Posts Tagged “Binge Eating Disorder”

For the past few months, I have been fortunate to sit in as the dietitian for a meal support group at The Emily Program. In this group, clients of all eating disorder diagnoses and levels of recovery bring in their own meal to eat. During this shared meal, clients use the support of trained staff and other group members to work through and process their own food issues.

At a recent group, it just so happened two group members brought in cheeseburgers for their meal.

At check-in prior to the meal, one participant made the observation that she felt hungrier at this meal because the aroma of the cheeseburger she was bringing filled the car on her way over. Her goal was to eat mindfully and stop when she noticed she was feeling physical fullness. She found that this goal was challenged by her heightened “hunger” and desire to eat due to the exposure to the food aroma.

Eating disorders are real, complex illnesses that can cause serious harm. Eating disorders are characterized by a disturbance in an individual’s eating and food behaviors or self-perception. Common warning signs of eating disorders are extreme weight changes, altered eating behaviors, or an intense fixation on food and body talk. Eating disorders are biologically-based brain illnesses that are affected by environmental, social, and psychological factors. This means that illness is not caused by one specific factor, but rather by a series of factors in an individual’s unique life experience.

Types of Eating Disorders

Due to the complexity of eating disorders, the DSM-5 divides eating disorders into the following five categories:

Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia is noted by extreme food restriction that causes dramatic and prolonged weight loss. It often presents with body dysmorphia and a genuine fear of food.

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). ARFID includes feeding or eating disorders that involve a lack of interest in or an avoidance of certain foods that result in a failure to meet nutritional needs. ARFID, unlike anorexia, does not include a drive for thinness.

Binge eating disorder is a serious eating disorder that unfortunately may be overlooked by medical providers due to stereotypes and/or a lack of information about the illness. Understanding the complexities of binge eating disorder may provide insights into why binge eating often goes unnoticed in a medical setting and what individuals can do about it.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder (BED) is characterized by repetitive and uncontrolled episodes of excessive food consumption. Bingeing often leaves individuals feeling shame, guilt, or disgust. However, in contrast to bulimia, those with binge eating do not engage in compensatory measures, such as purging, following binges. Binge eating is often followed by dieting attempts that typically turn into a pattern of yo-yo dieting. In addition to causing negative emotions, frequent bingeing can also have consequences for physical health.

Binge eating disorder can affect anyone, regardless of appearance. While the illness is most common in individuals who are overweight, binge eating disorder can be diagnosed at any weight. In addition to affecting any individual, binge eating is the most common eating disorder.

Do you find yourself struggling with binge eating episodes? Are you eating extreme amounts of food and experiencing guilt or shame afterward? Do you find yourself stuck in a cycle of binge eating and yo-yo dieting? If so, you may have binge eating disorder—a real and serious eating disorder.

What Is Binge Eating Disorder?

Binge eating disorder starts when individuals repeatedly and uncontrollably consume excessive amounts of food. Binge eating may be driven by a need to soothe negative emotions, anxiety, stress, or depression. However, the feeling of comfort that eating may bring does not last long and individuals may experience shame, guilt, and distress following bingeing episodes. These post-binge feelings may lead the sufferer to swing to the other extreme end and engage in restrictive dieting. This cycle of binge eating followed by extreme dieting is a type of “yo-yo dieting” and can become a long-lasting cycle with negative effects.

Eating disorders and grief have a multifaceted, complex relationship. Eating disorders may arise following a traumatic situation, after a loss, or during any period of grief. In addition to potentially being a provoking factor in the development of an eating disorder for predisposed individuals, grief may also complicate recovery and may make it more challenging. On top of this, individuals in recovery may also find themselves grieving their eating disorder, which adds another layer of difficulty onto the recovery process.

What is Grief?

Grief is a normal, albeit overwhelming, response to a loss of any kind. While grief is typically associated with death, grief can also follow a variety of experiences including relationship loss, a decline in health, miscarriage, physical or sexual assault, loss of a dream, etc.  

Do you find yourself consuming large amounts of food rapidly and feeling out of control while eating?

Binge Eating Disorder & Mental Health

If so, you might be grappling with binge eating disorder (BED), a mental health condition marked by cycles of bingeing and restricting food. In this blog, explore the warning signs that might have gone unnoticed, the toll of BED on the body, and the treatment options available to those suffering in silence.

Eating disorders are biologically based mental illnesses that are influenced by an individual’s environment, society, and psychological makeup. An eating disorder is an illness that causes an individual to experience disturbances in their eating habits and negative food or body-related thoughts and feelings. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) recognizes five kinds of eating disorders:

Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia is characterized by extended and extreme food restriction and malnourishment that causes dramatic and sustained weight loss. Anorexia often presents with a fear of gaining weight and other body image issues.

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). ARFID is a feeding or eating disorder typically driven by fear, a lack of interest in food, or an avoidance of certain foods, resulting in continued failure to meet an individual’s nutritional needs. ARFID often presents without a drive for thinness.

When discussing the signs, symptoms, and roots of an eating disorder, it’s impossible to leave dieting out of the conversation. In recent years, research has uncovered the indisputable fact that dieting is a risk factor for the development of eating disorders. Those who engage in moderate dieting are 5x more likely to develop an eating disorder and those who engage in extreme dieting are 18x more likely to develop an eating disorder (Patton, Selzer, Coffey, et al., 1999).

What is dieting?

Dieting is defined as “the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person for a special reason (low-sodium diet to reduce high blood pressure)” or “a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight” or alter body size, shape, or appearance.