Ask HN: Binge eating disorder? How do you deal with it?

Personally I found it can help to write down or talk about any emotions which may be present yet currently outside of your scope of perception/awareness. E.g., "based on what happened today, any random person could be excused for feeling ____ or ____."

I also found it helpful to reorient my diet toward sweets while processing emotion, foods which my body seems to "request" or crave in order to deal with situations that may pierce the lower portions of Maslow's pyramid. Like you just lost your footing on an important work project and people will be angry, or your stocks took a dive and you panic-sold, etc.

By cutting out normal / healthy foods and focusing on indulgent crisis foods first, the overall caloric expenditure can be reduced insofar as crisis foods were what you really wanted to eat, and this direct approach helps to blunt the weight-gain effect of binge eating extra sweets combined with any normal foods outside of that scope. It felt weird at first, but it worked out well, in its strangely logical way.

These are just my experiences though, and I really recommend that you keep a log and an open mind and see what you can figure out as you look into this further. I found some helpful mental models related to [0]. Good luck and good on you for raising the question.

0. https://quantifiedself.com/

This problem needs professional help. Google turned up https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/where-do-i-start-0 - hopefully that's a decent place to start.

Try a carnivore diet for 1 month. Eat as much as you need, but meat, fish, eggs and dairy only. You'll probably find your cravings decreasing when you're full. Carbs are addictive, give you a sugar rush which is then followed by a crash. You end up craving more carbs to boost your energy each time you crash, but then you just set yourself up to repeat the process.

Have plenty of zero or low carb snacks prepared so that you aren't tempted to reach for potato chips, cakes, donuts and cookies, etc. I recommend making plenty of beef biltong/jerky, pickled eggs, deviled eggs, or scotch eggs (but replace the breadcrumbs with crushed pork scratchings).

Prioritize protein. It will fill you up and keep you full on less amount of food. I’ve never done this but some say to eat boring food and they will keep you from binging. A perfect food to meet both of this criteria are chicken breast.

Get a Britta or other water jug, and keep it in the fridge and full. Have a large drinking glass readily available near the fridge. Every time you want a snack or sugary drink force yourself to drink a pint of water before you eat or drink anything else.

Buy a great big jar of pickles and or sauerkraut(Avoid sweet pickles and olives though), especially if using the water trick. Go for these as a snack first as it will replenish the electrolytes lost through passing water and improve your gut flora or biome.

Buy some celery (even though it's expensive), eat as much of it as you want it takes more energy to digest it than the calories it holds.

Start a food diary, include date and time, plus calories and dollar value of everything you put into your body.

Quit drinking if that is when you binge.

Buy a scale and weigh yourself before eating a meal.

If you are alone, before eating or drinking anything, say out loud "I am making a conscious decision to eat or drink this" Make it a mantra of sorts.

If you are religious, pray before eating or drinking.

I you watch a lot of TV, MUTE the commercials. Food porn commercials are much less effective without sound.

Re-package large containers of snack food into snack sized portions. It's too easy to scarf down a giant bag of chips or any other bulk snak food.

Buy a mouth harp (AKA Jews Harp) I don't know why this works but playing one seems to help cravings pass quicker for me.

Sugar free gum might work if you have healthy teeth.

Caffeine and other stimulants do supress apatite but come with their own problems.

Don't eat anywhere but at the kitchen or dining room table.

Don't cook more than what you want to eat during your meal, left-overs in a fridge are like a devil on the shoulder to a binge eater.

If you're trying to lose weight, stop wearing fat clothes when at home, those comfy sweatpants make it easy to forget about weight problems and shovel food into your mouth.

Count the number of times you chew before swallowing and increase that number after each swallow when snacking.

Reward yourself with a new source of pleasure when you make it a certain amout of time without binging.

Finaly, don't give up when you relapse, binging is an addictive behavior and follows the pattern of addiction, just learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them in the future.