Binge Eating disorder
Binge Eating disorder
What is Binge Eating Disorder?
Binge Eating is a disorder where a person goes on an uncontrollable splurge of eating food, up to a point where there is overeating. This usually happens when the person is feeling depressed or stressed. It is a kind of a vicious cycle where the victim keeps on eating, only to feel guilty later and resorts to eating again, in order to suppress that guilt.
A person suffering from this kind of disorder would resort to eating anything and won't judge the amount that is eaten.
Symptoms
There are various symptoms which may suggest that a person is suffering from Binge Eating Disorder.
Apart from eating large amouts of food and having the inability to control what is being eaten, the person will also have other tendencies such as hoarding the food and hiding it in order to eat it later. He/she won’t have any fixed mealtimes and will continuously keep on eating. The person will appear to eat normal quantities like anyone else when they he/she has company, only to go berserk when he/she is alone.
A person may suffer from this disorder due to emotional stress. Generally, a person who is worried a lot about his weight and suffers from obesity strangely seems to eat a lot, even though he/she wants to cut down on the rate of food eaten. Also, a person is almost numb when he/she eats. He/she has no idea what is being eaten or why he/she is eating and forgets the reasons behind consuming food.
Effects
Naturally, there are side effects of binge eating or compulsive eating disorder. Apart from obesity, there is a huge risk of the victim suffering from diabetes, heart-related conditions, gastrointestinal problems, high cholesterol and many more.
How to overcome Binge Eating Disorder
As it in the case of an addict, food in this case, is like a drug for someone who suffers from this disorder. The key here is to avoid temptation and to control oneself. The disorder, fortunately, can be cured.
One of the ways to cure this disorder is to have proper eating habits. It should be made sure that the person eats three meals a day and eats in equal proportions. Both eating less and eating too much is a problem. The person with the disorder should be counselled regarding the fact that the food intake should be only to the point the body requires.
Proper exercise followed by a good amount of sleep would also help, as this would make the person not only fitter, but also more confident. A hobby is always good, to divert the mind from thinking about food. It is also imperative that the person gets support. Though therapy is always one of the options, word of encouragement and keeping a check on the eating habits always helps.
