It’s hard to talk about eating disorders or to be honest, any mental health issues at the best of times, and dealing with binge eating disorder with no support sucks.

I actually personally find it easier to broadcast my issues with binge eating disorder, to the internet and to the world than I do to speak to someone one-to-one about it.

You know, it takes a lot to speak up or to open up to someone about eating disorders or any mental health issue.

So imagine if you do and you don’t get anything back from them, whether that’s any kind of support and empathy or even a little bit of understanding.

Binge Eating Disorder Misunderstandings

With binge eating disorder, especially, it’s probably not that uncommon.

There are a lot of misunderstandings about binge-eating disorder. It can get passed off as:

• lack of willpower
• lack of discipline
• people being lazy
• the fact that you should just be able to stop eating when you want.

Or if like me, you’re someone who is on the slimmer side.

I wear a size small in most men’s t-shirts. In some places, I can fit into extra small. And for me to tell someone that I have binge-eating disorder they’ll think because of my size, it’s not a big deal, it’s not an issue.

And I think that fear of that reaction is what stops me from speaking up when I probably should be talking about it.

You Should Speak Up About Binge Eating Disorder

And no, I don’t think it’s a great approach to keep it to myself and not speak to anyone.

But right now I’m in a position where I feel okay. My binges seem under control. And when I do have the occasional binge, I’m recovering pretty quickly and it’s not happening again for a while.

So I’m kind of putting that off and I’ll hold my hands up and very openly say that I’m deliberately putting it off.

If that changes and I need help, then I will probably try to reach out to someone. I think doing this post, it’d be very hypocritical for me not to.

If You’re Dealing With Binge Eating Disorder With No Support

If you have spoken to someone and you’re not getting the support you need from friends or family or loved ones, then there’s probably a lot to unpack there and probably way outside the scope of what I can cover, what I can offer. That’s a whole big, separate issue.

What I wanted to talk about here is where you can get help, where you can get support for binge eating disorder if you’re not getting support from your friends or family.

And that could be whether you’ve told them and you’re not getting the support you need from them, or whether you’ve decided not to speak to them about it.

So we cover both situations.

Speak To A Professional

First up and I say this pretty much every single time I speak about binge eating disorder, is to speak to a qualified professional.

Now, when I say qualified professional, I deliberately leave that wording quite broad because the person that you want to speak to it will depend on where you are with binge eating, and where you are with your relationship with food.

It might be a dietician.

Maybe a behavioural therapist.

It might be a general practitioner.

Possibly a psychologist.

It really depends on where exactly you are, but the first step is, of course, reaching out for that help. A qualified professional will be the best place to guide you and give you the specific support that you need.

Eating Disorder Helplines & Charities

Next up are helplines or charities.

I don’t know where in the world you are, but a lot of countries will have some kind of support or helpline or charity available for eating disorders. And maybe even specifically for binge eating.

Some will be able to put you in touch with a qualified professional. Some will be able to offer you a sympathetic ear to listen.

I can’t comment on what specific help is available in other countries, but I know in the UK we’ve got Overeaters Anonymous.

We have got the National Centre For Eating Disorders.

And we’ve got BEAT, which is beateatingdisorders.org.uk. They have a lot of information on the website, not only on binge eating but on all eating disorders as well. And they have a great support line available.

Social Media (Sometimes)

Next up, I was kind of reluctant to include this one, but I feel like it’s worth including it. That is actually social media.

Now the internet generally is an awful place to get any kind of advice or information, and there’s so much bad advice out there. And so much misinformation out there. And that’s why, whenever you hear me speak, I will always talk about speaking to a qualified professional first.

They’ll be better placed to give you guidance and advise you than anything you’re going to find just by browsing online.

But for all my reluctance to recommend social media, I actually think there is good out there as well.

That’s basically what I try and do. I don’t try to treat or diagnose medical conditions. I share my own experiences of what happened to me and what worked for me.

And I do that in the hope that it’ll help someone else deal with the same thing that I’ve been dealing with. But then, of course, I always add the disclaimer about you should be speaking to a professional as well.

And I also see on Tik Tok, especially, and also on Instagram, nutritionists, dieticians, body confidence, coaches, even some therapists, psychologists.

All of these people put out good content for free that can help you build a better relationship with food, validate what you’re feeling and help you improve your health.

I’ve also spent a lot of time lurking on the binge eating disorder subreddit.

And pretty much every question, rant, or plea for help gets inundated with a ton of supportive messages. It could just be that the moderators are very good at filtering out or removing unhelpful messages. But it’s probably one of the most positive communities I’ve seen for binge eating, especially if you are dealing with binge eating disorder with no support.

Don’t Forget The Most Important One

And lastly, if you’re not getting help from friends or family, that just might mean you have to put more faith in yourself.

The fact that you’re aware of an eating disorder of the fact that you’re taking steps to get help. It’s the fact that you’re taking steps to overcome it. It’s all a sign of strength.

So maybe you’re stronger than you think you are.

All of the things that I suggested still do require the steps from you. So don’t undersell yourself.

Even if you don’t have friends or family by your side, helping you battle whatever you’re battling.

Don’t tell yourself that you can’t do it. It might be harder. It might take longer.

But you’ve already shown the strength to get started. And maybe at some point, you thought you couldn’t even do that. So don’t tell yourself that you don’t have the strength to finish that journey.