I’ve binged again, now what?!

Immediately after a binge, you’re probably pretty hard on yourself. You might say mean things to yourself like, “Why do I always do this?! I’m so weak! I never do anything right.” This is the opposite of ideal recovery behaviour after a binge. Further shaming yourself only pushes you deeper in the hole. So, what if, instead of beating down on yourself, see if you can — just for a second — have some compassion for yourself. Whatever that THING is that you’re using food to escape from is probably pretty painful. Your pain is not small, I’m sure. And the physiological drive to seek pleasure over pain, and to numb our pain with pleasure, is real. We are not greater than our biology. But we do have free will. We have the opportunity to make the choice to feel our pain. And we don’t have to be soldiers about it. We can take our anxiety and our pain and hold it in our arms like a baby, and just be soft with it. You deserve your own tender understanding and compassion. Of all the people in your life, you deserve your compassion first and foremost. It can be really hard...