Binge Eating Disorder.
It is possible to break out of the cycle of bingeing and restricting
Binge eating disorder can be an incredibly distressing illness.
It is more than over-eating in the sense that people can feel trapped in a cycle of bingeing and restricting, sometimes entering a ‘trance-like’ state when in the midst of their illness.
If this is your experience, know that you are not alone. There are people who understand and who can help.
What is binge eating disorder (BED)?
Binge eating disorder is when people eat large quantities of food – called bingeing – but don’t typically engage in compensatory behaviours such as with bulimia.
People often talk of entering a trance-like state when bingeing, or becoming preoccupied with planning their binges as they go about their everyday lives in work or education.
Despite how it can seem, like other eating disorders, BED is not about food. Rather, the symbolic act of bingeing can be understood as an attempt to negate or interrupt overwhelming negative emotions.
Binge eating disorder is not about food
Like other eating disorders, often there are underlying emotional factors that cause someone to seek soothing and solace through a preoccupation with food and eating.
Common symptoms
There’s no “one way” to have BED, however, there are shared characteristics and behavioural patterns that help in the diagnosis of the illness.
Often, people with BED eat large quantities of food – bingeing – but don’t engage in compensatory behaviours.
People with BED can feel a significant amount of shame and guilt associated with their symptoms, which traps them in the cycle of the illness.
Because of the secretive nature of the illness, and the fact that many people with BED maintain a “normal” weight, the illness often persists whilst someone is otherwise high-functioning in other areas of their lives.
It is more than just over-eating
Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between BED and overeating – as to occasionally overeat, and “comfort eat”, is normal behaviour for human beings.
One of the biggest differences between overeating and BED is that the person living with BED often feels that they do not have control over their urges to eat.
For many, the impulse to eat is an emotional response and a self-soothing behaviour, so have compassion for the part of you that might be trying very hard to keep you going in the midst of challenge.
Do these feel familiar?
Eating uncontrollably (bingeing) and/or fear of eating uncontrollably
Consuming food in a fast and hurried way
Petty theft to get hold of food to binge on
Secretive eating and isolation in order to prevent feelings of shame or embarrassment
Acts of self-disgust and self-harm
Perfectionism
Depression and other co-occurring conditions such as OCD
Low self-esteem
Preoccupation with body image and appearance
Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed or very guilty after bingeing
You deserve to break the cycle of binge eating disorder.
Often, people suffering with binge eating disorder struggle to manage their emotions in a healthy and intuitive way.
As such, our team works with the individual to forge new pathways and healthy coping mechanisms, whilst addressing any co-occurring conditions which may fuel or exacerbate the binge eating disorder behaviours.
Like with other eating disorder diagnoses, we believe that recovery is possible and that treatment should heal the individual as a whole, embracing the individual’s complexity and unique history.
Approximately 22% of all eating disorder diagnoses are binge eating disorder
What we understanding about BED
Walking alongside you
In person
Our in person day treatment exists to treat the whole person – mind and body – for full and sustainable recovery.
Online
Online treatment for eating disorder recovery, wherever you are