Kathryn Hansen > Quotes

“An eating disorder can be very secluding and can make even the most important people in your life fade into the background.”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“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: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“The frontal lobe has connections to other parts of the brain and can inhibit those parts, giving humans the ability to stop and think and divert primitive responses.160 Humans don’t have to follow every impulse from their brains, and the prefrontal cortex is vitally important in this ability. The prefrontal cortex has the greatest role in inhibiting behavior and withholding automatic responses.161”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“I began to crave not only food, but the act of binge eating. Once I’d tasted what a binge felt like—how wonderful it felt to have the pressure of dieting lifted for a few brief moments, to give in to all my cravings and just stuff myself—it became even harder to resist. When trying to fight an urge to binge, I’d remind myself how guilty and fat I always felt afterward; but I remembered the pleasure much more. It was as though part of me knew the consequences”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“We create our own habits—good or bad—by repeating behaviors, and those habits—for better or worse—then govern our lives. When we create good habits, it only makes our lives easier, because we can then unconsciously and easily perform the behaviors that are consistent with our goals and identity. On the other hand, when we create bad habits, we can become ensnared by them—performing destructive behaviors automatically, even though we know better and despite our best efforts to change.”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“I wondered what my life would be like if I quit, and part of me felt great sadness when I thought of completely giving up my bulimia, because, after all, part of me did relish every bite.”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“I felt separate from my bulimia and capable of choosing a different path for the first time in many years. Now I wanted more for myself—I had dreams, goals, and ambitions, and I wanted nothing more than to be free from binge eating. I wanted to decide the course of my own life instead of blindly following my urges.”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“but each day, I do have the opportunity to live a real life, with all the joy and pain it brings.”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good

“The people who might have to analyze their binges a little more are those whose binges aren’t necessarily “episodic,” but more like excessive grazing that is spread throughout the day. If this is the case for you, the questions in this chapter will help you get a better sense of how you think and feel before, during, and after binges—and how the binges are different from your more normal eating habits.”
― Kathryn Hansen, The Brain over Binge Recovery Guide: A Simple and Personalized Plan for Ending Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder

“However, I found that if I stayed detached from any thought or feeling that encouraged binge eating—no matter how reasonable or logical it sounded at the time—no thought or feeling could make me act.”
― Kathryn Hansen, Brain over Binge: Why I Was Bulimic, Why Conventional Therapy Didn't Work, and How I Recovered for Good