Buy Walking VideosPostSecret: Third Floor Throw Up
This postcard from PostSecret feels different to me now than when I was a teenager.
It reads:
Everyday after lunch with my coworkers, I go to the third floor bathroom and make myself throw it all up.
Years ago, I would have read this and felt so superior to this person with an “eating disorder.” You see, I didn’t think I had an eating disorder. Sure, I ate massive quantities of food for hours in a gorged binge, but I NEVER made myself throw it up.
See? No problems here, right?
It took me YEARS to realize that bingeing, even if I don’t purge afterwards, is an eating disorder. Now, I only wish I could conquer the binge monster.
PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.
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January 21st, 2009 at 8:35 am
Part of the reason why people with binging disorders may not think they have a “disorder” is because binge eating disorder has yet to be officially recognized as a disorder by the medical community. This is despite the fact that binge eating disorder affects more people than anorexia and bulimia combined. Doctors are in the process of revising the DSM-IV and one of the disorders up for official consideration is binge eating disorder. It’s still being debated and it’s still years away, but it’s at least encouraging news.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Totally understand the feeling of no control. For the most part, in the last year, I seem to be on top of the whole binge-eating thing (probably due to the fact that I’m super busy AND generally quite happy. I tend to binge eat when I’m bored, stressed or sad). But yeah, I HATED when I’d be in this continuous state of binge-eating… desperately wishing I could gain control and lose some weight! (Thankfully I’ve managed to go from 155lbs to 130lbs in the last 5 years!… I still struggle, but I’m healthy now and eat well).
I also “binge-eat” away time in the sense that sometimes I’ll spend a ridiculous amount of time doing nothing (aka procrastinating) when I have SO MUCH WORK to do! I am slowly trying to conquer that too… (I categorize procrastination with binge-eating because in both regards I lack discipline and always regret my decision to eat lots of food / waste lots of time).
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Raven,
I have the same trouble with time wasting. I’ve learned to binge-work (do a lot of work in a short amount of time) and then let the binge-procrastination happen just like normal. THAT is something that has worked for me.
Binge-eating, however, not so much.
Laura