Binge Eating

Hello everyone! I am new to this site, and I am just now officially starting my WLS journey. Sorry for the long post, but I am just a little frustrated. I had my second visit with Vanderbilt's Surgical Weight Loss Center here in Nashville TN yesterday. When speaking with the Nurse Practitioner, she was going through some routine questions. She asked if I ever binged and/or purged. I told her I really didn't know what binging was. She explained it briefly. I told her yes, prior to beginning my pre-surgical diet in January that I would over eat on a regular basis- but I never ate to the point of being physically sick, and I've never made myself throw up. As an example, I explained that on my lunch break at work I used to run to Zaxby's to get a salad for lunch and also eat a kids meal. Or eat half a bag of chips, or get ice cream after eating a full meal, or snacking within an hour of eating. Sometimes I don't get that feeling of fullness and feel like I need more to satisfy myself. Well, I got a call from her this morning saying that she thinks that binge eating could be something that could prevent me from or postpone having gastric bypass, although she says she still thinks I am a good candidate for the surgery. She has moved my psych evaluation up, in hopes of working this out sooner. She also signed me up for a 4 week binge eating support group. Has anyone else had this happen? It immediately brought me to tears, and caused me to feel so discouraged. I know we should be honest with our weight loss team, but now I feel like I should have just said no and kept my mouth shut. My PCP recently added Victoza(almost 2 weeks now), and this has been giving me a severe feeling of fullness as well as nausea. I explained that I am not able to eat much at all on it (a 1/3 of what I would usually eat), and that it did cause me to vomit once. I'm thinking maybe this information caused her to think I have been binging. I don't want to sound like I am in denial, but after researching it online, I really don't think I am a binger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! TIA!

I'm sorry to say I don't have any advise about the binge eating issue but I will say that I too went through Vanderbilt and I found that Dr Spann, and the Nurse Practitioner there are wonderful. They really care about the patients and truly want the best possible outcome for the patients they see. I hope you have much success and welcome to the site! 

Thank you so much! And congrats on your loss! I hope I can be as successful as you have been! So far, I am really impressed with Dr. Spann and his team. They are all super helpful!

I did not have that happen, but I wanted you to know that I have issues with binge eating and I had surgery 18 months ago.  I've lost nearly 130lbs to date.  I'm still in therapy and I'm actively working to get a handle on the binge.  

Go to the psych eval with an open mind.  They want to make sure that you understand what you're getting into and that you acknowledge the problem and are willing to work on it.  None of us who need to have weight loss surgery have a healthy relationship with food.  Just be open to change and work with the doctors to do what you have to do.  They may feel you need to work on it before surgery, and as much as that may suck, it will probably be for the best in the long run.  Or, they may talk to you and get the sense that you understand, are willing to work for it, and approve you.  Just be honest with the doctor and the psychologist.  That's the best thing that you can do for yourself.

Thank you for the info, and congrats on your loss! I will definitely go into it with an open mind. I know that what I have is an addiction to food, and it is definitely not healthy. Not being able to eat much due to my new meds has really opened my eyes to this.

I don't have anything to offer about binge eating specifically, but I do have some thoughts on the patient/practitioner relationship.  These people are doing a job.  That job is to help you take care of yourself, and for the most part, they do it pretty well.  But, like anyone else, it is easy enough to get into the rut of habit.  There are certain things they are going to say and do because they say and do them all the time.  At any given time, their response to you may or may not fit your particular situation.  That is when it is time to dig a little deeper with them.  Don't be afraid to question or discuss the matter further.

Second, don't start to think about concealing information they ask for.  It isn't always easy to give up things about ourselves to people who are essentially strangers.  But they ask for a reason, and that reason could come down to life and death.  I would rather give them too much info, than conceal something only to have it come back and bite me when I am out cold on the OR table.  If they overreact or overreach, see the paragraph above.  

As far as her calling you a binge eater, I would not sweat it if I were you.  Yeah, that's easy for me to write, right?  I'm not you.  But, I've had to correct my health care team.  I walked in for my second appointment after a rough drive in, and my BP was very high.  For that, I received a lecture from Ms. Nurse I Want To Rule Your Life.  She wanted me on blood pressure medicine.  So for my next appointment, I came in with the last three or four months worth of BP measurements from my PCP, and put an end to that.  So when you go in again, ask her why she thinks that, and don't be afraid to go into detail with her.  She is working for you.  

Great advise! I am actually happy that my psych evaluation and first nutrition visit got moved up. This way I can discuss all of this in detail; sooner, rather that later. I don't know for sure, maybe I am a binge eater. If so, then I need to definitely work on it. BUT, I took an online quiz, and it said that I was not. LOL.

This is a good thing, they're doing their jobs & not pushing you thru into surgery when there's a possible mental problem that needs working on. Even if you don't have bed, it's good to deal with the mental stuff now rather than later.

I am glad that they truly care enough to follow up with me and suggest looking deeper.

Binging does not require purging.  You may know that, but something in what you said made me think you might think that it's not binging if you don't make yourself sick, so I wanted to clarify that.

I never thought my overeating and emotional eating rose to the level of "binging".  I knew it was a problem, along with some other very weird food issues I have because of childhood trauma.  So I started seeing a therapist who specialized in body image disorders and eating disorders while I was still deciding whether or not to have surgery (About 6 months of therapy before my surgery date).

Therapy is tied with the WLS for the best thing I've ever done for myself.  I don't think I would have had a chance at successful WLS without the therapy.  Mind you, I don't consider myself a success yet, but so far it's going pretty well.

What I learned through therapy was that binge eating disorder like many other mental health concerns, is on a spectrum.  It's not always a clear-cut "yes you do/have this".  My therapist considered my overeating to be binge eating.  I ate to a level of discomfort, and many times didn't feel that I was in control of my eating, like I was driven to eat by things other than physical hunger.  And my sense of fullness was completely whack.  Those are elements of (but not all of the elements of) binge eating disorder.

I would say take advantage of every single support thing your team offers.  If you find it doesn't really fit you, great.  But you are armed with that much more information and personal insight and possibly tools to use as you move forward.  All you've lost is some of your time, and I really think you'll find it's of benefit even if afterwards you still don't think that you have binge eating disorder.