Brain over Binge Kathryn Hansen Book Cover

Brain over Binge: A Direct Approach to Recovery

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Brain over Binge by Kathryn Hansen is a book that gives sufferers of binge eating disorder and bulimia a unique way to combat their illness. Kathryn describes her personal battle with bulimia, and how she overcame it in the end. The book offers a very simple and permanent solution.

The name “Brain over Binge” is a play on the phrase “mind over matter.” This review will dive deep into the book and offer all the information required to decide if it’s the right choice for you.

Mind over Matter: A New Recovery Method

Brain over Binge starts off by explaining that the book may not be for everyone. Some people find success with traditional therapies. The methods in the book can be used alongside them for a more holistic approach or used alone. Although, traditional therapy should be sought if one is hurting themselves and requires more immediate attention.

The book uses Kathryn’s experiences in therapy to explain that binge urges may have nothing to do with underlying mental issues. Rather, they can simply be a habit one has developed, created by restriction. Therapy didn’t help or make sense to her, so when she tried to “fix” everything wrong with her life, it didn’t change her desire to binge. Her urges still came whether she was happy or sad, lonely or surrounded by friends.

She refers to this as a “therapy mindset,” or the belief that she had a disease and needed to binge to cope with it. That the binging was out of her control. This made recovery complicated and time-consuming, as she was forever searching to find what triggered the binging.

“A look of interest, or perhaps doubt, came across his face. "Well," he said, "I'm sure your bulimia was fulfilling some need.” – Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge Click To Tweet

Where Kathryn’s Story Begins

Kathryn’s binging story begins when she was a teen. She had an operation that required her to eat restrictively while in recovery. When she saw that she had lost weight during this time, she became obsessed with continuing the food restriction. This obsession leads her into a binge, purge, and restrict cycle which lasted years.

In the book, you’ll read about her bulimia, the problems it caused, and the sacrifices she made because of it. Although she had bulimia, she never once purged. In fact, she overcompensated with extreme exercise, which caused severe stress on her body.

She describes her experience with medication, which temporarily reduced the urges but had many side effects. This opened her eyes because all her problems were still there. The medication only removed the urge to binge. This proved to her that the binges were not caused by troubles in her life. When the medication lost its effect, she refused to raise the dosage.

After that, she figured out how to ignore the binge urges, and with time, the urges subsided. Understanding how the brain creates habits, she knew that was all it took to stop binge eating. She returned to eating without obsessing over food and has been that way for over a decade. In short, using mind over matter, she cured her own bulimia.

Brain over Binge: A Journey to Stop Binge Eating

Brain over Binge gives a deep explanation into habit-forming and addiction. Kathryn explains the higher and lower brain. The higher brain is our thinking, logical brain, which controls our actions. The lower brain is our animal brain which thinks that binging is vital for survival. Once she realized that there was an inferior and illogical part of her brain fighting against her, she found it easy to deny binge urges.

Although our brains are complex, they can be understood. Kathryn knew that in the end, it was entirely her decision to binge. It’s possible to ignore a binge craving and simply let it exist without fighting. Listening to the cravings without reacting made her feel in charge and silly for letting them push her around. Learning to hold herself responsible for her actions did much more than blaming them on mental issues or life events.

The book explains why you could be approaching your struggle the wrong way, making the problem worse. Kathryn encourages the reader to stop thinking there’s something wrong with them. You are not weak or diseased. Rather, you have the power to change your life.

What was Helpful in Brain Over Binge

One thing that I found helpful in the book was it didn’t try to overwhelm the reader or make their issues seem complex. Often, solving mental problems is made out to be a huge undertaking. The book doesn’t make recovery seem overcomplicated, but it doesn’t invalidate binge eating disorder, either.

Unlike most self-help books, Brain over Binge focuses on fixing the actual act of binging, not underlying problems. This approach is simple and doesn’t require any special tools or skills. In summary, binging is the problem. So, to fix the problem, you stop binge eating. That’s it. Learning to manage urges is the key to recovery from bulimia and BED. Not restricting desired food entirely. Rather, removing the binge eating problem from your life without wasting energy fixing everything else.

Lastly, you’ll find the imagery used very helpful. Many examples are given to provide the reader with a full understanding of what’s happening in the brain. One example is the lower brain being a child throwing a tantrum to binge, then repeating the tantrum because it’s effective.

Child Throwing Tantrum over Candy. Brain over Binge Review Photo

What Was Brain over Binge Lacking?

Although I found the book mainly helpful, there were a few things that could have been improved. First of all, the book spends a lot of time repeating the same thing. You learn the main points in the first few chapters. Then, it feels like the point’s being driven into your skull. After reading to a certain part, you wonder if you’re wasting time reading any further.

Also, some binge eaters won’t believe they can simply “observe” their binge urges without acting on them. Kathryn makes it seem like it’s an easy thing to do. Also, Kathryn states she never wanted to binge again, which is unlikely for lifelong binge eaters. Regardless of this, the information given is still incredibly helpful.

Who Can Benefit from Reading Brain over Binge?

  • People who need tough love to improve.
  • Someone looking for a new way to recover that doesn’t require medication or has tried everything else.
  • Someone who isn’t harming themselves in any way. In this case, they require medical attention.
  • Anyone wanting to learn to control their mind and habits.
  • People with other addictions and poor habits can also benefit.
  • Also, this book may appeal to anyone wishing to look at their mental illness in a logical and scientific way.

Would I Recommend Brain over Binge?

While I didn’t grasp the meaning of Brain over Binge when I first read it, I’ve now grown an appreciation for it. Mindful eating has been effective for me, as well as giving up food restrictions. If I didn’t stop my binge and restrict cycle, I would still be obese, hating my body, and feeling hopeless.

Knowing this, I believe it will be helpful to others as well. While it may not be the answer for everybody suffering from binge eating disorder, it will be eye-opening to read. I wholly recommend it to everyone looking to understand their habits and addictions.

Resources:

If you haven’t read Brain over Binge yet, I completely recommend it! Kathryn has a Brain over Binge Recovery Guide, which can be used in conjunction with the original book. She also has a website dedicated to the book, if you’d like more information.

Have you read Brain over Binge? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

That’s it for now everyone. If you’ve found some value in this post, please share it to inspire others too! Thanks!

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18 thoughts on “Brain over Binge: A Direct Approach to Recovery”

  1. Actually, I have found literature very enhancing even when it is directed at difficulties with which I do not struggle. As noted in your description of who might benefit, the struggles with eating disorders overlaps with some of the mental processes for drug abuse or any obsessive/compulsive behavior.
    Keep up the excellent blog! ❤️&🙏

  2. So sad to read about a young woman who got stuck in a binge/purge cycle. This book could be very helpful to those people stuck in that horrible cycle.

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