Binge Eating Disorder Research Project; London

My name is Nersi

I am doing qualitative research on binge eating and emotions supervised by Zoe Boden. More specifically, my research includes interviewing 6-10 women who have had recurrent experiences of binge eating and have been diagnosed with any of the eating disorders. My research question is: how do women experience and make sense of their emotions before and after binge eating. As regards, the age range I would like you to be 18-30, to have a history of binge eating the previous 5 years and to have been in a recovery process for the last year.

Calling people from London, for research project Email nersidahalai@gmail.com

 

Binge Eating & Bulimia Online Treatment Research

Kings College is looking for females who are willing to take part in an online treatment research project for binge eating and bulimia.

What‘s InvolvedCup of tea
• Screening with your clinician or 15 minute phone call screening with study researcher
• Self-enrolment on study website
• Enter frequency of eating disorder symptoms once /week for 12 months
• Complete 4 online sessions over 12 months
• Participants who are randomly assigned to the intervention condition will additionally have access to the online modules; 8 weekly sessions for 8 consecutive weeks, which will take approximately 60 minutes each. This involves writing journal entries and posting thoughts/questions on the online discussion forum. Once a week, you will receive personalised email feedback from a trained moderator.
How can you take part?
If you are interested in participating in the bulimia online treatment research project or would like further information,  please call 0207 848 0246 or contact Vanessa Yim at King’s College London Section of Eating Disorders. Email: vanessa.yim@kcl.ac.uk

Please note that contacting us for further information or partaking in the phone call screening does not mean you are obliged to partake in the study.

If your New Years resolution is to go on a diet, read this first.

We have had a lot of midnight calls from people in torment about eating and drinking too much. In 5 day’s time, on January 2nd, many people will be detoxing and making a new years resolution to lose weight. Please think again. Just before the holiday season I saw a young woman who made a weight loss resolution last New Year. She lost a lot of weight and gained a horrible eating disorder. Her family relationships are in shreds.

There is no need for detoxes. A healthy liver can detox itself. Dieting creates cravings and fosters weight gain. It makes you miserable and messes with your head and family relationships. Obsession creates compulsions and compulsions create behaviour which is harmful to you and to those who love you.

WHEN WILL IT ALL CHANGE?  Try something different for a change; make a  new years resolution not to diet or detox in January. Shut the diet books and avoid all the well-being gurus out there who want to make money out of you. Don’t fling into unreasonable exercise regimes you cant sustain. Try the intuitive eating approach and feel superior to all those poor souls who think that happiness lies in food austerity.  There is another way, which is all kinds of food in small portions, (stay off the booze) and take walks or cycle rides  in the fresh air with someone you love or your dog. Happiness is not just 4 lbs off your butt.

Happy and healthy New Year, make this one the time you say adios to harmful preoccupations with food. Eat and sleep well, walk in the rain, snuggle up with a cocoa and take care of yourself better.

Source: The Independent

Source

Compulsive Eating Research – Call For Recruits

Kings College London Section for Eating Disorders is conducting compulsive eating research into methods to stop binge eating.

I am looking for individuals with bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder between the ages of 18 and 60 to take part in an interventional study targeting eating behaviour. If you think you may be eligible to take part, please contact Rayane Chami from the  on: rayane.chami@kcl.ac.uk. If you are eligible, you will be reimbursed up to £15 for travel expenses, £30 for your time, and a copy of the self-help book: ‘Getting better bite by bite’. Thank you!

Here are the inclusion criteria,

1) A diagnosis of bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder, or someone who finds that they may meet criteria but has never been formally assessed,

2) No severe psychiatric disorder (eg. psychosis),

3) Fluency in English,

4) No visual impairment that cannot be repaired with eyewear or contact lenses,

5) No cognitive/neurological impairment,

6) No drug or alcohol abuse,

7) No metabolic disorder,

9) A BMI greater than or equal to 18.5.

If you can help you will be doing a great service for fellow sufferers as well as for yourself.

Obesity Time Bomb Is CBT-E The Solution?

Obesity in women hits the news today. A lot of us girls are overweight or obese, and nothing is said about men although obesity is actually not gender specific. The report mentions CBT-E as a treatment for obesity although there is no evidence that it works for obesity. Sad that so-called experts give out the wrong message.

CBT-E is a packaged therapy which has some good results for eating disorders, it deals with body image problems and unhelpful eating disordered thinking. But not all overweight people have eating disorders. Some just like eating especially when a lot of tasty food is available and we don’t have to go hunting to acquire it. With Christmas looming, even I’m having trouble not buying armfuls of goodies from Hotel Chocolat.

Will a sugar tax help?  Not really, food is still quite cheap. It is the organic meat I buy which is expensive and I have to think twice about buying it. The only thing a sugar tax might do is raise enough money to give some people a gastric band or gastric bypass surgery.  Even these procedures don’t always work. Fat it seems is just one mouthful away.

See The BBC Report here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35061167

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emotional Eating. Addiction?

I’ve been having a lively conversation with people on Facebook who insist that the nation is addicted to sugar. And I’ve been on Radio 5 Live this week talking about emotional eating, batting against people who think that overeating is an addiction and treating it via Overeaters Anonymous is the solution. It seems that many eating disorder experts have different opinions from that way of thinking about overeating.

I have been trying on radio to explain emotional eating in sound-bites of 5 minutes, an impossible task. Most of us overeat these days without realising it, for reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. It is so very easy to use food as a usual pastime or social event, when it is all around us, accessible and legal. We all eat to change our emotional state, sometimes to have fun, sometimes to self soothe or block emotions that we just don’t want to feel.

Dieting always leads to much higher levels of eating for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with hunger because dieting disconnects us from our normal hunger and satiety sensations. Then eating comes to feel like an addiction, you need your fix to get on with your day. You start a packet of biscuits and can’t stop at one. You feel out of control of SOME of your favourite foods. You develop an intense and toxic relationship with food because you don’t have a good relationship with yourself or other people.

But suppose it is just a really stuck habit that can be adjusted with the right kind of help.  I really believe I can provide that help. To call it an addiction..no no, I can’t go with that for everyone I treat.

Binge Eater? Don’t take Vyvanse!

Mr Ornskov, Chief Executive of Shire pharmaceuticals is seeking to expand Vyvanse into new areas, well he would, wouldn’t he. This is a HUGE market.

Vyvanse is an amphetamine – like drug which can lead to an addiction in a population already struggling with control issues. It may have an effect on impulse control, but impulse control is not the main issue present for binge eaters.

Lisdexamfetamine has a high risk for abuse. It may be habit-forming if used for a long period of time.  Abuse of Lisdexamfetamine may cause serious heart problems, blood vessel problems, or sudden death. We have been here before.

Will it cure binge eating?  I think not. Is there anything we can do to prevent Shire from getting approval to market this drug to a gullible public. I fear not.

 

Having And Eating Your Cake

The desire for two mutually exclusive events bedevils eating disorder treatment. You see it in someone with anorexia who wants to get rid of the effects of starving but remain very thin. You see it in someone who wants to get rid of bulimia but eat very little to become their perfect weight.

Eating disorder symptoms are cravings, binge eating, purging, tiredness, panic, depression, fainting, getting the shakes, anxiety, obsessions and crazy destructive moods. Many of these symptoms are the result of dietary chaos and its effects on the brain and the nervous system.

There is no way out of an eating disorder unless someone is willing to eat a balanced highly nutritional diet for a while even if they are still purging. This will include carbs and it will include some fat.  This must be done with guidance and support because it is NOT just healthy eating. Then, surprisingly, many of these symptoms will calm down, allowing the real emotional strengthening to take place where it is needed.

But eating is often the thing most feared. They say to me, I want you to stop me bingeing, perhaps with hypnosis or discussing my unhappy childhood. I don’t want to eat, because I want to lose some weight (or stay at the weight I am now).

In my very long experience, people with compulsive eating problems and bulimia often lose weight after treatment. But there is no way around it for the anorexia sufferer. Remaining thin will feel safe, but  will keep you demented. If someone doesn’t get what they really want, it is because they are bargaining with the price.

For some people with eating disorders, the price of recovery is too high. Eating is worse than murder. We have to be so patient, and so able to help someone to see that we cannot have our cake, and eat it too.