Dear JB:

I think that you should not try to go back to the way you used to be: dedicated to your job, volunteered a lot, quite social, etc. It is time to examine your life, what happened and come to a new place in your mind that will be unlike what you used to be and unlike what you are right now. Changes have to be made to your core beliefs about who you are and what life should be for you.

You trusted untrustworthy people in the past? You no longer do, being withdrawn, believing the worst in people./ The new way would be a result of learning from your recent experiences and being very selective about who you trust,trust those who are worthy of it and not those who are not. And learning can be taking your time evaluating a person before deciding if they are worthy of trust and what kind of trust.

I am very familiar with binge eating and my improvement on this issue has been very slow but I am making much progress, now four years after my overeating of before took the bingeing route. Bingeing and other symptoms of distress, whatever their label is, mean that you are distressed and things are not okay in your life. CHANGES have to be made.Changes from attitudes to behaviors to probably, your job.

Can you afford a good psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Can you read about CBT from a clear, simple to understand source.. there is info on this very website on it. Write again, I hope.

anita