disorders, including anorexia and bulimia. Understanding
binging is the key to resolving all weight-related
disorders.
What is binge eating? Do we all binge occasionally? Is
binging synonymous with love of food?
Binge eating is uncontrolled eating, often accompanied by
shame and guilt. In other words, it is an act with full
awareness as well as helplessness. Binging episodes occur
quite frequently - often at least once or twice a week.
Shame and guilt often propel the resultant purging, which
is getting the excessive amount of food out of the body
system. Purging out of fear of weight gain is a critical
component of bulimia, which is a disorder alternating
between binging and purging.
Binge eating plays a pivotal role in any eating disorder,
which is a psychological disorder using food to cope with
disturbed emotions.
Many people have emotional problems, but they may not have
an eating disorder. So how does one develop binge eating,
or who are vulnerable to this disorder?
Binge eating often begins with having an unhealthy abnormal
food relationship. If you ear normally, you have reduced
risk of binge eating even if you do have emotional problems.
Any dieting is abnormal eating. Initially, an individual
may want to control weight through dieting, but without
much success. Then that individual may try one diet after
another with no substantial solution to the weight problem.
It is this feeling of deprivation of food (feeling the
unfairness of being deprived of the joy of eating),
accompanied by despair and frustration (feeling the
inability to lose weight despite the efforts), which
ultimately turns the individual from the diets into binge
eating. As a result, cyclical eating problems develop and
persist, indefinitely perpetuating the eating disorder.
Binge eating, a self-deprecating eating disorder out of
subconscious fear of not being able to stop eating
voluntarily, may begin in the formative years of an
individual with unhealthy eating patterns, or in young
adulthood as a result of incapability of handling
emotional, social and environmental stress. Binge eating
may also have a physiological connection with depletion of
serotonin, a neurotransmitter, leading to unbalanced brain
chemistry. Interestingly, many depressive patients are
vulnerable to binge eating, often turning to foods to calm
their nerves.
To confront someone close to you with binge eating may
result in relentless control battles. It is important to
understand the importance of disengaging yourself from food
issues, and that striving to control someone's eating
behavior, in spite of your good intentions, may only
aggravate the problem and interfere with the patient's
capacity to change.
Accepting your own limitations and removing yourself from
the problem are critical to disengaging someone from binge
eating. The eating-disordered individual is responsible for
the consequences of eating behavior, such as over spending
on food, or cleaning up the mess from vomiting. Do not make
excuses for the eating-disordered individual. It is
important for the individual to learn to take
responsibility for the consequences of the eating behavior.
Do not proffer advice or opinions. Remember, an individual
with an eating disorder is looking for approval, often a
sign of anxiety or insecurity. Your reassurances or
suggestions may at best provide only temporary relief. The
individual must learn to develop own judgment and
perception of self-worth - which are often absent in an
eating-disordered individual. Just be supportive and
demonstrate your love and care. Don't play the role of a
therapist!
Quite often, an eating disorder may be due to an unfilled
void in one's life. Something may be missing in one's life,
and that void needs toe be addressed in order to pave the
way for recovery.
Develop a healthier relationship with the eating-disordered
individual through better communication, establishing
responsibilities, and respecting rights (the right to grow
up, and the right to take full responsibility for one's
actions, among others).
Gradually, the eating-disordered individual will see the
abnormal eating behavior patterns, and make the necessary
changes or to seek professional help. Yes, this takes
patience and perseverance. Don't forget that it takes time
to develop the binge eating disorder; accordingly, it may
take a while to disengage oneself from that eating disorder.
About the Author:
Stephen Lau is a researcher, writing medical research for
doctors and scientists. His publications include "NO
MIRACLE CURES" a book on healing and wellness. He has also
created several websites on health and healing, including
the following:
http://www.longevit
http://www.rethinky
