How The Abstinence Violation Effect Fuels Binge Eating (And How to Stop)

Do you often find yourself asking “Why can’t I stop binge eating?”. You might be frustrated at feeling stuck in the same cycle of promising yourself you’ll never binge again only for it to keep happening.

There are many psychological and physiological factors which play a part in compulsive eating and binge eating, but one in particular is key to understanding how to break the cycle and develop effective treatment strategies: the abstinence violation effect (AVE).

What is the Abstinence Violation Effect?

The abstinence violation effect is a concept developed in the 1980’s as an explanation for why those with drug and alcohol addictions would relapse. Since then, research has shown that this concept also applies to individuals with eating disorders such as binge eating disorder (BED).

Also known as the “f**k it” effect or the “I might as well” mentality, the abstinence violation effect is what happens psychologically when someone believes they have lapsed or violated one of their food rules. Instead of looking at this as a small and temporary setback, you might find yourself overwhelmed by negative emotions that turn a minor lapse into a full-blown binge, triggering even more of the behaviours you’re trying to avoid.

This is just one of the reasons why having strict food rules or labelling foods as “good” or “bad” is unhelpful; once you break one of your self-imposed rules about avoiding “bad” foods, you can trigger emotions such as guilt, shame, and anxiety, with thoughts such as “I’ve blown it now so I might as well eat the whole packet”. 

The way you think about a lapse or a broken food rule can lead directly to a worsening of exactly the behaviour you are trying to avoid.

The Main Aspects of AVE

There are three main aspects to the abstinence violation effect:

1.        Cognitions (Thoughts)

This involves cognitive distortions, which are inaccurate, irrational, or exaggerated ways of thinking. Examples include all-or-nothing thinking and catastrophising.

2.        Emotional Responses

The belief that you have failed brings about feelings such as guilt, shame, low self-worth, hopelessness, or despair. Binge eating, overeating, or compulsive eating then follows as a way to cope with the unpleasant emotional experience.

3.        Loss of Control

The perception of failure can lead you to abandoning restraint entirely. The single biscuit becomes the packet of biscuits, the chocolate bar becomes three chocolate bars, crisps, and a bowl of cereal, and so on.

An Example of the AVE in Binge Eating

Imagine you’re trying to avoid any “junk” food such as chocolate, crisps, sweets, biscuits, and cake. You go to a party and you’re offered a cupcake which you reluctantly eat and find yourself thinking:

"I’ve screwed up my diet now so I might as well eat everything I want and start again tomorrow.”

You then decide to stop off at the shops on the way home because “what the hell?”, and you proceed to buy a load of chocolate and biscuits, which you eat as soon as you get through the door.

This is the AVE in action: a single deviation from your rules isn’t the cause of the binge, but the thoughts, feelings, and difficult inner experiences that follow the lapse escalate the problem. The cupcake wasn’t the problem; it was the belief that you had failed coupled with the guilt and shame that followed, which snowballed from a single lapse into a full binge. Planning to “do better tomorrow” only perpetuates the binge-restrict cycle.

Dopamine – an Additional Complication

Things get even trickier due to dopamine and the part it plays in binge eating psychology. Often referred to as the “pleasure hormone”, dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in motivation and anticipation of reward.The relief or excitement you feel when you start planning how you’ll “make up” for the binge light’s up your brain’s reward system, creating a mental higher and reinforcing the binge behaviour. Over time, your brain learns to associate bingeing with the rewarding feeling of starting over. This contributes to the cycle as your brain is motivated to experience that same hit associated with “I’ll start again tomorrow”, because of the likelihood of food reward.

How Does the AVE Maintain the Binge Cycle?

There are three main ways this happens:

1.        Dietary Restraint

Restricting food – whether by deliberately skipping meals, avoiding “bad” foods, fasting, overexercising, or cutting calories - is unsustainable (hence why many diets fail). Sooner or later, you’re likely to break one of your rules and intense cravings can trigger either a small lapse or full binge.

2.        Emotional Eating and Self-Criticism

The negative self-talk and emotional reactions to a perceived violation add fuel to the fire of the AVE. The feelings of guilt, shame, and self-hatred trigger binge eating as a way to cope with the intensity of those emotions. Research has shown that self-criticism following a perceived slip-up can strongly predict binge eating.

3.        Learned Helplessness

As this cycle repeats over time, you might find yourself believing that things will never change, and this can lead to you stopping making any efforts to do so. This is known in behavioural psychology as learned helplessness. What’s important here is to note that you aren’t actually helpless - even if you feel stuck or have lost hope, you have the ability to change.

How Do You Overcome the AVE?

Here’s the good news: once you’re able to recognise the AVE for what it is, you gain a strategic advantage for interrupting the cycle.

There are a number of different therapies and approaches that provide strategies for dealing with AVE as part of treatment for binge eating. These include CBT, DBT, ACT, IPT, and Integrative Psychotherapy. Whilst challenging dietary rules and the underlying emotional components that drive them is an important part of recovery, there are three things you can put into practice immediately:

1.    Treat lapses and binges as learning events. There’s a reason it happened and there are things you can do to prevent future lapses or binges that don’t involve restriction. Reframe thoughts such as “I’ve blown it” with “There’s something I can learn from this. I might not know the answer right now, but people can and do overcome binge eating so there’s no reason I can’t do the same.”

2.    Avoid thinking about compensatory behaviours. Planning how you’re going to “make up” for the lapse and “do better tomorrow” are a form of mental restriction which just fuel the AVE further.

3.    Calm your body and mind. Find strategies that work for you. Whether this is watching your favourite show on Netflix, a hot bath, meditation, or gaming, the more relaxed you can make yourself during and after a lapse, the weaker the grip of the AVE.

Full recovery is possible. If you’d like help to stop binge eating, get in touch for a free consultation.