of food abundance, and that there is always plenty of it available. There is a part of our brain, the subcortex, the animal brain, that just wants to watch out for us. It is wired to tell you to get as much food as possible, if you starve yourself over a period of time. Meaning if you deprive yourself of food and nutrients, you will have the urge to binge tons of unhealthy, fatty, sugary foods. A long time ago, people sometimes stuffed themselves, because they didn't know when food would be available again. Today, at least in the western world, we do not have to worry about that! Your animal brain just wants to prevent you from starving.It is like a defense mechanism.
The human part of your brain, the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that has the power. Free will, self-control and self-reliance . It has the power to control your actions. No matter what thoughts, feelings or cravings the animal brain generates automatically, the human brain can choose the action. Nobody forces you to binge! Just like nobody forces anybody to pull the trigger..
Is binge eating a habit? It might be, a very bad one too. Are you always binge eating in the same situations. When you are alone, bored, or when you are stressed.
Are these triggers just excuses to binge? Do you feel better after?
In therapy you learn that something is wrong with you, meaning you had a dysfunctional childhood, if you have an eating disorder I guess you could waste your whole life figuring out who to blame. I think we all had some issues growing up, some more some less. Our parents can only do their best. We cannot blame binge eating and bulimia on our parents, ex-lovers, friends or teachers. We have self control and if we forgot how to use it, it is time to get it back.
Like all habits, we have to relearn how to change them. But if we really separate ourselves from the part of our brain that wants to binge, because it is used to doing it for so many years, maybe bulimia is not a disease. A bulimic binges and if the binging is non existing, the purging will stop automatically. No binge, no purge, no bulimia! If we assure our animal brain, that there will always be enough to eat, maybe after a while it will trust us again and the urges will go away. I am not surprised our bodies and brains are so messed up, by the way we treat them.
I personally think, that Kathryn's book is a refreshing take on bulimia and binge eating. It is empowering, knowing that you and only you can change yourself for the better. You are in total control of yourself. Stop being a victim, stop trying to run away from your life. Your life is your responsibility and your choice!
Love and Cookies
Jennifer
I have been reading the book ''Brain over Binge'' by Kathryn Hansen. I thought I have a lot of knowledge, when it comes to the topic of bulimia, but I was impressed and very intrigued on how she looks at the vicious cycle of binging and purging.
Kathryn is a ''recovered'' bulimic herself and describes in detail her unconventional approach to recovery. She offers a very unconventional perspective to the canvas of eating disorders, meaning she doubts therapy and that binge eating and/or bulimia is more about self-control and free will.
When young girls and women develop and eating disorder,they are usually send to therapy.In conventional therapy, they are told that binging and purging has to do with deep issues. Experiences in their past or present that they haven't coped with. From the beginning on, eating disorder patients have to resolve their problems and emotional feelings to get in control of the disease.Eating until you are sugar drunk and purging because you feel guilty are signs that you want to shut out the real world and always have to do with deeper issues! Really?! Bulimia, Anorexia and other eating disorders are looked at as a disease. But is it really a disease? Do we really have no control over if we want to stuff ourselves until we feel sick and numb? Are our lives suddenly, magically improving and problems fade away, because we are not binge eating anymore?
I can speak from my own experience that sometimes you make excuses for binge eating! ''I had a tough day'', ''That idiot doesn't get me'', ''I am bored", ''It is OK to binge, as long as you get back on track''. The last statement is something you hear a lot in therapy. You will have setbacks, but it is important to keep on fighting.I get it, but for how many years are you supposed to have setbacks, how many excuses can you make?!
Just to be clear, I do not want to offend anyone, I know that struggling with an eating disorder is an awful, time and life consuming thing.
But do we really have no control!!!!!????
As Kathryn states in her book, most eating disorders start in teenage years, most of them are girls. Our society puts pressure on us, especially on young women, how to look a certain way, skinny equals perfect. We all know how influenced we can get when we are teenagers. For some it might be cigarettes, for some alcohol and for others it is the wish to be skinny. You probably just have to go into a class of High School students, and I can guaranty you, that a big topic under girls is diet and how to lose weight.
Maybe that is why bulimia and binge eating develops! When we starve our body, sooner or later our brain is gonna go crazy. Our brain and body doesn't know that we live in the time of food abundance, and that there is always plenty of it available. There is a part of our brain, the subcortex, the animal brain, that just wants to watch out for us. It is wired to tell you to get as much food as possible, if you starve yourself over a period of time. Meaning if you deprive yourself of food and nutrients, you will have the urge to binge tons of unhealthy, fatty, sugary foods. A long time ago, people sometimes stuffed themselves, because they didn't know when food would be available again. Today, at least in the western world, we do not have to worry about that! Your animal brain just wants to prevent you from starving.It is like a defense mechanism.
The human part of your brain, the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that has the power. Free will, self-control and self-reliance . It has the power to control your actions. No matter what thoughts, feelings or cravings the animal brain generates automatically, the human brain can choose the action. Nobody forces you to binge! Just like nobody forces anybody to pull the trigger..
Is binge eating a habit? It might be, a very bad one too. Are you always binge eating in the same situations. When you are alone, bored, or when you are stressed.
Are these triggers just excuses to binge? Do you feel better after?
In therapy you learn that something is wrong with you, meaning you had a dysfunctional childhood, if you have an eating disorder I guess you could waste your whole life figuring out who to blame. I think we all had some issues growing up, some more some less. Our parents can only do their best. We cannot blame binge eating and bulimia on our parents, ex-lovers, friends or teachers. We have self control and if we forgot how to use it, it is time to get it back.
Like all habits, we have to relearn how to change them. But if we really separate ourselves from the part of our brain that wants to binge, because it is used to doing it for so many years, maybe bulimia is not a disease. A bulimic binges and if the binging is non existing, the purging will stop automatically. No binge, no purge, no bulimia! If we assure our animal brain, that there will always be enough to eat, maybe after a while it will trust us again and the urges will go away. I am not surprised our bodies and brains are so messed up, by the way we treat them.
I personally think, that Kathryn's book is a refreshing take on bulimia and binge eating. It is empowering, knowing that you and only you can change yourself for the better. You are in total control of yourself. Stop being a victim, stop trying to run away from your life. Your life is your responsibility and your choice!
Love and Cookies
Jennifer
I'm so glad you reviewed this! I've found it to be hands down the BEST book on binge eating I've ever read and I'm shocked more people don't know about it!
ReplyDeleteI agree,it is a very good book!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have control over everything in life, but we do have the power and strength to be better and not ruin our bodies. The book is very self-empowering.
Thank you for reading my post on it.
Jennifer, great post! I also highly recommend the book Brain Over Binge. It helped me finally stop my own binge eating last year. I was able to understand that it was my "lizard brain" that was telling me to binge and her book helped me to realize that was just a junk message and to ignore it. Just a great book.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate late last week to speak with Kathryn Hansen over the phone about her book for my podcast. She's a very neat lady and shared great details about her book and her personal life. Listen if you'd like at my blog or find the The Quit Binge Eating Podcast over at iTunes or on Stitcher. It was a great conversation!
Thank you, I will definitely listen to you interview with Kathryn.
ReplyDeleteThank you
Have a beautiful day