Hey everybody, happy Thursday!
I hope your week is going well,
and don't forget, tomorrow, I'll be on YouNow
at 3pm Pacific standard time.
I'm in California, for any of you who were curious
what Pacific standard time, where that is
and I believe if you're in the UK, you're like 8 or 9 hours ahead.
But for those of you who are in other parts of the world,
who know what the relation is to Pacific standard time,
let us know in the comments.
I know last time a lot of you had trouble figuring out when that exactly was,
and some of you missed it.
So I wanna make sure that you're all able to hop on and, um, share your comments on YouNow instead of on YouTube,
because I can filter through those much more quickly as they come up on the screen.
Okay? So that's all about that.
Today's video is going to build upon what we talked about on Monday.
If you haven't watched Monday's video, click over here.
It's about non-suicidal self-injury behaviour.
Um, and today's is going to talk more about the eating disorder component to self injury.
So, the question says,
"Hey Katy, I know that I used to binge as a way to hurt/punish myself.
Do you think the two are related?
Is binge-eating (or other eating disorders) classified as self-harm?
Because I honestly feel that the reasons I used to binge and the feelings that surrounded food could fall under the umbrella of self-harm.
I know that food is a necessity, but the way I used to go about it was toxic and definitely damaging.
I'm trying to work on this now, but I'm just curious if others feel the same way I did/do."
I thought this was a great topic, and I've actually heard from a lot of you,
I've gotten a lot of questions like this, so I figured this would be a good time to address them.
Now, the way that I think about self-harm and eating disorders is that if we're to draw a Venn diagram, right?
One of those circles that overlap, but here in the middle we have something in common.
Um, eating disorders and self-harm actually overlap a lot.
For many of you who have watched my channel for years, you know that I talk about how eating disorders and self-harm
are both coping skills. Right?
We're using them as a way to punish, numb out, feel release, whatever it is
and the reasons that we do it, to control, maybe.
It's a way to cope with something bigger or worse or more painful, right?
We're using this as kind of a way to just manage some other shit that's going on.
And so, I find with my clients who struggle with both,
they will literally go like this. Let's say this is self-injury,
it gets better, the urges are going down,
oh, oh, oh, the eating disorder's going rampant, it's crazy, it's out of control,
and then we get them and they just swing back and forth, because
we're, like, trading one coping skill for the other, because, in a lot of cases,
they serve the same purpose.
That purpose, in my mind, is usually, like, to numb out from whatever that other thing was that is really painful,
whether it be emotional abuse, physical abuse,
uh, trauma. It could be any number of things, right?
So... oh! Shh, computer. It's dinging already.
Um, so that's why I do agree and I do think that this person that asked this question is correct,
that eating disorder behaviours can be a form of self-harm.
And I would love to hear your feedback in the comments about what you think,
but the reason that I think that is because in a way, we're injuring our body,
and we're using it as a way to cope.
How we're doing that doesn't really matter, it doesn't matter if we're injuring our body from restricting our insulin,
I've heard from a lot of you who have diabetes that you will use your blood sugar as a way to harm yourself.
Um, it doesn't matter if we're cutting, burning, banging,
hitting, whatever, ourselves, or restricting food to the point where it's really painful for our body,
if we're doing these things with the mindset of hurting ourselves,
as a way to numb out and cope with something else, then, yeah.
I think it's definitely related.
Um, and I think that's something that a lot of clinicians don't understand,
and is actually one of the reasons why I started making my channel.
You'll notice a lot of my early videos, as awkward as they are, eek,
were about eating disorders and self-harm, because that's what I specialize in.
So, I would love to hear your feedback.
What do you think? Do you think that eating disorders can be used as a form of self-harm?
Do you think that they're used interchangeably in a lot of cases?
That's been my experience, that's what I've seen, but that doesn't mean it's true for all.
I know, everyone has their own unique experience, but I would love to, as always, hear your feedback.
And I will see you all on Friday. Do not forget, 3pm Pacific standard time, I'll be on YouNow.
Bring your questions! Bye!