Binge Eating Awareness Week

This is a subject that hits very close to me, and so I figured I'd make a little educational post about it. In my last blog post, I shared my story with binge eating. Up until my diagnoses with the therapist, I had no idea that it was indeed a disorder. I had been living under the assumption that there were two main eating disorders; anorexia and bulimia. While I had struggled with being able to control my relationship with food, I didn't think it was an eating disorder because I didn't have the control to restrict nor the guts to purge. However, taking that step toward recovery has opened my eyes to the disorder revolves around excessive binge eating.

A strong foundation to binge eating disorder is typically another mental illness such as anxiety or depression. Emotional symptoms or signs of binge eating disorder include; going on autopilot or feeling detached during an episode of bingeing/overeating, desperation to control your weight and eating habits, feeling guilty, disgusted, or depressed after overeating, never feeling satisfied no matter how much you eat, or experiencing a stress that is only relieved by overeating. Binge eating disorder can't be classified by someone's appearance; both ends of the weight spectrum can suffer from the disorder. The assumption that only an overweight person can suffer from this disorder is false.

Behavioral symptoms, which are typically easier to pinpoint, include; eating late at night, eating even when you are full, inability to stop eating or to control what you're eating, rapidly eating large amounts of food, eating normally around others but gorging when you are alone, eating continuously throughout the day with no planned mealtimes, and hiding food to eat later in secret.

Binge eating disorder can oftentimes become a cruel, vicious cycle between anxiety, depression, and fighting for control with food. While binge eating can be hard to see in one of your friends (the disorder is very secretive), if you feel you can relate to many of the symptoms or you feel out of control with your relationship with food, therapy can be of best assistance. To try and curb binge episodes with dieting usually does not bode well.

I feel like this should've been an article instead. Oops. Just wanted to spread the word a little about this disorder because despite it just now earning recognition as an actual eating disorder, it's still important to spread the word. It may help yourself... or someone else.