Apr 02 2025 22 mins 7
Trauma trigger warning: In this vlog, I talk about topics that may be triggering if you come from a background of trauma.
A food binge is when you eat more food, in a shorter period of time, than someone would typically eat, all while feeling out of control.
A mental binge is similar, but in the mind. It’s when we let our thinking run away with us, like a runaway train. We catastrophize and freak out. We get stuck in our heads, obsessing over something. I’m seeing it happen a lot to those I love, and in our Bright Line Community—and even myself.
There’s an example I want to share with you, about a dear friend of mine. She visited recently and stayed in our home. She has experienced abuse since she was an infant. Mental, emotional, sexual, and physical abuse.
My family and I have begged her to move near us. Her tiny hometown is not safe for her. She finally committed to moving. Then the other day she encountered one of her abusers, and it didn’t go well. She spun out, and fell into a mental binge. She started believing she didn’t deserve to leave and couldn’t make enough money for the move—she just went around and around in her head.
So how do you get out of a mental binge? The first step is to identify it. If you’ve been here a while, you know about the Authentic Self. Think about the Eight Cs. You know you’re in your Authentic Self when you are:
- Calm
- Clear
- Compassionate
- Confident
- Connected
- Curious
- Courageous
- Creative
If you are not experiencing the Eight Cs, and you’re all up in your head thinking about something, you might be having a mental binge. It may take one of two forms: litigating or catastrophizing.
Litigating is when it’s fueled by self-righteous anger, where you’ve got your jury assembled and you’re making your case in your head. There are often kernels of truth embedded in the binge.
My friend who needs to move, for example, noted that apartment owners sometimes want you to have an income of three times the monthly rent. She’s a freelance copywriter and her self-worth is so low she only charges $15 an hour. She’s worried about finances, although she knows I’ll help her. So the kernel of truth is that her finances are challenging. But the litigator in her is seeing everything going wrong.
She needs productive action, which comes from the Authentic Self. Reactive action, from within a mental binge, doesn’t work. So even if the litigator is right, you need to be in a place of less urgency and more compassion.
A mental binge comes from a part of us that wants to be heard. This catastrophizing part wants to be able to explain to you what’s wrong. So your Authentic Self needs to tell it: I’ve got this. I hear you. Let’s take a break and then we can talk about it…
The antidote is to recognize you’re in a mental binge. And then, listen to the part of you that wants to be heard about what it’s scared of.
When I’m in a mental binge, I BFF. First I breathe. I feel my body, find my feet. I might do a see, hear, feel meditation to get me grounded.
I was at a session with Amanda Leith from Shift Recovery by Acorn recently, and someone in a group session had a mental binge. She thought everyone was against her. Amanda had her look around and make sure she was safe. Then she had her check verbally with everyone there, with Amanda’s help, to see what people were thinking of her. People were compassionate with her, and the whole situation de-escalated.
Once a situation has started to de-escalate, turn to the next right thing. Maybe you need to weigh and measure a meal. Maybe you need to go to the grocery store. Maybe you need to go back to work.
Then, if there’s something to be done about whatever you’re spinning out about, you can come to it from a place of calm.
Sometimes, you can’t avoid mental binges. But it pays to learn not to believe them, and not to take action while in that state.
FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/mf5eve
Avoiding the Mental Binge | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast
