Binge eating - can't stop eating

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, I come from the UK (England). I have a diagnosis of autism (or Asperger's). I also have diagnosed OCD, but I also think I have anxiety problems and depression.

I've been morbidly obese for quite a few years now, but it was only until 2018 that I started noticing my eating patterns. I then became obsessed with weighing myself everyday (I still do this to this day). It got to the point where I binge on food, feel guilty and then cry. I have told health professionals about this, but some say it's my OCD, some say it's emotional eating, but they never say it's BED (binge eating disorder). I have all the symptoms of BED. I even had an eating disorder assessment but they said "it's all your OCD". I know it's not my OCD because OCD is an anxiety disorder and binge eating disorder is an addiction/eating disorder.

I'll be honest, I weigh a lot. I'm very tall for a female and carry my weight well, but nevertheless my weight stresses me out and causes me anxiety. I can't even walk that far anymore because I have plantar fasciitis in one of my feet.

I really want help, but no one is giving it to me. I'm under a mental health team and have told them about this, but they're not going to do anything.

I just don't know what to do.

 

[Aspychata]

Sometimes as a female we don't get support from the male dominated medical staff. My tiny suggestion is to buy a cheap notebook and journal what feelings come up before you binge. This will sorta help focus you on your feelings. This will either inspire you or give you things to discuss with a counselor. l tend to eat late, eat my feelings, sometimes binge eat instead of facing head on what is upsetting me. If you journal your feelings - l think is helps us focus on what we deny. Anyways, so glad you are discussing this here. This is very important.

 

[OkRad]

Do you have a good dr? You should be tested for Willie Prader or other genetic disorders that can cause feeding disabilities and feeding disorders. Autism and Feeding disorders are common. These are very different than eating disorders but can be confused with them.

 

[Gift2humanity]

Hello everyone,

A warm welcome.

I'm new here, I come from the UK (England). I have a diagnosis of autism (or Asperger's). I also have diagnosed OCD, but I also think I have anxiety problems and depression.

Difficult isn't it. Hello from a fellow depressed and anxious Aspie who gets obsessed.

I've been morbidly obese for quite a few years now, but it was only until 2018 that I started noticing my eating patterns. I then became obsessed with weighing myself everyday (I still do this to this day). It got to the point where I binge on food, feel guilty and then cry. I have told health professionals about this, but some say it's my OCD, some say it's emotional eating, but they never say it's BED (binge eating disorder). I have all the symptoms of BED. I even had an eating disorder assessment but they said "it's all your OCD". I know it's not my OCD because OCD is an anxiety disorder and binge eating disorder is an addiction/eating disorder.

I think being on the spectrum can give some of us a propensity to obsess.
I lost around half my body weight when I got clean of one of my drug addictions 6 years ago - ha! most people who get clean from "that" drug put weight on.

I'll be honest, I weigh a lot. I'm very tall for a female and carry my weight well, but nevertheless my weight stresses me out and causes me anxiety. I can't even walk that far anymore because I have plantar fasciitis in one of my feet.

I had to look up plantar fascitis, heel pain. I know an obese lady who is working with the NHS to get her weight down, she has physio exercises to do and gets pain. She has lost three stone, in a healthy way under the NHS, and gets slimming support to eat the right food with a slimming group.
I would suggest GP your first stop, being aspie, I find it helpful to do a bullet pointed list of things you want to talk about. Avoid anti anxiety/depressio drugs though, they mask the cause, there are non drug therapies and you may want to look into the root cause.
If you are being prescribed them, do not suddenly come off them without supervision.
You are, of course, if you wish, very welcome to talk to us on here, I will listen.

I really want help, but no one is giving it to me. I'm under a mental health team and have told them about this, but they're not going to do anything.

I just don't know what to do.

My friend has mental health diagnosis and fibromyalgia, the one I mentioned above. I'm being helped by the mental health team too, can you tell your CPN or care co-ordinator that these things are causing you anxiety. I get a phone call with mine, he's lovely, every few weeks, roughly monthly, more if I need, and he has helped with dieticians, weight issues, (I know mine is the reverse, but mental health problems can cause both weight loss and weight gain). Mine has referred me to other agencies as well. I didn't engage with my last CPN as she had an abrupt manner, however my current CPN is very patient and as my last CPN said I didnt engage, I asked to engage with my current one and psychiatrically he has done really well for me.

I didn't think of the info on the two posts above mine, very informative.

 

[paloftoon]

10 Ways to Get Back on Track After a Binge

1. Go for a Walk. Share on Pinterest. ...
2. Sleep It Off. Getting enough sleep after an episode of overeating is a good way to fight off cravings and get the next day off on the right foot. ...
3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast. ...
4. Stay Hydrated. ...
5. Try Yoga. ...
6. Fill up on Veggies. ...
7. Avoid Skipping Meals. ...
8. Start Exercising.
   
9. Practice Mindful Eating
10. Increase your Protein Intake
    
    I know you said you can't do Number 1 so easily. So, try to focus on the other stuff more. If 10 things at once seem overwhelming, start with sleep and water or sleep, water, and at least one other thing.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

This could be a long post here, but I will try to just itemize things here:

1. If you are generally anxious, there is a good chance your cortisol levels are elevated. This "stress hormone", if chronically elevated, will tend to cause a person to store fat.

2. If you are already overweight, there is a good chance you are at least pre-diabetic and your insulin levels are elevated. Keep in mind, an elevated blood sugar is a late sign,...it means that your pancreas is unable to keep insulin levels high enough to transport the sugars out of your blood and into the cells. Many people can have a normal blood sugar, and be obese, but the real thing to test is the insulin level (which doesn't often get tested). The body will only burn fat if the insulin levels are low, and is why many cannot exercise their way out of a bad diet. If you keep eating and raising your insulin levels,...no fat burning,...plain and simple. This is where an intermittent fasting program can lower your insulin levels over time and allow your body to utilize its fat stores. Start out slow,...4hrs, 6hrs, 8hrs,...and keep going as tolerated, until you can make it to a minimum of 16hrs. At some point you may be able to simply eat once a day. It can take several weeks to do this, so no rush. That craving of food,...that's your elevated insulin talking. If you had a low insulin level,...your body would just burn fat and you wouldn't have cravings.

3. Autism is a low dopamine and serotonin neurologic condition,...and sugar triggers the dopamine receptors,...another reason for food cravings, especially when feeling down and depressed.

4. The only sweetener that does not spike insulin is stevia,...any of the other artificial sweeteners are huge insulin spikers. The food manufacturers put these artificial sweeteners in their products so that you get the insulin spike,...but a good hour later, your blood sugar crashes,...and you seek out more food. It's a sick game that they play,...the worst thing is they target people who are trying to loose weight by saying it is "low fat, low sugar",...then they throw those artificial sweeteners in there to keep you eating.

 

[Major Tom]

I have a similar problem myself, there's many factors that play into it. Mainly though during periods of high stress I eat like I haven't eaten anything in a year or something. The problem is, I always have a good deal of stress in my life.

Lately I've been being strict with myself as I when I weighed myself, I ended up weighing 130kg. I've been walking to work and doing my best not to stress eat. So far, I've.l lost 5 kg. I have about 25 more to go before I'll be comfortable with myself again. (I've always been well-muscled so I carry weight well).

Anyways, I hope you can get your issues figured out. I know how it feels to be overweight and feel bad about yourself. Best wishes and welcome to the forums.

 

[VictorR]

Welcome! I hope you're able to find help and support.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

Welcome to the forum
Happy thoughts for you.
You have food. You live inside. You get healthcare.
My friend had weight loss surgery a while ago. She also used to smoke cigaretttes, i still do. She describes the emotional attachment to food to be similar as to how smokers feel about thier habit. Since obesity is a sig health issue, a Dr. Ignoring it is troubling.
Some people will love you anyways, its true! Supportive friends can help break the cycle. Less than thinking(i am less than because...) is harmful. Who gets to tell you how awesome you are?

 

[SimonSays]

Leaving aside any medical reasons that make it harder, and this is not a criticism of you directly, but what we put in our mouth is a choice. So while there are reasons why you over eat, why we all can override the 'full' mechanism and keep eating after we are full, whether we put a doughnut or an apple in our mouth is always up to us.

Food brings comfort. Eating a pizza or chips or ice-cream feels satisfying, even though most of us know a salad is a lot healthier. But I still have to buy those things first. If they are difficult to resist, and you didn't have them around, they can't act as a temptation, at least not without having to make more of an effort to go and get them.

I did something like that. Making my desire to have something I knew I didn't need to eat come with the condition that I'd have to walk an hour's round trip to get it. I could have it, but I had to exercise to get it. Seemed a fair price and made sure I had a lot less of what I would've just gone to the kitchen to get before.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

Sometimes as a female we don't get support from the male dominated medical staff. My tiny suggestion is to buy a cheap notebook and journal what feelings come up before you binge. This will sorta help focus you on your feelings. This will either inspire you or give you things to discuss with a counselor. l tend to eat late, eat my feelings, sometimes binge eat instead of facing head on what is upsetting me. If you journal your feelings - l think is helps us focus on what we deny. Anyways, so glad you are discussing this here. This is very important.

Hello and thank you for commenting.

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm going to buy a cheap notebook and write down the urges of when I feel a binge. It's sometimes hard to know what I'm feeling though. I'm also logging everything I eat for now.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

Do you have a good dr? You should be tested for Willie Prader or other genetic disorders that can cause feeding disabilities and feeding disorders. Autism and Feeding disorders are common. These are very different than eating disorders but can be confused with them.

I've got the a doctors appointment on Thursday, I will discuss this with my GP. However I have already told him about my eating and he thinks it's my OCD, but I know it's not.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

A warm welcome.


Difficult isn't it. Hello from a fellow depressed and anxious Aspie who gets obsessed.

I think being on the spectrum can give some of us a propensity to obsess.
I lost around half my body weight when I got clean of one of my drug addictions 6 years ago - ha! most people who get clean from "that" drug put weight on.

I had to look up plantar fascitis, heel pain. I know an obese lady who is working with the NHS to get her weight down, she has physio exercises to do and gets pain. She has lost three stone, in a healthy way under the NHS, and gets slimming support to eat the right food with a slimming group.
I would suggest GP your first stop, being aspie, I find it helpful to do a bullet pointed list of things you want to talk about. Avoid anti anxiety/depressio drugs though, they mask the cause, there are non drug therapies and you may want to look into the root cause.
If you are being prescribed them, do not suddenly come off them without supervision.
You are, of course, if you wish, very welcome to talk to us on here, I will listen.

My friend has mental health diagnosis and fibromyalgia, the one I mentioned above. I'm being helped by the mental health team too, can you tell your CPN or care co-ordinator that these things are causing you anxiety. I get a phone call with mine, he's lovely, every few weeks, roughly monthly, more if I need, and he has helped with dieticians, weight issues, (I know mine is the reverse, but mental health problems can cause both weight loss and weight gain). Mine has referred me to other agencies as well. I didn't engage with my last CPN as she had an abrupt manner, however my current CPN is very patient and as my last CPN said I didnt engage, I asked to engage with my current one and psychiatrically he has done really well for me.

I didn't think of the info on the two posts above mine, very informative.

Thank you for the welcome.

I'm on antidepressants for my OCD, I think I'm depressed too, but it's not working for the depression. I think my depression could be linked to my weight though. I've been on these antidepressants since I was 9-years old.

Unfortunately I don't and won't be getting a care co-ordinator for my mental health because there's already a treatment plan in place for me. My local mental health team are really bad. They're long-winded and know nothing about autism.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

This could be a long post here, but I will try to just itemize things here:

1. If you are generally anxious, there is a good chance your cortisol levels are elevated. This "stress hormone", if chronically elevated, will tend to cause a person to store fat.

2. If you are already overweight, there is a good chance you are at least pre-diabetic and your insulin levels are elevated. Keep in mind, an elevated blood sugar is a late sign,...it means that your pancreas is unable to keep insulin levels high enough to transport the sugars out of your blood and into the cells. Many people can have a normal blood sugar, and be obese, but the real thing to test is the insulin level (which doesn't often get tested). The body will only burn fat if the insulin levels are low, and is why many cannot exercise their way out of a bad diet. If you keep eating and raising your insulin levels,...no fat burning,...plain and simple. This is where an intermittent fasting program can lower your insulin levels over time and allow your body to utilize its fat stores. Start out slow,...4hrs, 6hrs, 8hrs,...and keep going as tolerated, until you can make it to a minimum of 16hrs. At some point you may be able to simply eat once a day. It can take several weeks to do this, so no rush. That craving of food,...that's your elevated insulin talking. If you had a low insulin level,...your body would just burn fat and you wouldn't have cravings.

3. Autism is a low dopamine and serotonin neurologic disease,...and sugar triggers the dopamine receptors,...another reason for food cravings, especially when feeling down and depressed.

4. The only sweetener that does not spike insulin is stevia,...any of the other artificial sweeteners are huge insulin spikers. The food manufacturers put these artificial sweeteners in their products so that you get the insulin spike,...but a good hour later, your blood sugar crashes,...and you seek out more food. It's a sick game that they play,...the worst thing is they target people who are trying to loose weight by saying it is "low fat, low sugar",...then they throw those artificial sweeteners in there to keep you eating.

I'm pretty much always stressed due to my mental health. So that would make sense. My local mental health team don't understand autism because they don't treat autism.

I've had blood tests for diabetes and I'm not diabetic or pre-diabetic - thank goodness.

Oh I see! I will try to avoid those sweeteners.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

I have a similar problem myself, there's many factors that play into it. Mainly though during periods of high stress I eat like I haven't eaten anything in a year or something. The problem is, I always have a good deal of stress in my life.

Lately I've been being strict with myself as I when I weighed myself, I ended up weighing 130kg. I've been walking to work and doing my best not to stress eat. So far, I've.l lost 5 kg. I have about 25 more to go before I'll be comfortable with myself again. (I've always been well-muscled so I carry weight well).

Anyways, I hope you can get your issues figured out. I know how it feels to be overweight and feel bad about yourself. Best wishes and welcome to the forums.

Thank you for the welcome!

I think it's like you said, it's a factor of many different things. I just don't know which one it is.

My weight seems to fluctuate all the time. Some days are better than others. Some days I can eat really well, but other days are a lot worse.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

Welcome! I hope you're able to find help and support.

Thank you so much!

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

Welcome to the forum
Happy thoughts for you.
You have food. You live inside. You get healthcare.
My friend had weight loss surgery a while ago. She also used to smoke cigaretttes, i still do. She describes the emotional attachment to food to be similar as to how smokers feel about thier habit. Since obesity is a sig health issue, a Dr. Ignoring it is troubling.
Some people will love you anyways, its true! Supportive friends can help break the cycle. Less than thinking(i am less than because...) is harmful. Who gets to tell you how awesome you are?

I wish I had friends because I don't have any.

Yes, I've tried telling the doctors so many times, but the only one who listens is my GP, and of course he's not a psychiatrist.

 

[Rainbow-Sprinkles]

I'm in the same boat as you. It's an autism stim. Learn to love yourself, and be thankful for each day and for all your blessings.

I just don't know what it is, but I'm sick of it all.

Thank you though.

 

[Alexej]

Hi and welcome to the Forums

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I suggest talking to a psychologist and also try exercising. If there are any gyms open, try finding a membership, or try purchasing work out equipment that you can use at home such as a treadmill, dumbbells, etc.

IDK how the UK healthcare system works, but I also try suggest requesting a female doctor.