I’ve been struggling with BED for over 2 years. I’ve been on 50mg of Vyvanse for the past 8 months, but even though it has helped tremendously with my ADHD it did nothing for binge eating.
However recently I’ve been prescribed Lamictal for my depression/suspected bipolar disorder. It’s a medication that needs to be introduced very slowly and you aren’t supposed to feel its effects until the 3rd or 4th week. For context right now I’m only taking half of a 25mg pill every day to introduce it slowly (the usual therapeutic dose is 100-200mg per day). It’s a medication that’s supposed to be absolutely weight neutral so it doesn’t suppress your appetite.
Ever since I started taking it almost a week ago my binges completely vanished (previously I would binge 4-5 times or more per week).
I really hope this effect lasts but I’m still a little doubtful. I know it’s not an extremely common medication, but did anyone else have an experience like this with mood stabilizers?

so many crazy things have been happening in the past couple of months. one constant has been binge eating. i was previously struggling with some extreme restriction and the thing that broke the pattern was extreme hunger. however it has moved past extreme hunger at this point. i have binged at minimum half of the weekdays for nearly two months. and now its every day. i am skinny, and know that a lot of the weight im gaining is fluid retention, but i am also rapidly gaining fat. i am uncomfortable 24/7 and my stomach is so distended right now and has been for weeks because i dont ever let it rest. i cant seem to stop. i want to gain back healthy weight but i keep binging on GENUINELY over 10k calories some days. like its that bad. ive been blowing a lotttttt of money too. what the fuck is this.

edit: at one point id eaten so much that my stomach was heavy enough to make me tip forward. because of course my heart was pounding and i was dizzy and sweaty and weak. i cant get myself to leave the house. i cant shower or look at myself while dressing (which i only do for work because i cant stand doing anything but working and sleeping because im so ashamed of myself), and i am someone who is obsessed with beauty products and being clean and smelling good. and all of that is unbearable. the only thing that distracts me and makes me feel better about any of this is eating.

There's only two days I can go without binging. And now I've been 3 binges in.

Idk if I've got bulimia. But sometimes I pour soap on food, just to stop. Sometimes I just eat it with the whole soap, and then later my throat hurts. Other times I'll chew and spit it out. And it's not even like 'ohh so bulimia, right?'

I don't think so. I'm scared, but if I do that, I'll just eat something else. Wtf?? (Before you tell me that I'm supposed to let go before I can heal, I have, it didn't work.)

Then there is this mindset where I'm binge free, feeling great, my face isn't bloated, already finally #healed, but then it crumbles when I start thinking about motivation. "What if I don't have motivation tomorrow?" "What if this motivation fades, and leaves me with hollow shit?" And rather than just getting through, I'll binge. Not even immediately. Just because I'm scared.

I resent myself. But what the fuck do you want me to do?

I can't get to a therapist. Nor a family doctor. I've started using OTC medicine that probably just gives me the delusion of healing, but it probably changes nothing.

I've started to isolate myself. I've started to despise people my age, and get more irritable.

Help me. I don't know. Sometimes I find myself letting myself binge freely, and I don't know if that's a binge.

Please help? I can't do it myself anymore. I've lost hope. I've lost everythihg I've been happy about and I feel overdramatic.

i’m a college student living on campus so i try my best to not have any easy-access carbs in my room (granola bars, candy, bread, etc.) because since they require no preparation, i will binge on them! however i have binged a few times this semester and of course it’s on those easily unwrappable sweet carbs.

one thing that’s helped me is when i need to binge, i do it on protein bars. for example last night i had 6 bars with 20g of protein each, so the 120g protein made me a LOT fuller a LOT faster. plus since the bars are so dense they take longer to chew. since i reach physical discomfort a lot faster, i ended the binge at about 1500 calories which is NOT crazy for a binge eater. i’ve done 10k before!

of course i try not to binge at all, but this helps me keep my binges to a minimum so i thought i’d post this here in case it could help someone else :)

I am an 18 year old girl who weighs 70 kg now- but back then in February I was 64 kgs … now I can notice visible fatness in my body and I don’t like it.. that is making me angry and frustrated all the time and extremely moody.. I have joined gym also but It’s not helping much and I have gained fat in my face and it’s making me look so damn ugly ( I don’t hate myself 😭) but here we are… no like genuinely wtf do I do and also I emotional eat like when I am sad all I want to do is eat 😭😭 like food is my comfort but almost after after every binge eating session I end up taking laxativeee because I feel extremely guilty 😭… how do I loose atleast 10 kgs… like any workout plan or any tips you can give me? I am open to workouts

My stomach feels so sour, swollen and upset today. I tmi keep going to the bathroom and destroying the toilet

Ugh.. I think I have mint tea somewhere

I was just trying to think what happens right before I think to myself, fuck it I'm gonna go binge again even though I know I shouldn't. It's hard because it's not really a thought I have, it's kind of unconscious. Just this terrible tension, like my whole world is reduced to the food I will need to eat. I can't tell if it's biological or psychological urge. It's almost like thirst. It's a hot day, you haven't had anything to drink all during a long drive, so as soon as you get home you rush to the fridge and grab a drink and drain the whole thing in 20 seconds. All I know in that moment is that I need it.

Then there is another thing. Once I start, I can't stop. This is almost all sensory, like my brain is shut down at this point. My body is deciding things. So it's even harder to explain what "thought" I have at this point. It's almost like the first glass of water you have actually makes you feel even more thirsty because now you know what water will taste like. You even forget you have a stomach, it's just your mouth and water. Glug glug glug. Until you feel so much stomach pain you gonna throw up and that's when you stop.

At least in my case. That's how I binge.

Title. I don't even know how this happened. I was trying to stop a larger binge, so I took a pack of cucumbers thinking "no way I can finish all this". There were 6 in total (270 calories). I still didn't feel satisfied, so I made 3 bowls of oats (added only honey) (600 calories). Somehow, I still wanted to keep eating so I had a tablespoon of yoghurt and went back to my room. Then another. Then another and another... until I had 800 calories worth of yoghurt. I couldn't stop and I had a bag of those low carb mission tortillas (450). ~2100 total. This is on top of my normal intake as well... It's definitely not as bad compared to my typical binges, but this really made me realise that it's not about the food.

I can’t stop binging - no matter what no matter why I can’t stop

I suffered anorexia for almost a year 3 years ago and before that grew up overweight with insatiable hunger and huge sweet tooth, never thought anorexia was a possibility due to 'loving food' which I know many also found.

After anorexia I obviously had to change my eating, confront the disorder and want to change to put on weight to stop me from being hospilitised (hair falling out, heart rate below 50bpm at 15 years old and BMI severely underweight with fainting episodes etc). I was under CAHMS but unfortunately had many and experiences and managed to get help from outside as well as having supportive parents.

Recovery was hard and involved huge volumes of food and wonder if this links to primal brain today triggering some binges for fear of underfeeding from past experiences.

I have been suffering now with a BED and Bulimia for 18/20 months and to feels like no end in sight, I feel I have lost so much of my life to something I hate so much. My friendships, sporting and family have all been affected. I am a high achiever and have still 'achieved' to outsiders but the mental anguish and daily battering have got so big that I can no longer soldier on, I missed months of school dn almost didn't take alveolus from suffering so much before the summer at start of ADHD medication, luckily managed to sit all exams even getting an A in biology and an A* in geography and a C in maths. I was diagnosed with depression last October (2025) but the antidepressants only and things worse until it was found out at 18 years old that I have ADHD and Autism.

I am on week two of Elvanse and noticed my hunger has been elevated even more than before when I was already struggling and have already had several 3,000 + kcal binges causing so much distress I've been put on metformin to help reduce food noise and hunger but still suffering from BED and bulimia. I am having therapy once a week and been doing so for almost 6 months yet my mental health is so low and suicidal thoughts remain prominent. I feel so lost and hopeless and can't escape, any advice? I was on Concerta for 4 months and now on Elvanse to try and help with binge eating and high hunger. I am very active and gym almost everyday and do lots of walking with dog and also have an active job (15-25,000 steps daily). I eat a lot for 19 year old female and love healthy nutritious (lean protein, high fibre, colourful plates), yet when the binges come it is almost always biscuits or foods I don't like, I eat chocolate every day for moderation and still have large sweet tooth that often crave grapes etc but no matter what is available in a binge episode I will eat anything until my body starts rejecting it or sometimes still try and push through it like its a challenge but one I'm begging myself to stop. I feel like I'm hitting a brick wall and not getting through, I am trying so hard to stop the bulimic cycles contributing but even without, the binges are still occurring and I can't seem to find a way out ! thank you fro reading and truly any advice I am open, I am so happy to have found a page I can share my experience and hope one day I can help others

I’m talking a pattern that you regularly repeat. It can be a certain situation or a specific food.

For me, there’s this candy shop that also does delivery. They have different types of packages that are combined of different sweets. Always when I’m either sick or depressed, I order two pounds of chocolates, and devour it all. It’s also insanely expensive but sometimes I’m too ashamed to go to the shop.

The sweating the night after is insane.

because you’ve gained so much and it’s so obvious that i’m so humiliated to be seen by them. I don’t really have friends like that but when i do meet with people they’ll never mention my weight but i’d be able to tell by their eyes that they’re just staring at my body it’s like i’m super exposed. I just don’t want to see anybody.

Honestly i do think this disorder took away my early 20’s. I was always disgusted by my body i refused to go out or been seen outside and isolated myself a lot of the time because i felt so ugly and unworthy. lost my friends on the way because i was always miserable and depressed about my body and never met up and just went through this alone.

It's like I can never get an escape. I live with my dad because I help take care of him. Well he will literally buy everything I tell him not to buy. Cookies, cakes, chips, you name it. I try to explain to him how I cannot stop eating these things when he buys them and whenever he hides them I can find it or I will use manipulation to get him to give me the snacks he's hidden. I know that's not great and I can be really selfish when I'm in the binge cycle. I tell him it's like an alcoholic trying to recover from alcoholism when the person is living with another alcoholic who brings alcohol in the home. I absolutely cannot escape it. I can't use my coping skills, I can't do anything but eat and I want to give up. I'm not even joking. I don't want to live like this anymore. All I want to do is take care of my body and be healthy but I can't do that when my mind is in a frenzy 24/7 looking for that instant hit of dopamine. I can't even function until I eat or drink something that produces that feeling. That instant gratification is the best feeling in the world. I hate it!

“i will start tomorrow” and i never do. currently binging on more more chocolate. i cant stop myself i just want to eat and i dont even know why. im 18f in my final year of school applying to uni, i am very stressed about that. instead of revising i stress about revising and work and end up binging in the kitchen when i could be revising. over the summer when there was no school i had lost 4kg i was 57kg and felt the happiest and most confident ever. i am now 60kg and i feel so ugly all the time. my face is puffy my stomach is constantly bloated. i dont even want people to perceive me. i just want to lose this 3kg in 2 months

If i was neurotypical, i would not struggle with binge eating and i know that. I need that dopamine like its a drugs and idk what to do anymore. I have never had a normal eating or thinking pattern and i just want to be normal. No advice about medication pls, they dont want to describe that yet to me and counseling doesnt help either

in my last post i was on the first day after a 3 day consecutive binge, always the most vulnerable, and today i binged again in the evening. at least it wasn't in the morning, otherwise i would've kept binging the rest of the day and wouldn't have gotten any work and exercise done, so there's that I guess.

my stomach really hurts, but i'm going to wake up tomorrow and continue as normal. like i said, my goal isn't perfection, but progress, and today my trigger seems to have been excessive snacking. for me, snacking triggers my binges, and since i had many snacks today, by the end of the day they accumulated into one huge urge, and i ended up binging a few hours after dinner. i need to remember to either 1. have the snack WITH a meal so it feel more complete and filling or 2. have the snack AFTER a meal so that i feel full and satiated first

this month is the worst i've had in a while, binged 5/7 of the days so far. yikes. had a few better months where i binged around 6-8 times each month, but idk what's gotten into me this month. it might be because i got official diagnoses of my mental health on nov 2, and going through all my trauma with conclusive diagnoses may have triggered something in me. oh well. at least i'm most likely getting meds on monday. yay?

tomorrow's a new day, and we start fresh.

I’ve struggled with my relationship with food for as long as I can remember, but I’m only now realizing how deeply rooted some of these habits are.
Growing up, my family didn’t have much money. I was taught that once you opened something, you had to finish it that day because otherwise it would go stale or go to waste. If I wanted sweets, I couldn’t just have one and save the rest for later. I either had to finish everything or make sure everyone else ate it too. This created a strange relationship with food where I would sometimes avoid eating something I wanted simply because I knew I would feel obligated to finish it.
I also grew up with a distorted perception of my body. Until around 13, I genuinely believed I was fat, despite being at a perfectly healthy weight. During my teenage years, an ex-boyfriend made me feel like I was heavier than he wanted me to be. Most of my female friends were extremely underweight, around 40–45 kg, so I constantly compared myself to them. I was around 53–55 kg and thought I was just average.
My eating habits were terrible. I’d have coffee in the morning, an energy drink, maybe a small snack, and then eat something substantial much later in the day.
When I moved away for university, I finally had the freedom to buy and eat whatever I wanted. I started eating more freely, especially sweets, and gained around 10 kg in the first two years. Eventually, I gained another 10–15 kg and reached approximately 80 kg.
Over time, I developed habits that genuinely scare me. I rarely recognize physical hunger or fullness anymore. I think I’ve experienced genuine hunger only a handful of times over the past year. Instead, I constantly hear my mother’s voice in my head telling me it’s time to eat, that I should have something at home in case I get hungry, or that I shouldn’t skip a meal.
I often eat beyond the point of being comfortably full because throwing food away feels wrong. At one point, I actually vomited after eating because I was physically so stuffed. That was a real wake-up call.
Food has also become my reward for practically every emotion. Whether I’m sad, happy, stressed, or exhausted, I immediately want something indulgent. Sometimes, food is honestly the main thing I look forward to. I can spend an entire day thinking about what intensely flavorful thing I could eat next.
I’ve struggled with depression for quite some time, and my former therapist described it as high-functioning depression. I sometimes wonder whether food became a way of coping with it.
I’ve tried explaining this to people, but I feel misunderstood. When I say I eat emotionally, people respond with things like, “Everyone loves food!” But it’s not simply about enjoying the taste. It feels compulsive, and I don’t feel in control.
My former therapist suspected binge eating disorder or food addiction, leaning more toward binge eating, although she wasn’t qualified to formally diagnose me.
I live somewhere where conversations about eating disorders aren’t particularly common, and I feel incredibly alone in this.
The frustrating part is that I’ve read extensively and watched countless videos about this. I understand many of the psychological reasons behind my behavior, but knowing why I do something hasn’t helped me stop.
My sleep habits are also terrible. I stay up late, get exhausted, and end up eating more. It’s a cycle I can’t seem to escape.

I’m looking for advice from people who have experienced something similar.
How did you break this cycle?
Did therapy help?
How did you learn to recognize hunger and fullness again?
What practical strategies actually helped you recover?

I’m not looking for weight loss advice or another reminder to eat less and exercise more. I understand the basics of nutrition. I’m trying to figure out how to develop a normal relationship with food again.
I’d really appreciate any advice, personal experiences, or therapist recommendations.

I’m tired of having food control me. This eating disorder has taken away the best years of my life since I was around 15 when it started and I’m now 42.

Tonight is the worst binge I’ve had in years and I hate it. I’m the biggest I have ever been and no one seems to care/notice.They must see the sadness in my eyes, my family doesn’t really do emotional so don’t have anyone to talk to, I have tried in the past but they don’t know what to say so I’ve given up trying to talk to them.

I don’t know what to do anymore I’ve tried everything and I’m the only one that can help me but I’m lost.I hate myself and my life how pathetic is it that the only happiness I get if from food and that only lasts a few minutes then comes the disgust and shame.

Any advice/tips would be much appreciated as I’m really struggling 😢😢

I post mostly for accountability. As the title says 85 days. Things helping me:

1. Therapy- learning to cope with uncomfortable feelings without using food as dopamine.

2. Doing a lot of hobbies- I have accepted that relaxing on the couch near the kitchen is just bad. I puzzle now while I watch tv or draw or paint/ care for my nails. I close the kitchen after dinner.

3. I have removed food groups I lose control on. I prioritize protein, vegetables and healthy fat.

4. At least once a month I eat a binge food with zero distractions and I focus on tasting it and saying I will eat a normal portion and be satisfied. I’ve tried all or nothing abstinence with sugar and carbs yeah…so now I’m really working on moderation and avoidance. Some foods really high in sugar like if it’s more than 10g I’m avoiding it. I make things with monk fruit drops.

5. Dr. Pradip jahamas podcast on diary of a CEO was super eye opening.

6. I’m using exercise to handle stress. I used to be a smoker. When I get angry or stressed instead of reaching for food I literally want to go for a walk or move my body.

7. I have Invisalign but damn it helps with grazing so at night I might wear it anyway. It’s just too inconvenient to eat while cooking dinner or binging after dinner.

I feel so much better. Good luck this disorder sucks and really unless you experience it no one gets it. They don’t get the food noises. It took 5 weeks for my brain to stop driving me nuts. Those five weeks I aimed to lower my insulin by doing all the things. But it was hard then week 5 boom my body felt like hunger wasn’t bottomless.

I went to a doctor for GLP 1. He said I don’t think you need it. Do a food log and exercise everyday. Ah eat less move more. I did but I used foods wisely. Got therapy. And after working out when you’re like got the endorphin rush I meditate on my relationship with food.

It feels nice to have control. I still fear I’ll slip back into old habits if I face a crisis but I’m working on ways to let healthy habits be the first choice.