Lies Your Eating Disorder Tells You
Having an eating disorder in San Diego, California, or elsewhere often makes your brain very noisy. You may be obsessing about what you just ate or will eat, thinking about all the flaws in your appearance, shaming yourself, and counting calories. Or, you could be longing for it all to stop. You may be suffering from binge eating or bulimia. Bottom line, the eating disorder part of your brain lies to you. So many of these lies stem from diet culture. I’ve outlined four common lies your eating disorder tells you, especially with bulimia and binge eating disorder, and I’ve pinpointed the truths to counter them.
Lie #1: If diets don’t work, the eating disorder must be my fault.
The multibillion-dollar diet industry wants you to believe that if diets do not work for you, then you’re the problem, not the diet. Well, this diet industry is a multibillion-dollar marketing machine whose main aim is to convince you that you suck. Because if you suck, it means that you need their program/ product/book/influence over and over again.
The TRUTH is that researchers have shown numerous times that diets don’t work. Going on a diet means having some kind of restriction, and restriction sends you into a glucose deficit, and over time, you’re going to compensate for this deficit by binge eating.
Lie #2: I can’t get a handle on my eating disorder, so I’m a bad person.
Diet culture tells you that eating is a moral issue. If you eat something that you “shouldn’t” eat, it is a reflection on your both your character and your essential goodness/badness. This notion is a bunch of hooey.
The TRUTH is that eating disorders are brain disorders, so not getting a handle on your eating means that there are parts of your brain that aren’t working as efficiently and effectively when compared to people without eating disorders. Your character, who you are at your core, defines you. Not your behaviors around food.
Lie #3: I can’t be around certain foods, so I have no willpower.
The diet industry want you not to trust yourself around food. So do some food companies. If you can’t trust yourself around X food category, then you should buy special Y and Z foods that are free from X ingredients. The problem is, these Y-Z foods often don’t taste as good, and they are not satiating. You may eat as many Y-Z foods as you can, but you won’t feel as satisfied until you eat the X food. You then think that you have no willpower, when its really the food that’s the problem.
The TRUTH is that eating disorders are brain disorders. It’s not about willpower. Food scientists have put certain ingredients in some X foods that prevent you from feeling satiated. These ingredients can actually trigger hunger cues. So the more you eat X, the hungrier you get, and the more of that X food you buy and eat. The diet industry also uses this strategy. The same unhelpful ingredients in that X food are also in some Y-Z foods. So, you could eat an entire box of Y-Z foods and not feel satisfied, even though you’re avoiding the X food. It’s totally a rigged game.
Lie #4: I’ve been struggling with the eating disorder for too long; I can’t recover.
“Too long” can mean different things to different people. It can be three months, three years, or 30 years. Regardless of duration, having an eating disorder really sucks. Any time feels too long. When you’re in the thick of it, it’s easy to feel as though you can’t recover. It’s like a deep, dark tunnel that has no end.
The TRUTH is that brains are resilient. Through psychotherapy and nutrition therapy, the areas of the brain that aren’t working as efficiently and effectively—these areas actually heal. I’ve seen it happen (not, actually, the brain itself, but you know what I mean 😬). When I work with people, I can get them from thinking about food, eating, and body image 80-90% of the time to less than 10% of the time. That’s a lot of healing. That’s recovery.
How can I get help to combat these eating disorder lies?
🌻 Sign up for my FREE Masterclass: The Ultimate Training on Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle. It’s a live, virtual, 1-hour seminar on Tuesday, September 13th—and it’ll include a FANTASTIC bonus surprise for people who stay through the end! It’s an interactive workshop for binge eating online, and it will address both binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia.
🌻 Check out my Fall 2022 Freedom From Binge Eating class. It is a live, virtual, 4-week class on Tuesday, September 27th, from 12-1p. It’s an interactive workshop on binge eating. There will be many bonuses, including videos from yours truly, journal prompts, worksheets, and notes from each class! Anyone with BED, bulimia, binge eating, or emotional eating will greatly benefit!
🌻 Join my Instagram LIVES on Thursdays from 12-1p. I have conversations with professionals such as eating disorder dietitians and therapists on many topics, such as binge eating, BED, bulimia, body image, etc. Subscribe to my Instagram @drmariannemiller, and you’ll get bulimia and BED info sent to your phone with my reels, posts, etc.
🌻If you’re in California, you can work with me in therapy!