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Eating Disorders and The Holidays

© De Williams

"People suffering with Compulsive Overeating use food as a way to fill a void they feel. Similar in a lot of ways to Anorexia and Bulimia, CO's have low self-esteem. They use food to cope with stress, to take away the pain, to comfort themselves." This is how I have come to see my overeating during the holidays.

Instead of beating up on myself and lamenting my lack of will power I can be compassionate with myself. Until I come to terms with whatever the pain is, I stuff myself with food, temporarily feeling better, only to repeat the cycle over and over. The Holiday Survival Forums at the SFWED Remember It Hurts Web Board is a place to safely explore those places with others who suffer from the same pain you might be feeling. Anorexia and Bulimia has a separate posting place from Compulsive Overeating. (As one having been there, it is difficult for the compulsive overeater who doesn't purge or starve to relate to the other two. And I would think that goes both ways.) Holiday Survival Links offers several resources for finding help around food issues during this time of year.

The entire site is devoted to information on the subject of eating disorders and all that may be related. You can check for "Signs and Symptoms", "Ways to Cope", and "Pregnancy Issues" along with online support in the form of bulletin boards and chat rooms. For an added bonus the site can be read in either spanish or french as well as english.

On the page Issues for Men with Eating Disorders you will find a discussion focusing on the 10% of the 8 million people in the United States who are male and identified with an Eating Disorder. There are also links for other sites for men to explore.

Discussion of the topic of males with eating disorders, the subject of simultaneously suffering from alcoholism and/or drug abuse, a tie to ADHD, the possibiity to self injure and also suffer from depression, anxiety, PTSD and other psycholigical illnesses are mentioned.

On the Old Fashioned Ideas page there is a discussion about how many myths surround eating disorders. One, the idea that doctor's *should* know if there is something to worry about. If their not worried, neither should you be. So much of the time disordered eaters *look* normal and unless one has been specially trained in the field, the fatal progression is not identified until it is too late.

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