Episode 81: Let's Talk About...The Binge/Restrict Cycle (i.e. polarizations)
Let me ask you a question: have you ever thought of yourself as a binge eater? Or maybe you've noticed that you have a part that binges? This is something that many people engage in at least sometimes, and for some folx it happens daily.
But what exactly is binge eating? I find that many of my clients describe themselves as binge eaters, but they actually aren't. And to me, if you're going to use a label, be sure it's accurate.
According the field of psychiatry and the DSM-V, a binge is characterized as:
Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances
The sense of a lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating)
Honestly, I don't find this definition particularly helpful (and I go into why that is on this week's podcast episode). But, in general, binge eating is eating a large amount of food and feeling out of control. It's not merely eating foods that you "shouldn't" or eating in response to your emotions. I think many people don't realize this. They consider a binge to be eating three cookies after a stressful work meeting. That may be emotional eating, but that's not bingeing.
On this week's podcast, we're talking about binge eating. We get into:
What binge eating technically is and why the diagnostic criteria are problematic
Why it happens from a physical perspective
Why it happens from a psychological perspective (i.e. how does IFS view binge eating)
Then we get into what's known as the binge/restrict cycle. This is a pattern wherein people go back and forth between binge eating and restricting (dieting) and back to binge eating again. This can happen over the course of a day, a week, a couple months, or even a few years. It's an extremely frustrating cycle that's very hard to get out of.
In IFS terms, this cycle is a polarization between binge eating parts and restricting parts. Each side takes over at different times, leaving you stuck in a ping pong match between your parts. We discuss this cycle at length in the podcast, and we talk about how to get out of it.
If you think you've ever binged, this is a great episode to listen to. I hope that it clarifies some things for you. And I hope that it gives you some ideas on how to stop the cycle.
And speaking of gaining more clarity, just a reminder that the Food and Body Freedom Workshop Series is starting on Tuesday, March 19th. I've got three experiential workshops planned that will help you to understand:
why you use food the way you do
the familial and cultural influences on your relationship with food and your body
how to treat your body with kindness
You can do all three workshops or pick and choose the ones that appeal to you.
Where to find me:
Click below to listen!