SPT-Fall2014

They are not worried about their
weight, they are worried because
they are out of control with food.
“I remember working with one
client who was extremely thin
and thinking, oh sure, you think
you have binge eating disorder,
but you're actually closer to the
anorexia side of things, and so
you call eating one or two
cookies a binge. But that was not
right. This woman was sitting
down at night and eating one or
two boxes of Girl Scout cookies
after a normal sized dinner. She
felt absolutely powerless. She
was spending money that she did
not have on binge foods. And,
although it isn’t always about
weight, it often is, so it’s not
unusual for a binge eater to binge
for one, two, three days, then
starve themselves the other three
or four to compensate—their
form of purging is restriction. A lot
of my clients who suffer with binge
eating have similar personality
structures—they are high
functioning, successful women who
eat normally in front of friends and
family then go home and binge
alone.
“Eating disorders are very
complicated,” Fulvio continues.
“Treatment is rough. You can’t
expect one thing to work with all
clients. When I was in my behaviors,
a very close friend of mine was
dealing with bulimia. We talked
openly with one another. She said,
‘How can you eat something and just
sit with it? I don’t get it.’ And I said,
‘Well, how can you make yourself
throw up?’ Back then, in my head, if
you were making yourself throw up,
you were really, really sick, what I
was doing wasn't so bad.”
Alcohol and Binge Eating Disorder
Fulvio is clear that if you are
dealing with alcoholism you need to
work with that issue before
addressing the binge eating. For
starters, she offers that your brain is
not clear and you are not thinking
straight. And, if you need to drink
two, three glass of wine every night,
you just won't be present with
yourself to do the steps. “You need a
lot of support to heal from
alcoholism,” Fulvio says. “Even if
you take a year or two to look at your
own drinking, you have to do that
first. On the spectrum of things,
compulsive drinking and binge
drinking are more serious. You have
to deal with that first because your
life is in danger in the immediate.
You have to take care of one coping
mechanism at a time. If you stop
binge eating, you might start drinking
more to compensate. You might say,
‘Okay I’m not going to eat for a
week, I’ll drink instead to relax and it
will keep me from eating.’ I say,
‘Let’s help you to stop that first. You
need to clean up your brain, be clear
eyed and clear thinking to come at
your eating issue from a place of
strength.’
“You want to recover from a
place of strength,” Fulvio says.
“We have our eating disorder in
a void, a vacuum, we are alone
with it. We recover with other
people. When you shine a light
on a monster, it’s not a monster
anymore. My intention in writing
this book is to help people
recover but also for them to use
the book with other people—
their therapist, a 12-Step mentor,
a friend, a support group—to
take them out of the isolation.
“And, my intention is for a lot
of people to find hope,” she says.
“Even if they just can’t do it the
first time they pick up the book
they can always try it again, it
will always be there for them.
Success in recovery is all about
timing, readiness and
willingness. I want people
reading this book to know that
wherever they are is okay, even if
they are in a place of wanting to give
up, even if they do decide to stop
actively recovering. You can't undo
the work that you've already done,
your past recovery is always there for
you. It grows and comes back in
subtle ways. I want people to know
that if they can just hold onto hope
recovery will always be possible.”
Leora Fulvio, MFT, is a licensed
psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and
author. She has been treating women
with food issues since 1999. She
studied creative writing at Bard
College and completed her MA in
counseling psychology at the
California Institute for Integral
Studies. She is currently a full time
mom (6-month-old and 2-year-old
sons).
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Fall 2014 | Volume 4 Number 2 | page 54