Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didnt Work, and How I Recovered for Good by Kathryn Hansen

Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didnt Work, and How I Recovered for Good Reviews

• 
  Stephanie

  Overall, I liked what was presented in this book, however I think there are a few things that could be dangerous or damaging for certain people. I'm a Registered Dietitian (using a functional holistic approach) and I'm also in grad school getting my Masters in Counseling. So you could say I AM one of those practitioners that this author rags on. New science on the brain has led to a lot of new ways of thinking in the field of addiction and recovery, however the brain science she describes is what influenced the new labeling of substance abuse as a DISEASE versus a CHOICE. This is opposite to what she's arguing in this book. Because addicting substances and behaviors get programmed into the pleasure/reward centers of the brain (survival loops), we are driven to these things in a way that feels as if it's outside our control. This is the basic premise behind the disease model of addiction. I think her approach is concerning, not because it can't work, but because it aggressively discounts other means of treatment. Some individuals do not have the cognitive means to simply separate their human brain from their animal brain. Perhaps it's that easy for some, but if you're not one of them, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you.
  
  I will agree that some individuals suffering with binge eating do not have any significant trauma to work through, but what she fails to mention is that A LOT of people with eating disorders DO. I went back to school for counseling due to how many of my clients were disclosing sexual trauma, food insecurity challenges, physical abuse, domestic violence, and the like when they were coming to me (a dietitian) for help with their food and eating challenges. I think the author's approach can certainly be helpful, but would work better as a supplement to nutrition counseling and therapy, as opposed to blatantly disregarding all other approaches to treatment. For the individuals out there who don't have any significant trauma and their binge eating is simply tied to their years of restriction and/or chronic dieting, then perhaps this approach could work on its own. I just feel like this books disregard for the individuals who are working through trauma is a bit concerning. The author almost makes it seem foolish that you would have to work on yourself for years in order to heal your food challenges, however the reality is that for some individuals with severe trauma, PTSD, or other mental health challenges, this is in fact the case. AND IT'S OK.
  
  Please read this with a grain of salt, and like anything else, take what works for you and toss what doesn't. THERE IS NO ONE PATH TO HEALING AND RECOVERY. Everyone heals their relationship to food differently, and there is no wrong way. The only difference between the people who heal and the people who don't, is that those who heal stay persistently dedicated to their own process of growth and recovery. Never give up on yourself and your journey. And recognize that there's often a message or life lesson in our challenges and suffering. We're born out of our suffering, and its often here to teach us something. You're not fundamentally flawed, or broken. Just dealing with life in the best way you know how. Sending lots of love and caring thoughts to those suffering under the burden of eating challenges. There is a path to recovery for you, just keep on keeping on.
• 
  AmandaMyChelle

  I heard about this book while listening to a weight loss podcast where there was an interview with the author. What she was saying intrigued me so I looked it up. I read a lot of reviews and most seemed really good but I was a little skeptical about spending $9 on an eBook. After a few days, I decided to just do it because I've spent than $9 on a binge, haven't I?
  I related so much to her story that I felt like I could have written it. But.
  Truth be told, I think I was in denial about the fact that I actually had an eating disorder. I always felt like there was something wrong with me but I never considered that I might actually qualify for an official E.D. Reading this book has really opened my eyes. I've never gone to therapy for my weight issues but I've read every diet book and tried every gimmick. I'd do well for a bit but then go crashing down, doubling the weight I had lost. I thought about food constantly. When I wasn't thinking about it directly, I was thinking about it in the form of shame for what I had eaten or wanted to eat and how horrible it feels in my body. I was miserable, not understanding why I had this exremely strong desire to stop eating out of control but yet remained just that out of control. It was like Optimus Prime and Megatron were having a battle in my mind. Eat the food! Don't eat the food! You want the food! I can't believe you just ate the food!
  It was a constant fight all day every day. I loved to go out and eat a big meal and then stop at the store and buy snacks to go home and eat in private. Part of me would say, I am not going to buy junk food while the other part was scanning the aisles. It was nothing to down a whole box of creme pies in a matter of minutes. I would buy whole birthday cakes and packs of cupcakes and eat them by myself. I would order pizza and have Ramen noodles and a sandwich and a microwave burrito while I waited and still eat the whole pizza when it arrived. Then, of course, I needed something sweet.
  Every single day I ate like this.
  I could do okay at work but
  I would pull in the driveway and immediately start a mental inventory of what I had to look forward to eating when I got in the house. Consuming consumed me.
  When I think back, this all stems from the time I did the South Beach diet. I had lost 60 lbs in about 5 months. I was happy and I felt good. I didn't think I ever felt deprived. I remember passing candy and cake displays and not even batting an eye.
  But then I got laid off. I got depressed. I sought comfort.
  My first binge food was a pack of creme horns with a chocolate milk. I ate all of them in my car and downed the milk and then ran into my backyard to try and throw it all up. I was so disgusted and disappointed in myself. I couldn't do it though. I've tried before and forced vomiting is not a skill I could master. Hence, the 80 pound weight gain over the last several years which has led me here. I have a binge eating disorder but I don't purge so I'm just fat. Probably technically, obese.
  I've read all the approaches that say it's an emotional thing. That if you're wanting to eat when you're not hungry, it's because of a feeling. You need to figure out what you're feeling and address it instead of eating. But that didn't work for me. I didn't feel lIke I was burying any childhood hurts or escaping any unpleasantries. I never could find that emotion or feeling and I still wanted to eat and I did.
  I know a lot of people say they were disappointed by this book and didn't think it was much than the mesage just don't do it. It seems too simple. But it's really true.
  I'm sure we've all tried that appraoch. And as she states, everything won't work for everyone. However, it has worked for me.
  Since reading this book, I have not binged once in the last 7 days. I've hardly had any urges. I wake up and I'm excited to recall all that I did NOT eat the night before.
  Prior to this week, mornings were filled with regret and dread as I remembered what I had done. How much I had eaten. All the calories and junk. The climbing number on the scale.
  I don't know how to explain exactly how but this book just made it click for me.
  I am in control. Not my urges. Not the habits I have formed.
  When I've had times where I considered eating for no reason, I tell myself,
  You don't want to eat. You're not hungry. It's a habit and to break a habit you must stop doing it! For the first time in my life, I'm telling myself no and I'm listening.
  To accompany that, I've stopped dieting. I've stopped restricting foods. I've stopped telling myself I can't have certain things.
  It has freed me.
  I know it's only been a week and I've got a long journey ahead of me but I am so thankful that I found this book because now I have some confidence in my ability to fight and WIN.
  I'm finally seeing the scale go down and I'm no longer completely obsessed with food and hating myself for wanting or eating it. I'm not acting on insane urges to gorge myself because I'm not having them at the intensity that I was before reading this.
  The brain mechanics just make sense to me and I'm able to view myself as a person with a normal and healthy brain that just got too good at remembering how to do a destructive thing. I've trained myself to brush my teeth twice a day without fail and now I'm training myself to stop eating food just because it's there, or I had a bad day or even a good day.
  I will post an update as time passes but if you've had a similar experience and using the emotional appraoch hasn't helped you, I definitely recommend you buy this book and read it in one sitting!
• 
  S

  This book has honestly changed my life I haven't binged since I finished this book and fingers crossed I never will again! I read other reviews when I was thinking of buying this and they almost put me off saying that the book could be summed up in 1 sentence and that all it was saying was "dont binge eat" and that its just down to willpower at the end of the day.
  
  All I can assume is these people just skimmed the book, or didnt understand what was being said for some reason. The book specifically says that binge eating is NOTHING to do with will power, that our will power is perfectly fine. Rather, the book is helpful because it helps you understand WHY we binge eat, and at the core of it, thats all the information we need to be able to stop.
  
  One thing I will say is I think potentially this book may be helpful for people who binge eat as part of bulimia (which doesnt just mean that you vomit by the way, which is what I thought for a long time!) or developed binge eating following prolonged dieting or even anorexia, rather than those who have developed binge eating alongside general overeating. I'm not saying its not helpful for the latter as well, just maybe useful for the former.
  
  At the end of the day though, all I can say is BUY THIS BOOK. I've bought plenty of others including the Binge Code and Overcoming Binge Eating and this is the only one which has helped me. All the other self help books seem to over complicate what is at its core quite a simple issue i know it might not seem like it right now but I promise it is! Hope you can find the help that I found in this book!
• 
  Wolf Knickers

  This book was a total and utter revelation. My own experience had many similarities to the author’s own; after losing a life changing amount of weight two years ago, I had a totally new life and confidence and despite being the happiest I’d been in my adult life, I bizarrely and inexplicably began binge eating about six months ago. I gained back some of the weight I’d worked so hard to lose, and I felt devastated, yet couldn’t stop. I couldn’t understand it; I desperately read numerous books on the topic, all of which stuck with the traditional notion that any eating disorder stems from emotional problems. But I just couldn’t figure out what the problem was, and I found myself constantly expressing that exasperation to my partner. The only thing making me unhappy was the binge eating. How could I have some unresolved emotional problems when everything in my life, apart from the binge eating, was going so well? I was bingeing once or twice a week and I felt such crushing shame and despair over it. None of it made sense. And then I came across Kathryn’s podcast, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing as almost everything she was talking about described my own situation. I listened to all the podcast episodes while out on a hike one morning, and when I came home I bought her book on my Kindle and ploughed through it.
  
  It’s been several weeks now and I’ve not binged since. The idea of the binge urges being “neurological junk” makes so much sense, and reminding myself of that when I feel the urges immediately sends them to the back of my mind.
  
  If anyone else, like me, has found that traditional approaches to eating disorders haven’t worked, then I’d highly recommend giving this a go. Start with the podcast first, it’s free. I’m still amazed that, after all these months, I finally managed to find a podcast and book that echoed my own experience so closely, and the fact that it has so far helped me to start recovering is a relief I can barely find the words to describe.
• 
  jo

  This is basically a diary of someones eating and binging habits and one day simply decided to stop binging.
  
  It is chapter after chapter of her listing what she ate during her binges and the events surrounding them (nearly 400 pages of this). So, if you want something that you can relate to, maybe this will be of use, however, there is nothing that provides real tangible techniques to stop binging.
  
  She discounts years of therapy as not working, but somehow, suddenly stops binging. There is no consideration given to the fact that maybe this did contribute to stopping.
  
  The blanket statement that eating disorders are not connected to emotional issues, life changes or trauma is quite dangerous. That may be the case for this person, but certainly not true for everyone. And it is interesting that a lot of the binge episodes she talks about are in fact at the time of significant events.
  
  The book is in desperate need of an edit, it is ramblings doesn’t quote any of the sources, has no scientific evidence and doesn’t really provide any techniques or conclusion.
  
  I’ve never question other reviews but am at a total loss to the amount of positive reviews.
• 
  goodreads Customer

  This book has given me hope. I have had BED for 30+ years and thought there was no chance of ever recovering. You can't teach an old dog new tricks etc. I am 3 weeks in, have not binged and have lost 5 pounds in weight. Very early days I know, but 3 weeks without a binge is unheard of for me.
• 
  Sarah Wallace

  BUT this book has worked! I have been going through a bit of a life change anyway and had decided to give up alcohol as it wasn't doing me any favours. I read numerous books on the subject and am now 10 weeks sober and have found it very easy. About 4 or 5 weeks ago I came across this book through reading about addiction in general as I realised that alcohol was my secondary addiction and bulimia was my primary addiction and one which I always thought I would have to live with. This book has made me realise that's just not the case and it made me realise what the author had also realised and hammers home, that it's just a very bad habit and for me it's a bad coping mechanism for when the going gets tough. That and also when I had a hangover. The first time I had an urge to binge while reading this book, I amazed myself by being able to detach myself from the urge and look at it objectively for what it was ie neurological junk and my lower brain's response. Like the author my bulimia was triggered from excessive dieting when I was 14 which led to a mild dose of anorexia followed by 32 years of bulimia. I have now, hand in hand with giving up alcohol, gone 10 weeks without a binge and I am eternally grateful to Kathryn Hansen and the Instagram post I saw recommending her book. For anyone suffering from this horrible and destructive habit, this book is a MUST read. I did find it heavy going in parts which is why it's taken me 4 weeks to read but it's so worth it and I think it's actually a good thing as I read every word and read a little each day which has reinforced the message. A HUGE THANK YOU!!!!!
  
  I need to update this review as I have a further update. I relapsed after 14 weeks and unfortunately got back into the cycle of binge/purge again. However, since May 25th 2020 I have been bulimia free and it is now April 4th 2021. Coming up to my 50th birthday I knew I had to take control of my life back as otherwise there would be no happy ending and it was that, combined with knowing that what Kathryn Hansen said in her book was totally true, that gave me the tools to finally put an end to it. So if you do relapse, it's not the end of the world, as a seed will be sewn in your brain, that will grow into a big rose bush. I am also than 2 years sober I am happy to report : )