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Bulimia Triggers: How to cope with urges and impulses.

What is an urge or a craving? These are an intense impulse to perform a behavior which often has negative consequences. When you act on an urge it becomes a symptom i.e. binge, vomit, restriction, laxative use, etc. Urges or cravings can be so intense that it often feels like you have no choice but to act on them and when you do, you may feel an immediate sense of relief , emptiness, or you may feel guilty and disgusted with yourself. When you get an urge, it can intensify as time goes by and this can be very difficult to cope with. However, urges do eventually pass and settle down.

It is very helpful to know what triggers an urge for you and also to develop healthier ways to cope with an urge rather than acting it out. To manage your recovery from an eating disorder it is vital to both understand your triggers, and raise your awareness of your triggers/ urges to binge, vomit or restrict.

To recover it is necessary to develop some coping strategies that help you avoid acting on your urges every time you get one. Applying coping strategies can be very problematic as acting on urges becomes a very automatic response, therefore making it tough to break the pattern. The more times you avoid acting on an urge the easier it becomes to manage them.

Coping Strategies: Here are some examples of coping skills that may help you deal with your cravings.

Coping Strategies are very personal as what might trigger you to binge/purge might not necessary trigger another person. Therefore it is important to develop a ‘TRIAL AND ERROR’ approach and not necessarily give up if one attempt has not worked out while trying a new coping strategy.

1. Delaying Tactics When you get an urge to binge/purge, try delaying it by a specified amount of time. For example, initially, you can make a decision to delay acting on an urge by 10 minutes by doing some other activity in the meantime to distract you while you try sit out the urge. After the ten minutes check to see how strong your urge still is, if you can, try delaying it further. If you do end up acting on the urge after delaying it, try increase the delay time when you get your next urge as this will help you try gain some control over your impulse to act to an urge every time you get one. The more times you try to do this, eventually you will be able to manage your urges without reacting by binging or purging.

2. Distraction This involves doing something that will take your mind off your cravings. This activity needs to be somewhat pleasurable so as to keep your mind occupied. Examples could be phoning a friend, surfing the web, downloading some music, pampering yourself, go for a walk or taking a bath.

3. Self talk coping statements. Repeating a statement sentence or a word that is helpful and motivational to your recovery can be a very useful tool. You can say it out loud or in silence as long as it reinforces your commitment to your recovery. Try and make the statement a positive one and make sure it is not harsh and critical. An example could be; “ I deserve to be healthy”; “This craving will pass”, “Every day I am getting better and better”. “I will be good to myself today”. “I am a good person” “I will succeed”. These are only samples and it is better to tailor your own statements so that they have a special meaning for you.

4. Making your environment safe. A major part of recovery is to become aware of your high risk situations. Some of these are quite obvious however there might be some that you are not aware of. A daily journal is a good way to track situations that are triggering you to binge. Make a list of your thoughts feelings and behavior in these situations and when you have clearly identified your own high risk situations then you can plan to either avoid them completely or put strategies in place to stop you acting on the urges that develop. Some examples of risky situations could be: Spending time with a friend who is critical of you or makes negative comments on your figure. Spending time with family if this brings up overwhelming negative feelings for you. “Chinese take aways” A lot of people with Bulimia find these are a trigger for a binge or laxative use. Try and avoid as much as possible. After shopping for clothes be aware of your harsh critic and try not to purge, restrict, take diet pills or over exercise. As time goes by and you get stronger in your recovery you will find that these situations become more tolerable and you will not need to be as diligent.