Isn’t it ironic that binging out of control has anything to do with having to be perfect? The bridge between perfectionism and imbalanced eating is constructed from unrealistic expectations of yourself and others, harsh self-criticism, and magnification of scrutiny by other people.

If you use perfectionism as the major way you cope with everyday life, it’s easy to let yourself down. Binge eating becomes just the pick-me-up you need. It’s an escape from the pain of not achieving high enough standards.

If you are a perfectionist, then the standards you set for yourself are much too high and too rigid, and you won’t have the flexibility you need each day to go with the flow. Your self-esteem will be wounded and you’ll probably think of yourself as “less than”. If this happens, you might seek reassurance outside yourself. Being a perfectionist, you will often look for a perfect grade from other people. What you expect from others is also too high, too unrealistic, and too much a result of your own impossible perfectionism. So you’ll not get what you’re looking for. Your self-esteem will sink even lower.

If you and others aren’t verifying that you are perfect, what do you do? You try to escape this painful dilemma. The escape for some perfectionists is binge eating, a form of anti-perfectionism, that further lowers self-esteem. This is why binge eating is most always done in secret. And this is why binge eaters feel so ashamed. They’ve not only binged; they’ve let themselves down; and they’re back facing just how really imperfect they are.