I think it makes sense that 50% of people who have eating disorders also have a co-occurring substance use disorder. I used to fall asleep with the remains of my wine glass on my night stand. Now, it’s often a cute little bin of ICE CUBES gum, or the remains of my soupçon of TV watching, comfort food. Eat, drink, binge, guzzle – I always seem to take things to extremes…
I hate when that happens…
But, I’m not alone. So, when I am eating a bag of those unsalted pretzels stuffed with peanut butter from Trader Joe’s as I binge-watch Anne with an E on Netflix, I feel a connection.
I sat in on a great group session last week. They were talking about the connection between eating disorders and substance use disorders. One of the many interesting things the therapist, Gail Hall, said was, “The difference with eating disorders, is that you can’t just stop eating. You have to separate the eating from the behaviors.”
I never thought of that before… I wonder if it would be like trying to have just one glass of wine with dinner? That’s something I used to tell my husband or the police when they stopped me for “erratic” driving. “No, I haven’t been drinking. Just a glass of wine with dinner…” A big lie. Because, like those old Lays Potato Chip ads, I could never just have one…
