For 20 years, every bingeing relapse caused me so much guilt, I returned to binge eating. Until recently, I considered every bingeing relapse a disaster and myself as a failure that would never get better. Binge eating is one of the most difficult aspects of my life to discuss because I feel guilty that there are hungry people and I overeat. I also feel ashamed that I allow myself to lose control like this, so when I have a bingeing relapse, all of these emotions intensify. It was not until I stopped thinking in terms of success and failure that I began making progress, and I’d like to share ways I have retrained my brain to navigate my recovery and learn from a bingeing relapse.

I’m Daina Frame, and I’m excited to join HealthyPlace and Binge Eating Recovery to write about my recovery with eating disorders. I am 34 years old, and I have struggled with eating disorders for almost 20 years. I only began talking about my disorders a year ago. Until then, I hid everything from everyone I know. I had always feared being honest about binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia. I was ashamed and scared to talk about the truth. While I have been able to stop purging and restricting, I still am working through binge eating disorder. In addition to eating disorders, I am in the process of recovery for bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The restriction and binge cycle is a common occurrence when struggling with binge eating disorder. When active in my behaviors I had a tendency to cycle through this quite often. When we deprive ourselves of food, our body's reaction is to binge. With a balanced eating plan we can put a stop to this vicious cycle (Why Do I Need a Dietician on My Eating Disorder Treatment Team?).

A significant part of society functions by comparing things to similiar things and when you are on a binge eating disorder journey, you quickly become aware just how incomparable these journeys are (Binge Eating Disorder Recovery Is A Personal Journey). Sometimes your recovery is going extremely well and sometimes you have a relapse. Regardless of how your recovery is going, it's completely unhelpful to be informed how someone else is doing better or worse than you are. My binge eating disorder recovery journey is not comparable to others.

It's a common joke that people, particularly women, who go to college gain 15 pounds their first year (or semester, depending on who you're listening to), but when you have binge eating disorder and you go to college, the weight changes you could experience are nothing to joke about (Make Time For Binge Eating Disorder In College). Nothing is quite like the stress of college. When stress triggers your binge eating disorder at college, binges and weight gain can collide. 

Spring holidays are coming up fast and when you have binge eating disorder (BED), it can be a difficult time to survive. Parties and social gatherings can trigger your binge eating disorder, relatives and friends can play any variety of roles, including food police and concern troll, and beyond all of that, there's seasonal foods that can lead to overeating or binging. Here are some tips on surviving the spring holidays with binge eating disorder.

Recent studies have revealed that people with eating disorders often engage in self-harm.1 Self-harm is defined as non-lethal harm done to the self. It can include minor burns, cutting the skin, or even knowingly engaging in the symptoms of the eating disorder. People with binge eating disorder might engage in self-harm.

There are plenty of people who don't understand binge eating disorder (BED). Whether their misunderstanding is due to social and cultural conditioning or outright refusal to acknowledge information set in front of them, it can be difficult to navigate social situations with BED (Surviving Mental Illness Stigma in A Judgmental World). It's important to remember that it's not your job to educate anyone and sometimes, no matter what you do, people are not going to understand binge eating disorder.

When you have an eating disorder which can make you gain weight, a lot of people assume weight los is the answer to binge eating disorder (BED). As if you reach your goal weight and then you're in recovery. However, it's not that simple. Weight loss isn't the answer to binge eating disorder.

When binge eating is your coping mechanism, suffering trauma can trigger devastating binges. Although the conclusion to binge eat following upsetting events might follow naturally to someone who suffers from binge eating disorder, this is not a viable coping skill and will only lead to more problems.