What is binge eating disorder?
Binge eating disorder (BED) is an eating disorder where the person eats large amounts of food regularly. During each binge, the quantity of food eaten is excessive and more than most people would eat in the same amount of time. Binge episodes are followed by an intense feeling of guilt that sometimes can lead to eating even more.
The person affected by binge eating disorder doesn’t eat like this due to hunger; it is usually due to wrongly managed emotions. Binge eating results from not being able to stay with anxiety, sadness, or other unpleasant feelings; it is an unhelpful solution to finding relief in the short term. Binging can become a habit where the person enters a circle of unpleasant emotions followed by eating that is hard to break.
The person that binges usually feels embarrassed and tends to binge alone. Therefore, it is common that many episodes to happen during the night.
The difference between bulimia and binge eating disorder is that the person affected by this second condition don’t compensate or make up for the eaten food. People with bulimia always do something to compensate, whether exercising excessively, fasting, using laxatives, or purging.
Binge eating usually comes together with an increase in weight, leading to obesity if not stopped on time.
It can affect anybody from any background, but as National Eating Disorders Association explains, it often begins in the late teens or early 20s, and approximately 40% of those with binge eating disorders are male.
Causes
As in other eating disorders, the causes of binge eating disorder are unknown, but multiple factors, including biological, social, and environmental, can trigger or influence the condition. Abuse or traumas suffered in childhood, family conflicts, and problems of this kind can impact eating disorders.
There can also be certain psychological causes like low self-esteem, anxiety, problems engaging in social environments, difficulties managing stress, etc., that can prompt the condition.
The social and cultural pressure to be thin and the fat bias can lead the person to try diets and restrict food, developing binge eating.
Symptoms
The main symptom of binge eating disorder is binge eating. This has the following characteristics:
- Eating vast amounts of food during a limited period. There is no fixed definition of what is considered huge amounts, but as a reference, it is any amount that exceeds what other people would eat in the same period on a typical day.
- Eating even when the person is not hungry.
- The perception of losing control over food and not being able to stop.
- Eating faster than usual.
- Eating alone due to feeling embarrassed about the amount of food eaten and the speed or way of eating.
- Feeling uncomfortably full or even sick after a binge.
- Feeling guilty, depressed, disgusted, embarrassed, and out of control after having binged.
As mentioned before, whereas a symptom of bulimia is performing compensatory behaviours, those behaviours don’t exist in binge eating disorders.
Additionally, binge eating can have some long-term effects:
- Important changes in weight and obesity.
- Stomach cramps, constipation, acid reflux, and other gastrointestinal issues.
- Problems focusing.
- High blood pressure.
- High cholesterol.
- Heart disease.
- Type 2 diabetes.
- Difficulty conceiving and infertility.
- Gall bladder disease
Prevention
In order to prevent binge eating disorders, it is essential to avoid diets that put the body in starvation mode. Any restriction of food or behaviours that try to control the body weight is risky, as they create a state where the body is hungry and ready to overeat once the person hasn’t followed the rules or diet.
People are prone to follow diets due to a culture that promotes thinness as a synonym of success and opposes fatness as a sign of weakness and lack of willpower. However, those ideas are beliefs created by society, and to fight eating disorders, we all have to try at least to question those ideas and not fall for them. Working towards a positive image, following social media accounts that share positive messages about the variety of bodies and weight, normalizing eating, and fighting body dissatisfaction can help to prevent eating disorders.
Often, binge eating disorder is triggered by emotions and the inability to deal with those in a healthier way. Teaching children how to manage emotions can also prevent binge eating.
Diagnosis
To consider that someone has a binge eating disorder, the episodes should occur at least once every week for at least three months.
Treatment
Binge eating disorder can be treated with psychotherapy and medication. The type of therapy that has been proven most successful for this condition is Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which challenges unrealistic thoughts, and replaces them for other more productive or accurate ones.
Psychotherapy should address the different factors that can impact the condition, such as stress, low mood, and emotion management in general, regardless of the person’s situation and problems. Read more about binge eating disorder therapy.
Treatment should include information about nutrition and healthy habits. It is important to eat enough food, so the person is never hungry. Variety is also essential, as well as eliminating any food restriction. Otherwise, the brain can crave some forbidden food and can end up eating massive amounts of that food. Eating everything in enough amount is the first step to recovery.
As the NHS explains it, it helps plan out the meals and snacks you should have during the day to help you adopt regular eating habits.
Finally, medication can be used to help with some symptoms. The NHS advises that medication shouldn’t be used as the only treatment for BED. Antidepressants can help if the person suffers from depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
More resources
- What is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)?
- More information about binge eating disorder – Eating Disorder Hope
- Information for parents – KidsHealth
- Support and services – Beat eating disorders
Other psychological issues
Articles
- Frequently asked questions about eating disorders
- How to overcome negative body image: change four behaviours that keep the concern going
- How to stop ruminating thoughts: tools used by therapists
- 8 strategies to overcome the negativity bias
- CBT techniques: tools for cognitive behavioural therapy