u/Odd-Baseball-1218

Hi, I'm sharing everything ive learned so far in BED recovery in hopes this information could help someone else. Naturally everyone's recovery is different, so some things here may work for you, while others may not

For some background information, I suddenly developed BED after moving into a very triggering environment (I have some trauma and anxiety). I started overeating all the time, and at first I thought it was because I just lacked self control or maybe it was a health issue. It took me over half a year to finally figure out it was binge eating disorder. Here are some tips ive learned as ive worked through recovery:

The biggest game changer throughout my entire recovery process was starting to write in a journal. Keep track of your feelings, your triggers, your progress, etc. Write down as much as you can. It really helps you figure things out.
Identify the cause of your disorder. For me it was constant anxiety. This step is not as simple as it seems. I was falsely convinced I had PCOS or something for a while. My advice is to sense how your body physically feels when you feel the urge to binge. I think people like us who struggle with binging often avoid feeling our emotions, and sometimes dont even realize they are there. The only way I figured out it was anxiety was noticing that whenever I was about to binge, my throat and neck would tighten up and it would become harder to think clearly – my symptoms of anxiety. I was subconsciously ignoring my anxiety for months, and I didn’t even realize that I was feeling anxious until I listened to my physical sensations.
Reduce being triggered. Recognize that binging is a response to an emotional trigger. Try to reduce being triggered as much as you can. Obviously, this is not an option a lot of the time, so thats why its only one tip out of many.
Act proactively. Always have a plan. In the morning I plan out my day and write down times I think I will struggle with binging or overeating. Then I write down strategies to “add friction” to a binge. Ill expand on this later. Planning out your day really depends where you are in the recovery process though. Earlier in my recovery, I binged or overate at every single meal. So I planned accordingly for every meal, not just during specific “trigger” times.
Recognize when you are about to binge. BED robs you of your ability to just live life on autopilot. I am constantly on the lookout for when I feel a binge coming on. Ive also started counting calories and filling up on healthy, whole foods, so that when I want to keep eating, I can identify that it's due to my eating disorder.
Add friction to binging. “Adding friction” means that you make it harder to decide to binge. Here are some methods that I used or am still using:
1. Eat outside of the kitchen. I often struggle to stop eating so a lot of times I eat in another room inside my house or sometimes I straight up leave my house just to eat.
2. Leave your wallet at home if you struggle with binging while out of the home. (Cant always do of course lol)
3. the 10 second rule. Wait 10 seconds between every bite of food. (doesnt have to be 10 seconds, you could also do 5 seconds or even 30). This does two things. 1: It slows down your eating so you can feel full before eating more. You become more aware of your body’s cues this way. You have more time to think. 2: It helps you practice the skill of restraint when it comes to food.
4. Eat without any distractions. This lets you focus more easily on your body, like if youre full or not. It also make eating food less entertaining.
5. Set a timer when you want to eat something you really shouldn't. After the timer goes off you can eat what you want if you still have the desire.
Suddenly feeling anorexic is a huge red flag. Sometimes I suddenly feel like I have anorexia. I feel disgusted by food and guilty for eating anything. For me at least, this means I’m at a huge risk of binging if I eat now. Why? Because I’m having an emotional response to food, just at the other end of the spectrum. The thing is, if I decide to not wait on food, and then I force myself to eat, my BED usually snaps back into existence and I end up binging. When you are feeling extra emotional about food, even if it isnt related to overeating, you should be on high alert for a binge. Just be careful to not make yourself overly hungry. Even if I feel temporarily averse to food, I still never skip meals. I usually just add as much friction between myself and a binge as I can
Urge surfing. Honestly, ive really struggled with this. Ive read that you should learn to sit with the discomfort, but whenever I do that, I usually fail. Maybe its because im not doing it right, but I usually surf the urge by distracting myself. I always have a good alternative to binging in mind. If I want to binge, I gtfo and go to my room, turn on my favorite videogame and watch youtube. I do something thats fun and gives me immediate satisfaction. It doesnt matter that I should be cleaning the apartment right now, what comes first is distracting myself so that I dont binge. Keep in mind that successfully surfing the urge doesnt mean avoiding the binge entirely. Any minute that you delay binging is, in my book, a win. Thats because whenever you delay a binge, no matter how long, it's still practicing the skill of overcoming the urge. You'll get better with time, I promise.
Accept some hard truths. I always thought I was the exception to the rule, that I could lose weight while recovering from BED. Lol. That did not happen. I had to learn to accept that to re-teach my body to stop eating when full, I could not be in a caloric deficit. Secondly, I had to accept that BED was now a major part of my life. I could not just casually recover from BED. I had to really put the effort in. I had to spend hours and hours journaling and reflecting in order to figure things out. I couldnt just wait out the disorder, I had to be the one actively driving my recovery forward. The fact that my eating disorder had become such a big part of my life was hard to accept. I had to move past a lot of shame.
Recovery is not a black-and-white process. I went from binging all the time to overeating all the time. And now Im at the point where I overeat usually every other day.
Concentrate your efforts. For me, the idea of combating every single binge was exhausting. So I broke things up into smaller goals. At first I would just try not to binge after breakfast, and then that expanding into the whole day, then the whole week. Nowadays Im working on overeating. I still experience urges to overeat all the time, but I make the effort of combating at least one urge a day.
Avoid extreme hunger. Early in my recovery journey I was still trying to lose weight. But this worked against me. Eating less than your maintenance calories or skipping meals increases your hunger, which makes food even more tempting and thus binges are harder to avoid.

Thats all I have time to write down for now. Sorry, ive definitely made some typos here or there, but i dont have time to read through everything rn. I hope this could be of help to someone. Feel free to ask questions

Edit: forgot to mention something super important that I wish I did differently in my recovery process. I recommend getting help from a professional as soon as you can. I only got professional help two weeks ago, and wish I did it much sooner

Hi,

I'm in a bit of a dilemma and was wondering if you guys have any advice. I have a lot of options and I'm struggling to decide what is right for me.

Due to a family crisis this spring I am unfortunately going to miss the University/Studienkolleg application deadlines for the 2026 Winter Semester. (unless some unis allow me to apply for the Winter Semester 2026 in August but i havent found any so far)

My goal is to study political science at a German university (not Hochschule). However, all my ideal universities only begin their political science programs in the Winter Semester. (if it helps my ideal unis are literally any uni in BW or Bayern, TU Dresden, and Uni Hamburg) I want to start my studies ASAP, so I want to be studying at a Studienkolleg by the 2027 Sommer Semester. I have a few options I could take:

go to a one-semester long Stk starting in the Sommer Semester 2027. Go to Uni Winter Semester 2027.
go to a regular two-semester long Stk starting in the Sommer Semester 2027. Finish Stk in the Winter Semester 2027. Wait about half a year and start Uni Winter Semester 2028. I don't know if this is even possible for a lot of Stks since for many of them you have to apply to the Uni first, and the Politikwissenschaft Studiengang only begins in the Winter Semester.
Wait an entire year, begin Stk Winter Semester 2027, and begin Uni Winter Semester 2028.

The first option is my ideal scenario, but I don't know if I can count on it since so few Stks provide the opportunity to complete Stk within a single semester. I know that Kaiserslautern and Wismar will allow you to complete Stk in one semester, but are there any other options? And is it safe enough to apply to just two Stks? I should fair pretty well with the entrance exams / acceptance since I should be above C1 level by the time I take the exams and I am in the top 1% of students in my home country. But even then i feel like its a major risk

Sorry, I know I sound really uninformed. I honestly should have researched all of this far far far sooner, but better late then never I guess

I'd really really appreciate any input in regards to my decision. Thank you!

Do I have extreme hunger or binge eating disorder?

The Most Important Things I've Learned as Someone in BED Recovery

Advice needed - Going to miss Winter Semester application deadline

Frage zu Goethe B2 Schreiben