This is the third in my series of blogs about hypnosis and eating disorders to coincide with Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Today the focus is on binge eating and bulimia.
As with anorexia, which I discussed in the last blog, bingeing and bulimia are also often the result of emotional distress or habits that started because of a particular pattern of thinking.
A binge is defined as "a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink". People often binge when they are feeling unhappy, alone or depressed. So, a lot of my clients will tell me that they if they open a packet of biscuits they can't just have one, it tends to be the whole packet. Rather than having a bowl of ice cream it will be the whole pot. There is usually some satisfaction whilst eating but that is quickly replaced by a feeling of disappointment, self loathing or guilt because they feel they have failed again.
So, the eating doesn't really satisfy the emotional need and doesn't improve the person's mood at all.
Because bingeing can lead to weight gain people often put themselves on strict diets to try and compensate, which means that they feel deprived and so are even more likely to binge on the foods they feel deprived of when they next feel low and have run out of will power. The resulting weight gain also adds to their feelings of unhappiness which means there is even more incentive to binge.
Bulimia can be the follow on from bingeing or anorexia. After eating, a bulimic person will then attempt to get rid of the extra calories by purging - making him/herself sick or taking laxatives.
Purging by vomiting or laxative use isn't actually an effective weight loss method because the calories have already started being absorbed by the body, so most bulimics will gain weight. It can be very harmful, causing damage to the oesophagus, stomach, intenstines, kidneys and teeth. Find out more about the effects of bulimia.
So, how can hypnosis help control binge eating and bulimia?
Because bingeing is usually triggered by emotions the first thing to do is to replace food with other, more helpful, ways of dealing with emotions. Techniques such as Chinosis and EFT are good ways of reducing the negative impact of emotions and helping you feel positive and confident. CBT techniques help you to think about things in a different way and discover new ways of dealing with thoughts that previously triggered bingeing. Hypnosis helps to address underlying issues and also encourages new ways of thinking and instals new behaviour.
By removing the bingeing episodes then you no longer need to purge to keep your weight down.
The same techniques work with bulimia, but in a slightly different way. Firstly, we address the reasons why you want to keep your body size down, whether it is for health or self image. Hypnosis enables you to feel differently about yourself and your and other people's expectations. You won't be forced into thinking in ways that you don't think are right for you, but when people come for hypnosis they tend to feel that they want to change, they just don't know how to make the change. Once you are happy to do things differently CBT will give you techniques to be able to do those things and Chinosis and EFT will help you to keep a positive mindset.
If you would like to find out more about hypnosis and binge eating or bulimia and decide if it really can help you then please do contact me.
Photography by Celine Gros
As with anorexia, which I discussed in the last blog, bingeing and bulimia are also often the result of emotional distress or habits that started because of a particular pattern of thinking.
A binge is defined as "a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink". People often binge when they are feeling unhappy, alone or depressed. So, a lot of my clients will tell me that they if they open a packet of biscuits they can't just have one, it tends to be the whole packet. Rather than having a bowl of ice cream it will be the whole pot. There is usually some satisfaction whilst eating but that is quickly replaced by a feeling of disappointment, self loathing or guilt because they feel they have failed again.
So, the eating doesn't really satisfy the emotional need and doesn't improve the person's mood at all.
Because bingeing can lead to weight gain people often put themselves on strict diets to try and compensate, which means that they feel deprived and so are even more likely to binge on the foods they feel deprived of when they next feel low and have run out of will power. The resulting weight gain also adds to their feelings of unhappiness which means there is even more incentive to binge.
Bulimia can be the follow on from bingeing or anorexia. After eating, a bulimic person will then attempt to get rid of the extra calories by purging - making him/herself sick or taking laxatives.
Purging by vomiting or laxative use isn't actually an effective weight loss method because the calories have already started being absorbed by the body, so most bulimics will gain weight. It can be very harmful, causing damage to the oesophagus, stomach, intenstines, kidneys and teeth. Find out more about the effects of bulimia.
So, how can hypnosis help control binge eating and bulimia?
Because bingeing is usually triggered by emotions the first thing to do is to replace food with other, more helpful, ways of dealing with emotions. Techniques such as Chinosis and EFT are good ways of reducing the negative impact of emotions and helping you feel positive and confident. CBT techniques help you to think about things in a different way and discover new ways of dealing with thoughts that previously triggered bingeing. Hypnosis helps to address underlying issues and also encourages new ways of thinking and instals new behaviour.
By removing the bingeing episodes then you no longer need to purge to keep your weight down.
The same techniques work with bulimia, but in a slightly different way. Firstly, we address the reasons why you want to keep your body size down, whether it is for health or self image. Hypnosis enables you to feel differently about yourself and your and other people's expectations. You won't be forced into thinking in ways that you don't think are right for you, but when people come for hypnosis they tend to feel that they want to change, they just don't know how to make the change. Once you are happy to do things differently CBT will give you techniques to be able to do those things and Chinosis and EFT will help you to keep a positive mindset.
If you would like to find out more about hypnosis and binge eating or bulimia and decide if it really can help you then please do contact me.
Photography by Celine Gros
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment