Binge Behaviors

Pre surgery I was always a binge eater. I could eat large quantities of food in 1 sitting. I'm now 9 months post op and getting these urges to binge again. I will eat dinner, feel full, but want more. I have acted on this twice now, and it's scaring me that 1) I'm falling back into old behaviors and 2) I'm damaging my stoma or pouch. Wondering if vets who have binge eating tendencies have fought this post surgery and what I should do about it?

Sorry, I'm not a vet; but, are you seeing a therapist? Maybe someone who specializes in people with food issues?

Are there specific trigger foods or emotions for you? It may help if you can pinpoint the cause... For me, it helps if I don't have food around that's appealing for binge eating, and if it's a major effort to obtain it. I'm still a work in progress, though. You may find it interesting and helpful to read Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit". His book talks about ways of replacing bad habits with better ones, but it does rely upon figuring out your "trigger" and "reward". I found it pretty interesting.

Thanks. I'll look into this book. I know my triggers and I went to the store and bought it last night. Sitting in my hotel room eating and knowing that I shouldn't have even bought the food. Ended up taking the rest to work today.

Hm. Sounds like me and ice cream until I saw a naturopath who performed NAET on me for it. It'd be like an out-of-body experience in that I couldn't seem to stop myself from buying and consuming a litre of ice cream at a sitting. While I admit to being a skeptic about NAET, the naturopath determined that I was sensitive to fat, dairy and sugar--the trinity of ice cream ingredients--and once I was treated for them, I no longer binged on ice cream. So, I guess it worked. You can find some information on it at http://www.naet.com/. Either way, I hope this helps, and that you find a way to get on top of it. Better to recognize the problem now before it gets out of control. Good luck!

I highly recommend finding a therapist to talk to.  If you can find one who specializes in disordered eating, that would be even better.  

Yep. I think I do need need to see a therapist and work thru this. Thx

My personal battle is impulse control, and therapy is really helping me dissect it.  

I'm not a vet either, but one of the few ways to truly change your behavior is cognitive behavioral therapy. Try finding a specialist in your area, and maybe one who focuses on overeating. I have OCD (real OCD, not the trendy internet interpretation) and CBT is the only thing that helped me get my symptoms under control. It's not perfect, but as long as I put the work in, it's 80-90% better. It's not like traditional talk therapy and often does not need to be as frequent or long-term. It's someone who can guide you through truly changing your habits. You have to put the work in on your end, but it will give you the skills to regain and maintain control.

I've heard about this type of therapy. Am going to look into it. Thx

Its a hard, long and difficult road at times.  I am absolutely a binge eater.  It reared its head again almost 11 months to the day post-op and I continue to struggle with it on a daily basis.  I've had two rounds of CBT sessions (8 weeks each) as offered by my bariatric clinic and I attend a weekly Overeaters Anonymous meeting....and I still struggle with binge eating.  I know it takes practice, life long effort with a focus on one day at a time.  

I wish I could say that the surgery was the magic bullet...but it isn't.  It takes the weight off...but alone it won't keep the weight off, permanently transform your relationship with food, cure emotional eating or any other life problems that drive you to misuse food as a coping strategy.

I'm 28 months out and I know that I have the rest of my life to stay out of denial...I have a serious eating disorder, or else I will slip into denial and gain all my weight back.  The OA is what really helps me stay out of denial...I know that I can rationalize any eating, and then even when full of self loathing, self pity and shame for binge eating...use that as an excuse to go right on eating, "well, I've blown it now...might as well keep eating".  (Talk about addicted, distorted, crazy thinking!)

I don't know what your issues with food are.  Many people do seem to have their relationship with food significantly and permanently changed after the surgery...but I don't think those people were morbidly obese for the same reasons I was pre-op.  On the bright side, realizing how truly distorted your relationship with food actually is, for me, is a window to healing myself on a deeper level.  Now I have to do the very hard work of transforming myself, my thinking, my acting from emotion and reaction...to staying present, mindful, hopeful and out of denial.  The wls has been a mixed blessing...but in the end...it has given the chance of getting honest about how big my problem with food is and set me on a path to true recovery and healing.  For this, I am grateful.  

That quote that Oprah likes from a Maya Angelou poem pops into my head, "wouldn't take nothing for my journey now". I am grateful that I can begin to search for the missing pieces of myself that have been buried in my distorted dance with food.  I will reclaim them,love them, integrate them and be more lush, abundant, full and emobodied than any amount of overeating could ever offer me.

I wish you peace with food and life.