What is binge eating?
Is your eating making you feel depressed, do you turn to food for comfort, in times of stress, unhappiness, boredom? Do you feel your eating is out of control are you obsessed with food and your weight; is your relationship with food overtaking your life making you unhappy?You may be suffering from Binge Eating Disorder – there is help out there!
"After a binge I feel frightened and angry. Fear is a large part of what I feel. I am terrified about the weight I will gain. I also feel anger towards myself for allowing it to happen yet again. Binge eating makes me hate myself too."
Binge eating disorder is a fairly new diagnosis, whose status is still somewhat controversial, but the word is starting to get around and there is help out there.
Characteristics of binge eating.
What is central to binge eating is the sense of loss of control. A marked characteristic of the typical binge is that it occurs in secret, food is eaten faster than normal, eating past the point of fullness (longer than normal quantities), eating when not hungry, foods eaten in a binge are “forbidden foods”. Often a feeling of being taken over, driven or out of control, feelings of distress and remorse during and after the binge. Some people are so ashamed of their binge eating that they go to great lengths to hide it and may succeed in doing so for many years.Many things can trigger a binge from feeling fat, gaining weight, breaking a dietary rule, boredom, feeling unhappy, loneliness, break from ones routine, premenstrual tension, drinking alcohol, hangover.
Many people with binge eating problems do not seek treatment, because this condition has only recently been diagnosed many people are unaware they have a problem. They just simply believe that they are unable to diet successfully, have no willpower and all they need to do is find the next new wonder diet that this time will really work.
Many have huge feelings of shame, failure and guilt and by seeking treatment; sufferers run the risk of others finding out. Many hope the problem will just go away on its own.
Many believe their eating problem is not serious enough to merit treatment or they simply do not deserve help.
It’s only when dieting attempts become more frequent that every day starts with a diet and their binges become even more frequent and their eating even more out of control that they realise they have a problem.
