A convention (con) is coming to town and you want to go with your friends, but how do you survive a convention with binge eating disorder? Con-going is a great time and a wonderful social activity. But there are also a lot of ways for your binge eating disorder to be triggered while you're there. Here are some quick and easy tips to not only survive the con without binging or overeating, but to have an awesome time with your loved ones as well as surviving a convention with binge eating disorder.

You can find binge eating disorder symptoms in your closet, too. Binge eating disorder (BED) can impact your weight, and by extension, the size and shape of your body. When your body changes shape you need new clothes. Whether losing or gaining weight, your closet might end up a mismatch of clothing. So, when you have BED, you might have a troubled relationship with your closet because your binge eating disorder symptoms live there, too.

Pick up any magazine, surf to any pop culture website or look at any advertisement and it's inevitable that you will see articles and photos and lists about how to have an awesome beach body. There will be pictures of celebrities on the beach. Some photos will be laden with praise for how hot they look in their suits. Others will have body parts circled to point out imperfections (Binge Eating Disorder and Body Shaming). In a culture where no body is perfect enough and every body is up for debate, it leaves one wondering how you can have this mythical, awesome beach body.

Be willing to fight for your body when it comes under attack from negative comments, whether you have binge eating disorder or not. No one lives in a vacuum where hearing a negative comment about their body is such a rare and strange occurrence that offense can barely register because of the bizarre nature of the statement. I've heard enough negative feedback about my body to last me a lifetime. And now, if you want to say something negative about my body, any part of my body, prepare for me to say something back. Negative comments with binge eating disorder should be fought.

If you have binge eating disorder then you know compulsive hunger. This is not just hunger. It's binge eating disorder's hunger. This need to eat is not average, normal, or everyday. It's an insistent, controlling, demanding order to eat food and not stop. Compulsive hunger is part of binge eating disorder.

It's easy to overlook hydration when you have binge eating disorder. It's easy to overlook it when you don't have binge eating disorder. However, hydration should be an important thing for everyone, especially when you have binge eating disorder as dehydration can lead to overeating.

Phentermine is a binge eating disorder medication as it's an appetite suppressant. It works by stimulating the part of the brain that regulates appetite. With someone that has binge eating disorder, this area of the brain could be going into overdrive and causing binges. The binge eating disorder medication, phentermine, has worked to help me control my binges and stop grazing all day.

Self-care can help defeat binge eating disorder triggers and cause you to act less negatively towards yourself. Self-care is important with anyone with binge eating disorder or other mental health problems and the benefits of slowing down, taking care of yourself, and allowing yourself time to breathe can't be overstated. What have you done to take care of yourself and your binge eating disorder today?

When you have binge eating disorder, your weight can sometimes drastically fluctuate and sometimes the way people treat you as a person changes as your weight does. There's a misconception in popular culture that people lose weight in order to please other people and live up to societal ideals of beauty and that when they do, they become deserving of respect and fair treatment and are then granted a voice and a space to exist within this society. I call this concept "the good fat girl."

My name is Star LaBranche and I'm so excited to be writing for the new blog, Binge Eating Recovery. I've struggled with my weight and body image my entire life. Although my eating problems went unnoticed for years, I was finally diagnosed with overeating and food addiction (now known as binge eating disorder) a few years ago. Since then, it's been a journey of discovery to find a way to eat, be healthy and feel comfortable in my own skin. It hasn't been easy and there are always setbacks, but I'm on the right path.