Binge Eating Treatment in Pennsylvania.

It’s not because you lack willpower.

For a multitude of reasons, there is an assumption in society people should have the ability to “control” themselves around food. What this breeds is a culture of shame, embarrassment, and the overall feeling that YOU are the problem. What adds to this is how society has interpreted those who struggle with emotional eating or binge eating disorders as lazy, unmotivated, and less worthy. This is anything but true. Binge eating isn’t something people intentionally choose to do. Most of the time, people feel overwhelmed and out of control during a binge episode. You see, binging and emotional eating are most often coping skills people develop in order to cope with the crap life throws at them. What is tricky is the amount of shame that attaches itself to this coping skill. Not only do you have to deal with the impact of binging, you also have to deal with the incredible sense of guilt and shame afterward. If you haven’t heard this before, I really want you to take a step back and listen.

It is not your fault. 

It is not your fault. 

It is not your fault.

Your body and mind are just doing what they know in order to help you survive. You are not a bad person. And, you are not less than. You are more than enough. 

Binge Eating impacts everyone.

A common assumption is primarily white women struggle with Binge Eating Disorder, BED. Research also backs up this assumption but there are limitations in the research due to institutional racism within our health care system. Another issue is many health practitioners aren’t recognizing BED within BIPOC communities and, due to this, they aren’t referring their patients to the appropriate level of care (Sala et al. 2014). One study also found that clinicians were more likely to notice symptoms of an eating disorder among White adolescents over Black or Hispanic adolescents. What can we take away from this information? It means we have a long way to go and we can’t inherently trust the data given to us. Due to this, it is our responsibility to make sure we intentionally pay attention and prioritize the health of BIPOC and Hispanic populations.

Binge eating not only impacts people of every race, but it also impacts people in the LGBTQ community, Meny, Women, and people with disabilities. If you need culturally competent binge eating treatment in Pennsylvania, you’re in the right space!

Healing Is Possible With Binge Eating Treatment in Pennsylvania.

Binge eating is just like any other eating disorder, the cause is typically a perfect storm of genetics, the environment, culture, socioeconomic status, etc. What can be overlooked is how trauma can lead to binging, emotional eating, and binge eating disorders. Let’s look at it this way, most eating disorders are developed as a way to deal with life because let’s face it….life is pretty freaking hard. However, people who struggle with binging have found a coping skill that alleviates some discomfort, at least at the moment. Your brain starts learning that when stress happens, the best way to deal with it is through eating. This is what we call a trauma response- how your brain adapts to stressors in a maladaptive way. Part of healing from binge eating is looking deeper. It’s identifying when your brain started learning that binging is the best way to deal with certain stress. Don’t get me wrong, symptom management is extremely useful, however, we want to do more than manage symptoms, we want to heal the wound so eventually you won’t have to manage symptoms. How do we do that? PTSD treatment and Trauma Therapy, or EMDR Therapy can be extremely helpful in healing the root cause of emotional eating and binge eating.