WHAT IS AN URGE?

An urge is an uncontrollable “need” to binge. It’s a knowing that if you were to binge and purge briefly, yes, you’ll get a reprieve or a moment’s break from all the disheartening thoughts and feelings. It’s your way, at that moment, of freeing yourself from all your unbearable feelings.

I know I keep mentioning this, but it’s a crucial point to make... when addressing your urges, if you’re following your structured eating program (which we’ll discuss in Step 4). Eating healthily, giving your body the right amount of the correct healthy nutrients that will provide you with so much more control of your triggers and urges.

As you know, the more you try to push the leprechaun away, the louder and bigger his voice will become. Then the difficulty, if you don’t ignore it, will blow up like a giant balloon stretched to its limit and explode into an uncontrollable bingeing frenzy, and the whole habitual pattern begins again. So, what if you decided to turn toward the problematic thoughts and feelings rather than trying to fight them?

YOU ARE DOING SO WELL, SO KEEP GOING… IT’S TIME TO DELVE DEEPER INTO YOUR URGES

Let's identify the specific pattern of your urges by tuning in and becoming aware of all the thoughts and feelings connected to your URGES. Fill these questions out over the next week; think about your urges and how they drive you to binge.

 As you work through answering these questions, you’re not trying to resolve anything. You’re only trying to understand your urges clearer.

Complete the DELVE INTO YOUR URGES table in Step 3, in your workbook. Otherwise, grab your notebook and answer these questions:

ASK YOURSELF:                                                                 LIST YOUR ANSWERS:

WHAT DO YOUR URGES

FEEL LIKE TO YOU?

WHAT PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS

 DO YOUR URGES CREATE?

WHEN DO YOUR URGES OCCUR?

HOW OFTEN?

DO THE URGES HAVE A VOICE

THAT ENCOURAGES YOU TO BINGE?

WHAT DOES THAT VOICE SAY TO YOU?

DOES THE VOICE OF THE URGE

USE PRECISE REASONS TO GET

YOU TO BINGE?

LIST AS MANY AS YOU CAN?

WHAT DOES THE VOICE OF

THE URGE PROMISE YOU?

WHAT PAYOFF OR REWARDS DOES IT PROMISE

IF YOU FOLLOW THROUGH AND BINGE?

WRITE DOWN ANYTHING ELSE YOU

NOTICE ABOUT YOUR URGES:

Sometimes, your urges to binge can be very faint, as if in the far distance. So, completing the questions to learn a lot about your urges and your own leprechaun’s whispering. Excellent!

Some of my clients feel they go on a binge without much thought. It just happens. But this is never the case, and there’s always a pattern. Your triggers cause your thoughts and feelings, which then surge into your urges with a panic and binge and purge.

Don’t worry about accepting or dismissing the urges for the moment; just set your sights on being able to identify an urge when it comes up and sitting in the space between your urges and your binge. Each time this happens, stretching the time out, gradually lengthening your space. Continue this for a week and then come back and move onto the next lecture to find out how you can further address your urges.