Binge-Eating Disorder

Many people are affected by overeating compulsions and binge eating is a disorder I am very interested in exploring. We all overeat from time to time. Taking an extra helping at Thanksgiving dinner or having dessert when you’re already full. But for binge eaters, overeating is regular and uncontrollable. A binge eater uses food to cope with stress and other negative emotions, even though afterwards you feel even worse. You may feel like you’re stuck in a vicious cycle, binge eating disorder is treatable. With the right help and support, you can learn to control your eating and develop a healthy relationship with food.
Binge eating disorder is characterized by compulsive overeating in which people consume huge amounts of food while feeling out of control and powerless to stop. The symptoms of binge eating disorder usually begin in late adolescence or early adulthood, often after a major diet. A binge eating episode typically lasts around two hours, but some people binge on and off all day long. Binge eaters often eat even when they’re not hungry and continue eating long after they are full. They may also gorge themselves as fast as they can while barely registering what they’re eating or tasting. Binge eating disorder occurs in normal-weight, overweight and obese individuals. The essential feature of binge-eating is recurrent episodes binge eating must occur, on average, at least once per week for three months. An “episode of binge eating” is defined as eating, in a discrete period of time, an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time. Feeling extremely distressed or upset during or after binging. Unlike other eating disorders there are no regular attempts to “make up” for the binges through vomiting, fasting, or over- exercising.
Individuals with binge-eating disorder are typically ashamed of their eating problems and attempt to conceal their symptoms. Binge eating usually occurs in secrecy or as inconspicuously as possible. A “discrete period of time” refers to a limited period, usually less than two hours. A single episode of binge eating need not be restricted to one setting. For example, an individual may begin a binge in a restaurant and then continue to eat on returning home. Continual snacking on small amounts of food throughout the day would not be considered an eating binge. Binge eating appears to be characterized more by an abnormality in the amount of food consumed than by a craving for a specific nutrient. People with eating disorder struggle with feelings of guilt, disgust, and depression. They worry about what the compulsive eating will do to their bodies and beat themselves up for their lack of self-control. They desperately want to stop binge eating, but feel like they can’t.
Binge eating may be comforting for a brief moment, but when reality sets back in, along with regret and self-loathing. Binge eating often leads to weight gain and obesity, which only reinforces compulsive eating. The worse a binge eater feels about themselves and their appearance, the more they use food to cope. It becomes a vicious cycle a person eats to feel better, feeling even worse, and then turning back to food for relief. Binge eating leads to a wide variety of physical, emotional, and social problems. People with binge eating disorder report more health issues, stress, insomnia, and suicidal thoughts than people without an eating disorder. Depression, anxiety, and substance abuse are common side-affects as well. But the most prominent effect of binge eating disorder is weight gain. Studies show that overeating juices up the reward systems in our brain. So much, so in some people that it overpowers the brain’s ability to tell them to stop eating when they have had enough. All of us have experienced this effect when you have just finished a big dinner and could not possibly eat another bite. Yet when the chocolate cake appears, you can miraculously “find room” for one last morsel.
While there are many things you can do to help yourself stop binge eating, it’s important to seek professional support and treatment. Health professionals who offer treatment for binge eating disorder include psychiatrists, nutritionists, therapists, and eating disorder and obesity specialists. An effective treatment program for binge eating disorder should address more than just your symptoms and destructive eating habits. It should also address the root causes of the problem and the emotional triggers that lead to binge eating and your difficulty coping with stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, and other uncomfortable emotions. Binge eating disorder can be successfully treated in therapy. Therapy can teach you how to fight the compulsion to binge, exchange unhealthy habits for newer healthy ones, monitor your eating and moods, and develop effective stress-busting skills.
In conclusion to binge-eating these disorders have become a major health problem in Western society, and there is evidence of their emergence in most parts of the world. We live in a “binge-consuming” culture. Binge eating must be characterized by marked distress with features of eating more rapidly than normal, eating until feeling uncomfortably full, eating large amounts of food when not physically hungry, eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating, and feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterward. Because eating disorders are complex, serious and varied, there can be no one simple approach to treatment. The involvement of family members and open exploration of issues and problems that contribute to and maintain the eating disorder will help people with eating disorders to feel less guilty, less abnormal, and will enhance their self-worth and self-confidence. Eating disorders are potentially life threatening. They can also cause considerable psychological distress and major physical complications. Treatment should be initiated as quickly as possible, focus upon the immediate distress experienced by the individual, and aim to help the patient and family become powerful enough to overcome the eating disorder.