One person, speaking of binge eating, recalled: “The urge felt like it took over everything. I couldn’t think about anything else until I binged.” Someone else describing an urge said their head felt like it was going to explode. Someone else, explaining their food addiction: “… It’s like the strongest urge comes over my body it’s like a, a burning, almost irritable like I’m going to burst like I’m going to explode like I just need it.” Below are some comments pulled from a Reddit thread (2022), in the Binge Eating Disorder subreddit, where people talk about their experiences of what an urge to binge feels like for them.

How would you describe the urge to binge? What does the sensation feel like for you?

• ihatealmonds: “It feels like if I got a mosquito bite and all day it is just itching, and itching, and itching. I try so hard to resist scratching it but I also know I eventually will. I finally scratch it and the relief is great. Then, I go too far and scratch it until it bleeds and I’m in pain. I regret it 100% and swear I will never do it again but then next time I get a mosquito bite the cycle repeats all over again.”
• ooooo_ooooo: “I feel like a drug addict looking for my next fix. I start pacing around, growing more and more agitated, start thinking about how much money I’m willing to throw away on a pile of junk food, where I could find some extra cash, how much time I have to be home alone so I don’t get “caught” with my binge food. Sometimes the agitation gets so bad I’m laying in bed and tensing up and whimpering to myself lol” (Pawnshopbluess replies to this: “Yes this. And every time is my “last time” and I fully believe until the urge strikes again.”)
• Wistaire: “A tension in my body, a pressure that keeps building…”
• [deleted]: “It feels like someone is using you as a puppet and you have no control over your actions.”
• Bigbutchbudgie: “Personally, I don’t think or feel much of anything… I completely dissociate and just go through the motions.”
• Zenfulfairy: “It’s like a hot, itchy feeling that feels like it starts literally in my toes and goes up all the way until it’s in my head and has totally taken over all my thoughts. It’s a lot of rationalizations and reasoning with myself non-binge self. ‘It’s not that long a drive to the grocery store/current takeout obsession’ ‘you haven’t spent THAT much money on food this week’ etc etc. it’s exhausting.”
• Spoilednutmilk: “It’s like a pull like someone else is controlling me and i’m watching myself running towards a cliff not being able to stop myself”
• Kittyoats: “For me I get a hot feeling inside, almost like a fever, and I have this weird itchy feeling. I also get very irritated and angry and I pace back and forth until I binge.”
• Background_Local_785: “It feels like my soul itches from inside.”

As reflected in these commentaries, urges are often experienced as intensely distressing somatic sensations. Therefore, somatic interventions may be well suited to meet these challenges.