In-person therapy in Midtown Manhattan. Virtual therapy across New York and New Jersey.
Binge Eating & Binge Drinking Therapy in Midtown Manhattan
Binge Eating & Binge Drinking Therapy • Midtown Manhattan • New York & New Jersey
SOUND LIKE YOU?
You feel caught in a cycle of turning to food and alcohol for comfort, only to feel worse afterward.
A night out may begin with the intention to “just have a little,” but drinking lowers your guard and eating starts to feel out of control. You might restrict food beforehand, then find yourself intensely hungry and eating past the point of comfort later. At other times, shame after bingeing leads you to drink, while the aftermath of drinking sends you back to food for comfort.
Food and alcohol offer temporary comfort—but afterward, you’re left with guilt, shame, and another promise to do better.
Therapy can help you slow this pattern down, understand what is driving it, and find new ways to cope that do not leave you feeling worse afterward.
Does This Sound Familiar?
You're constantly thinking about food
You feel out of control around eating
You use food to cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness, or difficult emotions
You find yourself stuck in a binge/restrict cycle
You feel guilt or shame after eating
You hide parts of your eating from others
You feel disconnected from your body's cues
You're successful in most areas of your life, but food feels different
Signs You May Be Struggling With Binge Eating & Binge Drinking
The pattern may be easy to hide—especially when you appear successful, productive, and in control everywhere else.
You might:
Feel out of control around food
Think about food constantly
Eat to cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness, or difficult emotions
Feel intense guilt or shame after eating
Swing between restriction and bingeing
Hide food or eat in secret
Feel disconnected from your hunger and fullness cues
Struggle with all-or-nothing thinking around food and eating
You might:
Restrict food before drinking, then binge during or afterward
Lose touch with hunger and fullness cues while drinking
Use food and alcohol together to cope with difficult emotions
Wake up feeling physically uncomfortable, guilty, or ashamed
Compensate the next day by restricting, dieting, or overexercising
Notice that restricting food increases your urge to drink
You might also:
Binge eat more when you try to drink less
Be “good” all week, then binge eat and drink on weekends
Plan your eating around alcohol—or your drinking around food
Replay what happened and think about how to make up for it
Hide the full pattern because you fear being judged or misunderstood
Feel the cycle affecting your mood, relationships, work, or daily life
You may feel you need more self-control. It usually isn’t as simple as that—especially when food and alcohol have become ways of coping when life feels difficult.
Why Do Binge Eating and Binge Drinking Happen Together?
Binge eating and binge drinking can become linked because both offer fast, temporary relief from difficult emotions. Together, they may help you disconnect from stress, quiet anxious thoughts, escape loneliness, or give yourself permission to stop holding everything together.
Alcohol can also change awareness, judgment, and inhibition around food. At the same time, restricting food before or after drinking can increase hunger and make another binge more likely. The guilt that follows may fuel new rules and promises, setting up the next round of restriction, drinking, and eating.
The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: distress or restriction leads to drinking and eating; temporary relief gives way to shame; shame leads to compensation or renewed control; and the pressure builds again.
Sometimes the balance shifts without the underlying cycle changing.
You may get your drinking under control and find yourself increasingly dependent on food for relief. Or you may focus on stopping binge eating while alcohol becomes the easier way to cope. Therapy looks at how the behaviors work together so one does not simply replace the other.
The pattern serves a purpose—even when it is hurting you. Understanding that purpose is where change can begin.
How Therapy Can Help With the Combined Cycle
How Therapy Can Help With the Cycle
In therapy, we’ll look at how food and alcohol have become connected in your life—what tends to set the cycle in motion, what keeps it going, and what you may be trying to cope with in those moments. We’ll also work on practical ways to manage difficult emotions and respond differently when familiar triggers come up.
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Together, we will look at what happens before, during, and after episodes involving food and alcohol, including:
How restriction, drinking, binge eating, and compensation influence one another
The emotions, situations, body sensations, and social settings that activate the cycle
What combining food and alcohol helps you numb, avoid, soothe, permit, or express
How perfectionism, shame, and all-or-nothing thinking keep the pattern going
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Sessions may help you:
Recognize the combined cycle earlier, before it feels inevitable
Regulate difficult emotions without needing food and alcohol to work together as an escape
Eat more consistently so restriction does not intensify urges around food or drinking
Navigate weekends, social plans, work stress, and other high-risk situations with greater choice
Respond to setbacks with curiosity instead of punishment or another round of rigid rules
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The goal is not to remove one behavior while leaving you more dependent on the other. We will work toward a more balanced relationship with yourself, food, and alcohol by addressing the needs beneath the entire pattern.
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Because every person’s experience is different, I tailor therapy to your needs, goals, and readiness for change. I draw from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), psychodynamic therapy, and Intuitive Eating principles.
My style is warm, collaborative, honest, and nonjudgmental. I will validate why the cycle developed while helping you challenge the patterns that are keeping you stuck.
Recovery Is Possible
Many people begin therapy still questioning how serious the pattern is or what they want to change. We’ll start by understanding how food and alcohol have become ways of coping, then identify realistic goals and skills that help you feel steadier around both. You don’t need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
Benefits of Binge Eating & Binge Drinking Therapy
Clients may begin to notice:
Fewer episodes in which binge eating and binge drinking occur together or trigger one another
A clearer understanding of how food, alcohol, emotions, and restriction interact
More ability to pause and make choices before the cycle takes over
Less guilt, secrecy, and self-criticism after eating or drinking
Healthier ways to cope without one behavior replacing the other
More consistent eating and less need to compensate after drinking
Greater presence and confidence in relationships, work, social plans, and daily life
FAQs
Have questions? We’ve got answers…
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It means the behaviors are connected within the same pattern rather than occurring as unrelated concerns. Alcohol may lower inhibition around food, food restriction may increase the intensity of eating after drinking, or both may be used together to cope with the same emotions. Therapy examines how the full cycle operates for you.
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No. You do not need either diagnosis—or any diagnosis—to seek support. This specialty may fit if binge eating and binge drinking happen together, trigger one another, alternate as coping strategies, or take up enough space that you want your relationship with food and alcohol to change.
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Yes. In fact, addressing the connection can be important when focusing on only one behavior causes the other to intensify. We will explore their shared triggers and functions while developing skills that support change across the entire cycle.
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No single goal fits everyone. We will discuss what is happening, what you want to change, and what is clinically appropriate for you.
I provide Sober Curious Therapy for adults in Midtown Manhattan, NY & NJ →
If stopping alcohol suddenly could create medical risk, or if you need detoxification or more intensive support, I will help you connect with an appropriate medical or treatment resource.
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No. Dieting and restriction can intensify the combined cycle. Our work focuses on reducing shame, understanding triggers, supporting more consistent and flexible eating, and helping you build a steadier relationship with food, alcohol, and your body.
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I use an integrative approach tailored to each client. Our work may draw from CBT, DBT, psychodynamic therapy, and Intuitive Eating principles to address emotional regulation, patterns of thought and behavior, underlying experiences, and your relationship with food.
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I offer in-person therapy in Midtown Manhattan for adults in New York City, including those living or working near Chelsea, Flatiron, Murray Hill, the Upper East Side, and surrounding neighborhoods. Virtual therapy is available to clients throughout New York and New Jersey.
Work with Kendall
You may look high-functioning on the outside while privately organizing weekends, meals, social plans, and recovery time around binge eating and drinking. You may have tried to change one part of the pattern, only to watch the other part become stronger.
You do not have to keep treating this as two unrelated problems—or wait until the consequences become more severe. Therapy can help you understand the connection, respond differently to the triggers underneath it, and build a more balanced relationship with food and alcohol.
Are you ready to step out of the combined binge-eating-and-binge-drinking cycle?
I provide binge eating and binge drinking therapy in Midtown Manhattan, NYC, with virtual therapy available throughout New York and New Jersey.