Hmm I don't have much experience with bulimia, I had some bulimic issues during my anorexia but that passed away after I ate some stuff that I could not purge up anymore. This might sound stupid since you said you have had eating issues for a long time but...have you tried visiting your doctor? Maybe he can help you find what is causing this compulsive behaviour. Do you feel bored/ lonely at night? Because that could be a really big problem. Is there anything you can do that you really love that might help you take your mind off food? Any evening...thing...sport or club, with other people?
That might help you stay distracted long enough to make your body realize it's not hungry and that the binging isn't neccesary.
That's about all the help I can give you here, I really lack knowledge about compulsive eating. I'm sorry.

Good luck.

My problem time is in the evening, I always used to go to bed feeling very uncomfortable having picked at everything in the kitchen over the last few hours.

During the day is fine, I'm in work and I'm socialising, my eating habits are perfectly fine and healthy. My problem in the evening is boredom, and bad habit.


Is it possible that you're bored in the evening? If so, find a sport or club and consider picking up a new hobby, this will take away the opportunity to munch through the evening as well as provide a distraction while you get out of the habit of reaching for food.

If you have a partner/children I know it can be difficult to hold a hobby, if this is the case maybe you can do something at home or work out some arrangement so you can come home later.

hey, i don't have any eating disorders but i do snack when i'm bored, i tend to eat crisps, chocolate, biscuits anything really which is bad bc am trying to lose weight! ggrr.
It might be that ure bored like me try and find an evening hobby or something if you have your mind on something else then you might not think of eating anything hope this helps Jenny

Hi there, I think a lot of it is about being bored you're right. I have just started reading a good book by Geneen Roth about complusive eating and am trying to get in touch with what it feels like to be hungry and to only try and eat when I am hungry. I know that I eat for fulfillment as I am not feeling emotionally fulfilled. Thanks so much for replying to me, I really appreciate it xx

no problem hun anytime hope it all works out for you good luck x

I'd really recommend seeing a therapist and a dietitian (not a nutritionist- they have less education!), as well as starting to attend OA meetings regularly. My mother has suffered from COE her whole life, as well, so I understand the feels of shame and guilt to a point. Try OA.org when you get a chance.

Thank you, that's great advice. I will look up OA in my area

Best wishes x

Hey light_years,
I know this post was done a while ago, but I feel my story might be of some insight.
My sophomore year of highschool stressed me out to the point of extreme. So much happened to me that year I couldn't take (school was intruding on the things that made me happy in life and I broke up with a serious boyfriend). Anyways when I came home from school I would stuff myself to the point of discomfort and even then I would think about food to eat. I have never thought so much about food before and once it hit me what I was doing I became stressed out about how I was treating myself. That didnt help my situation either since I was already in the dumps after the break up and the stress from school.
I did tons of research on the cause of such an appetite to increase and tried to follow all of the guidelines people used to keep a healthy diet, but even then that didn't help. It actually made me feel worse like I was restricting myself. The drive for food would get worse.
The only reason I could think of for my extreme eating would have been the emotional state I was in. Before that year of school I was in the best shape of my life and the happiest. I was in a great relationship (possibly in love-but I don't think I know for sure, just that I have never felt that way about anyone before) , I was exercising because I enjoyed it, and most importantly I was riding horses everyday (which I can't see myself not doing). I lost everything when school started. The more stressful school became the more I started to eat.
Half way through the year I decided to become a vegetarian that way since I was eating so much I might as well eat alot of healthy foods. I noticed if I ate alot of meat anyway that's when I felt the most discomfort. I stayed a vegetarian from January to mid November.
Here is when I noticed my problems. My eating deffinitely decreased in the summer time with the less stress, but I was still feeling down over the break up and my riding. The more I started to figure my problems out (which I was beginning to get the idea I needed to fix those problems to stop my emotional eating) the more I was eating out of hunger and not feelings.
Later when I noticed that my problems weren't problems anymore I was still eating alot. I was becoming stressed then that I was just eating more at meal times. I was eating more so I could sustain my hunger for a while, but I would still have the discomfort. So I decided being a vegetarian just wasn't cutting my hunger. The raw foods went through me too fast causing me to eat more. So when I started to eat meat I noticed my hunger inside me and inside my head were quiet. They were finally satisfied. Then I got the idea maybe if you just eat what you truely want at the time when you are hungry then you would be satisfied even sooner. Once I started practicing this and just told myself everyone's eating behavior is different I noticed my mental hunger finally shutup. I even stopped scrutinizing myself. I want to exercise again and I have always kept up the riding.
I don't know what are your causes for eating, but mine finally went back to the way they were when I forced myself to see what was causing my discomfort. This whole compulsive eating gave me some self image issues and soon I just said get over it. I finally just accepted how I looked and as long as I feel good about myself then others will to. I also accepted that everydody eats differently and that there are no rules for the way people eat. The only rule your body knows is to do whatever it takes to keep you alive. I'm doing other things that I enjoy now and have peace of mind since I don't think of food anymore.
Trust me I have been where it feels like no one can help you, and it made me feel worse. All I can say is if you feel like eating eat and don't punish yourself, but it helps to wonder why you feel like eating. I have heard other people recover from this, but I didn't like the way they went about it. They distracted themselves and found a diet to follow and to me it seemed like they were just covering up what they went through and just made it more obvious to themselves that this problem was getting to them.
It took me a long time to figure this out since I had so much other issues going on too, but now I just don't worry about it. I have far much more to deal with than the simple act of eating unless of course there is no food to eat. I do hope this helps not only to you but to anyone else who is going through the same issues. I felt so terrible with myself dealing with this and not finding an answer to the problem and knowing others out there are going through same thing made me feel more determined to understand it all. It's a natural thing to eat, and if your body wants it let it have it. Soon enough your body will notice that you are feeding it what it wants and won't be so selfish anymore. And people wonder why diets fail.

Best of Luck,
DreamFable