Online course
Understanding and Overcoming Binge Eating
Binge eating is not greed and it is not a failure of willpower. It is a cycle — restriction, craving, trigger, binge, shame, tighter restriction — and cycles can be interrupted. This course teaches you how, using the approach recommended first for binge eating: cognitive behavioural guided self-help, with compassion-focused work running through it.
Is this you?
- You eat in a way that feels out of control, then promise tomorrow will be different.
- You have tried every diet, and each one eventually made things worse.
- You eat normally around other people and very differently on your own.
- The shame afterwards is heavier than the eating itself.
If you recognised yourself there, nothing has gone wrong with your character. You are in a cycle that psychology understands well — and that responds to the right kind of work.
Read: is this course right for me?What's included
- 8 modules, 40 lessons, worked at about an hour a week
- Short videos with a full written companion for every lesson
- Guided audio practices: grounding, urge surfing, compassionate self
- Downloadable worksheets, including your Staying Well Plan
- Lifetime access — and anything you write stays on your own device
Prefer to look first? Read Welcome, and how this course works and What binge eating actually is (and isn't) free.
The curriculum
Eight modules, in order
Module 1
Understanding What's Really Happening
Replace shame with a mechanism.
- 1.1Welcome, and how this course works
- 1.2What binge eating actually is (and isn't)
- 1.3The Binge Cycle
- 1.4Why willpower isn't the answer
- 1.5Grounding for the Moment Afteraudio
Module 2
Seeing Your Pattern Clearly
Self-monitoring as research, not policing.
- 2.1Why we record
- 2.2How to use the Food & Feelings Record
- 2.3Spotting your triggers: the four channels
- 2.4Your first week: what to expect
Module 3
Regular Eating: The Single Most Powerful Change
Put the behavioural cornerstone in place.
- 3.1The counterintuitive truth
- 3.2Building your pattern
- 3.3“If I let myself eat, I won't stop”
- 3.4When the pattern slips
- 3.5Before-Meal Settlingaudio
Module 4
Riding Out the Urge
Skills for the space between trigger and binge.
- 4.1What an urge actually is
- 4.2Urge surfing
- 4.3Delay, distract, decide
- 4.4Alternatives that actually work
- 4.5Urge Surfing (practice page)audio
Module 5
The Feelings Underneath
Work with binges as mood management.
- 5.1Binge eating as emotion regulation
- 5.2Naming what you feel
- 5.3Tolerating discomfort without fixing it
- 5.4Building real alternatives: soothe, express, connect
- 5.5Audio: Soothing Rhythm Breathingaudio
Module 6
The Inner Critic and the Compassionate Voice
Loosen shame's grip on the cycle.
- 6.1Meet your inner critic
- 6.2Why shame drives bingeing
- 6.3Building the compassionate self
- 6.4Talking to yourself after a binge: the repair script
- 6.5Audio: Compassionate Self Practiceaudio
Module 7
Food Rules, Body Image and the Thoughts That Trap You
Test the rules and thinking styles that keep the cycle running.
- 7.1Your food rules: finding them, testing them
- 7.2All-or-nothing thinking and the “what the hell” effect
- 7.3Body image: checking, avoidance and comparison
- 7.4Living in your body now
- 7.5Weight, health and this course
Module 8
Staying Well: Your Relapse Prevention Plan
Consolidate everything into a durable written plan.
- 8.1Lapse vs relapse
- 8.2Your early warning signs
- 8.3Writing your Staying Well Plan
- 8.4When to seek more help
- 8.5Closing: where you started, what you've built
- 8.6Evening Wind-Downaudio
Start where you are
You do not need to change anything before you begin. Module 1 simply explains what is happening and why the cycle holds.
This course is an educational programme and does not replace medical or psychological care. If you are struggling, support is available: your GP · Beat, the UK's eating disorder charity — 0808 801 0677 · Samaritans — 116 123.