When does binge eating become an eating disorder?

I don't know anymore you guys. I can see randomly breaking down, getting sick of salads, and eating a piece of cake. But when does binge eating become more than just binge eating? When you can't stop from the morning until night? I don't get it.

Hi, I work as an eating disorders counsellor in the UK, sufferers of BED (Binge Eating Disorder) or COED (Compulsive Over Eating Disorder) describe various forms of disordered eating. Some people call themselves compulsive overeaters when their resolve breaks and they eat anything at all, other people find themselves grazing throughout the day without any thought to hunger or health. Others will 'comfort eat', consciously choosing foods that make them feel good. This type of compulsive eating shares emotional factors with bulimia, it is a way of using food to cope, perhaps to replace emotions. People can gain gain weight for various reasons, not everyone who is obese suffers from an eating disorder. The extra weight carried by a sufferer of BED/COED gives a confusing message (sufferers are often as preoccupied with their weight as a sufferer of anorexia), but it may be used to keep people away, a protective armour against feelings of vulnerability, a way to hide, or to make oneself appear larger, stronger than reality. Some possible signs of BED/COED are:

• Preoccupation with food/binge eating (not being able to concentrate on anything else, focussing on the binge to come or on the constant supply of food)
• Eating large amounts of food, even when uncomfortably full
• Eating secretly, to still appear in control to others and to hide feelings of shame.
• Feeling guilt/distress about bingeing/overeating.

I hope this helps, basically you need to look at the motivation behind your eating, are you hungry and responding to your body's needs because you didn't eat enough during the day, so it is urging you to EAT, or are you eating to mask/cope with emotional difficulties? If food wasn't the problem, what would it be? What would you then have to cope with?

Take care and be gentle with yourself x

This is really informational.  Thank you.  I have just finally acknowledged to myself that this is me.  I've tried to overlook it as a disorder and I've tried to stop.  I'm good for awhile and then it's as if I'm on autopilot and the food can't stop coming.  Take this past weekend for instance.  I just couldn't stop myself and I totally binged Saturday and Sunday night.  And it wasn't even as if something bad emotionally was happening.

I'm SO sick of thinking about food all the time.  I've never been this way before.  It's this huge preoccupation that started about a year ago.  I'm scared that I'll never be normal again.

I want it to stop and I don't know how.  I don't know what to do.  =(

cuetee.... I feel the same way as you.. I've been watching my diet for over seven months now and every so often, usually on weekends I break down and I end up eating way too much.  

I did that this weekend and now I feel guilty and terrible.  All of the good work I did this entire week... gone in two days...

I don't know if it's a disorder, but I think that the break in my routine does something to me that makes me want to eat everything in sight.

Hi ravenlark,

Isn't it so frustrating?  Same thing with me...everything I did this week...down the drain.  I am so not in a good mood today because of this weekend.  Like you, my bingeing isn't all that frequent (thank goodness).  I don't know why, but usually it happens when I start to feel good about myself.  Why am I practicing self-sabotage?  I could just kick myself for bingeing like I do.

Know that you have a friend.  Hopefully, we can both get through these bad weekends.

queenofsnuggletown Thank you so much for posting this information. Many people don't even recognize that binge eating is a disorder unless you are purging as well. I personally tend to use food to cover up emotions that I don't feel I have the strength to deal with. I am working hard to overcome this, but it means having to deal with those emotions instead. This can be extremely difficult to do sometimes.

Thank you again.

Thanks so much for that information...

What kind of freaked me out though, is how many of us feel this way. I mean...how many people out there are quietly suffering with an eating disorder and we don't even realize it? Food is everywhere in our society, it is thrown in our faces at every turn. But what do you do for an eating disorder? It's easy enough to just say deal with it, but when do you reach the point where you need help? I mean, what do you do, take some sort of anti-obsessive behavior pill?

I was diagnosed with BED shortly after my 2nd child was born (1994) and it wasn't til I got therapy a few years later and we actually addressed it, as well as issues that were going on in my life and what might trigger it (etc) was I finally able to get some sort of "handle" on it.  I will always have an eating disorder, which makes dieting harder for me, however I have learned some skills to try and not let the ED take control over me and my life.  I still have episodes from time to time however they are not as frequent or as intense as they used to be.  My advice, as one who deals with it, is find a therapist who has dealt with ED and work with them, and with your ED, and remember it's an uphill battle.  It won't be easy, and they will be days when you will wonder who is ahead (you or the disorder), but you can get a bit of control on it.

The toughest thing about an addiction with food is that, unlike other addictions (alcohol, drugs), you NEED food to keep your body going.  You don't NEED alcohol, you don't NEED drugs (talking about non-prescription kind here)... you can learn to handle those addictions and not use them again.  However you can't just get rid of food.  You can't just 'not take' food anymore.  Even while dealing with a food addiction - or an ED - you still have to eat.  That's the other thing that makes it difficult.  If you are trying to end an alcohol addiction, you stay away from liquor stores, from bars, and other situations that would have you take a drink.  It's not the same with a food addiction.  You have to eat, so therefore you have to deal with food everyday. 

I wish you the best.  I can understand what you are going through and how you are feeling.  If you need someone to talk to about it, as one who is dealing with it, feel free to email me (my address is on my profile). 

Hi

I just joined CC a bit ago in the hopes that I could get my binges under control by logging what I eat daily.  I often wondered if my binges were a disorder and now after reading these posts I would say they are. I am completly obsesed with food, calories, the scale, and working out.  I hate that my mind will not stop thinking about it. 

A little background...I used to be much heavier about 4 years ago and lost 60lbs. I am 5'8" and was 190lbs and got as low as 128lbs.  The lowest weight was stress from a divorce and an exhusband that was a body builder.  Then I slowly started gaining weight back and binge eating.  It freaked me out,  2 months ago I was back at 160lbs.  My ideal weight is 140lbs.

Also in the last couple of months I lost my mom to her battle with cancer, she was only 57 (I'm 31).  I was her caretaker, I lived with her in addition to working and returning to school for an extended degree.  After she died, I lost about 15lbs mostly from stress and now it is creeping back on because I live alone and eat when I can't deal with all my emotions. 

Friends and family don't understand (or even know) that I have this obsession with food and have had it for years.  It has to do with control, I feel I have lost so much control in my life I feel like the way I look is all I can control.  Like many of you I self sabatoge, when I feel good and actually think I look good, I let up on myself and overeat.  Then watch out....I beat myself up tell myself I have no control and the cylce starts again.  

These last 2 years, I have been so mean to by body, I under eat (900 or less calories), I over eat (my binges after too much time under eating), I exersice too much then too little.  It doesn't know what to do anymore and it holds on to everything I eat. 

So I'm here, trying to figure it all out....where to start?  How many calories to eat? How much to work out?  I'm so lost......  Sorry for the long rant. This post just hit home..... Probably not the best way to introduce myself. 

I suggestion reading the article in the link below. It gives a good example of why you do not want to overeat one day, then undereat the next.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/core_march_8. htm

The user United2gether has put a lot of really great links to information about BED in her profile, just scroll down a bit when looking at her profile and all the links are right there.

Hi Jamie,

No need to apologize.  =)  I hate that you're dealing with this.  You sound just like me and what I'm going through.  For the longest time, I thought I was the only one.  To have someone else know the self-sabotage routine....well, just know that you have a friend.  Like you, my friends and family don't have a clue what's going on.  I completely understand everything you said.

And you're right, I think it is a control issue.  Not having control and giving up that control to food.  Man, when you were talking about obsessing over calories to eat, what not to eat, weighing on the scale, working out....  It's just like your brain goes a million miles an hour, huh?

If I had an answer to our problem, I probably wouldn't be able to relate.  But know that you have company.  You are not alone!!

May I add you as a friend?  We can get through this.  I know we can.  It's just going to take some time.

Cuetee,

It is nice to have someone out there that understands how crazy my head can get.  I would love it if we could stay in touch. I know I need to update my profile, I will do that tonight.  I will also add you as a friend. 

In the meantime, I hope you are doing well. I had a horrible weekend but seem to be doing better the last couple of days.  Talk to you soon.

Jamie

after losing weight by being VERY strict with myself for almost two years, I have come to realize that I am actually a binge eater. Not enough to make a huge difference to the scale but a binger nonetheless. Ick, I hate it so much.

Louise.

Hi Jamie,

I think It would be great if we could stay in touch too.  Thanks.  =)  I'm trying to hang in there.  Yesterday was a bad day calorie-wise, but I didn't binge as much as I wanted to.  So....I suppose you can call that a slight improvement.  Yeah, my weekend was horrible as well.

I'm trying to figure out a way to not obsess about everything.  Here's a conclusion I came to, but I'm not sure if it's going to work.  I figured that I have been putting way too much stress on myself when it comes to food, the scale, my exercise, etc. so I'm going to try and take the pressure off of me.  Instead of telling myself that I "can't" have <insert whatever food here> or "shouldn't" have...I'm going to tell myself that I can have that food anytime I want, I just "choose" not to.  Maybe that will trick myself into not bingeing (as much).  Perhaps (aside from the whole emotional thing) my bingeing is related to the "you want what you can't have" philosophy.  At any rate, I'll give it a shot.

Hope you are doing well.  Good for you for being better the last couple of days!  =)

cuetee

Hey united,

I just re-read your post.  You said, "I had always kind of thought that I would be able to diet and lose the weight if/when I really put my mind to it and decided to diet..."  That's exactly what I thought!  I've done it in the past and it totally worked.  This time I had emotional baggage though and before I knew it...man I was headed in the way opposite direction.

Thanks for the post.  It is a relief to know that we are not alone.

<=)

Hi all...I am very moved by your stories! I work for a nationally syndicated morning show in NYC and we are looking to do a story next Tuesday about binge eating. We will be providing our guest with expert advice, as well as an expense paid trip to New York. Please email Obs28@aol.com if you are interested in sharing your story. Thank you so much for your time!

Hi all...I am very moved by your stories! I work for a nationally syndicated morning show in NYC and we are looking to do a story next Tuesday about binge eating. We will be providing our guest with expert advice, as well as an expense paid trip to New York. Please email Obs28@aol.com if you are interested in sharing your story. Thank you so much for your time!

I too have this problem!! I was diagnosed with an eating disorder about two years ago, and have since gotten it under control. But now that Im a freshman in college and running on my school team, it just seems as though Ive gone the opposite way! Any time a major event, stressor, or some kind of change in my life happens... I start to binge and Im not even hungry! There have been times where I've felt so out of control, that I didn't even know how to stop myself and it was embarassing! Im still working on trying to control it and Ive talked to my mom about seeing some kinds of support groups... but its good to know that Im not the only one with this issue. And unfortunately, its just something that never goes away!

If anyone wants to talk, feel free to add me or message me! : )
~Bep16

thank you so much for the post it was extremely insightful! it too have a binge eating disorder which has gone undiagnosed, i guess its easy to tell if your a binge eater, i always binged if i felt down, sad, tired or stressed or something. its a problem which i find easy to combat at uni when you have limited supplies of food, now i hardly ever binge, and i feel proud of myself and healthier for it. i think the thing with binge eating is denying your body food you would really want to eat, therefore my way of combatting this is allowing myself to eat one yummy thing a week, as a treat for eating healthily the rest of the time, it does in fact work.