Binge eating and autoimmune...?

[SaraDurga]

Hi Everyone,

I believe I have a binge eating disorder.  Anyone else have/had something similar? How did you find relief or get out of the patterns while you worked on healing from your traumas?

Also, I have various auto-immune conditions as does my brother. I read somewhere once that this could be related to living with CPTSD but I can't find it anywhere / can't recall if it's true. Anyone have any information?

TIA!

[Eyessoblue]

Hi, I have binge eating problems too, I've had them since a teenager and am nearly 50 now! I've learnt to deal with them better of late, I think it's because I have an amazing counsellor who I can confide in about everything and she helps me to work out what is really going on there, it's all to do with using the food to bury my emotions, I am probably the least emotional person ever and when I'm having a particularly bad day with flashbacks etc I tend to eat a lot more to help me first get the comfort out of the food and secondly it helps with burying my feelings which gives me that temporary relief of happiness. By learning it is only a temporary relief I'm now learning not to look at food as comforting instead I try and meditate to make me feel better, there are loads of free meditation apps on the App Store which I have downloaded it does take a while to get your head around it and get into it, but I do find that helps me. I still think about doing it a lot, but make a real point of doing something else instead. Have you tried journaling? I find now when I think about it I sit down with a pen and paper and write down what is really bothering me and how I feel then try and work out why, I find getting everything down on paper almost as good as having a counselling session, it may not work for you, but definitely worth a try.

[Manchesterford]

Dear SarahDurga, I have an autoimmune disorder. There is evidence to suggest that they can be triggered by a traumatic event and flare ups are triggered by stress. Many auto immune diseases have digestive and adrennal issues linked, which are exaserbated by stress. There are definately links there,

mx

[sanmagic7]

i, too, suffer from autoimmune conditions and increased inflammation, always made worse by stress.  i binge eat as well because of feeling uncomfortable with emotions.  some of the eating stuff has gotten better as i've kept working at my issues.  i'm extremely susceptible to stress, tho - even working on my issues is stressful, which makes the other conditions worse.  for many others, tho, there is a lot of relief.  some of mine has gotten better over the years.  i'm right in the middle of some very stressful stuff, so the inflammation has really ramped up lately.  i am looking forward to the day when it will go back down again, but sometimes it just takes patience.

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi Sara Durga
I suffered binge eating all my life until the past 1.5 yrs
I joined 12 step programme
https://www.foodaddicts.org/
It's saved my life and many others ...
I do still take an anti dep and need to be working with a good therapist before I try to come off it in the future..
For now I am so happy not to be bingeing

[Moose410]

I have had problems with binge eating my whole life   I have gotten better with it by adjusting my diet so that I don't eat junk most of the time. The best advice I have for you while you're working on binging less, is to just keep healthy food around and try to exercise as much as you can. I still eat more often than I should, but I eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish and not so many sweets, bread, dairy, etc. Healthier food like vegetables are much for filling than junk food. Changing your diet could also help your autoimmune condition. I also have some kind of autoimmune condition. I have been dealing with a chronic case of EBV recently and was diagnosed with Fibromyaliga when I was younger. A lot of my symptoms lessened when I cut gluten and dairy out of my diet.

I really do believe there is a connection between CPTSD and autoimmune conditions. It makes sense to me that your body wouldn't be able to function as optimally when you are in a constant state of fear and stress. I have another friend who also has PTSD and an autoimmune condition, and she seems to think this is true as well.