What if we are not "broken"?

[LadyM]

I've been reading a lot of threads and posts around here about struggles with binge eating, other eating disorders, sugar addiction, and other variations on what we deem our weaknesses and failures. Today I read a quote from Pema Chodron that gave me pause, and I thought it might be useful to share:

"At some point we need to stop identifying with our weaknesses and shift our allegiance to our basic goodness. It's highly beneficial to understand that our limitations are not absolute and monolithic, but relative and removable."

[GlennR]

Yeah, so many of these "problems" are not defects or personal failings. They are precisely the way we are built because these traits were what enabled us to survive throughout so much of our evolutionary history. (E.g., we crave sugar because it used to be so scarce.) Understanding that and not beating yourself up, I think, is an important first step in making the shift in perspective you mention above.

[LisaLulu]

I think that binge eating involves a lot of guilt and perfectionism. I am both cursed and blessed that I've never been able to binge eat because I suffer from a phobia of vomiting and am very careful to monitor my level of fullness to avoid being sick or even overly nauseous. When I eat something 'bad' for me I don't eat it to the point where I'm sick or uncomfortable, but my issue lies in eating those foods too often (a bit every day instead of once in a while). We're hard wired to love that stuff so it's understandable that we want it, the problem is that it's just too readily available in modern times and we have to regulate ourselves, which is hard.