How to know if you have binge eating disorder
Binge-eating disorder - Symptoms and causes
Overview
Binge-eating disorder is a serious eating disorder in which you frequently consume unusually large amounts of food and feel unable to stop eating.
Almost everyone overeats on occasion, such as having seconds or thirds of a holiday meal. But for some people, excessive overeating that feels out of control and becomes a regular occurrence crosses the line to binge-eating disorder.
When you have binge-eating disorder, you may be embarrassed about overeating and vow to stop. But you feel such a compulsion that you can't resist the urges and continue binge eating. If you have binge-eating disorder, treatment can help.
Products & Services
- Book: Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, 5th Edition
- Newsletter: Mayo Clinic Health Letter — Digital Edition
Symptoms
Most people with binge-eating disorder are overweight or obese, but you may be at a normal weight. Behavioral and emotional signs and symptoms of binge-eating disorder include:
- Eating unusually large amounts of food in a specific amount of time, such as over a two-hour period
- Feeling that your eating behavior is out of control
- Eating even when you're full or not hungry
- Eating rapidly during binge episodes
- Eating until you're uncomfortably full
- Frequently eating alone or in secret
- Feeling depressed, disgusted, ashamed, guilty or upset about your eating
- Frequently dieting, possibly without weight loss
Unlike a person with bulimia, after a binge, you don't regularly compensate for extra calories eaten by vomiting, using laxatives or exercising excessively. You may try to diet or eat normal meals. But restricting your diet may simply lead to more binge eating.
The severity of binge-eating disorder is determined by how often episodes of bingeing occur during a week.
When to see a doctor
If you have any symptoms of binge-eating disorder, seek medical help as soon as possible. Binge-eating problems can vary in their course from short-lived to recurrent or they may persist for years if left untreated.
Talk to your medical care provider or a mental health professional about your binge-eating symptoms and feelings. If you're reluctant to seek treatment, talk to someone you trust about what you're going through. A friend, loved one, teacher or faith leader can help you take the first steps to successful treatment of binge-eating disorder.
Helping a loved one who has symptoms
A person with binge-eating disorder may become an expert at hiding behavior, making it hard for others to detect the problem. If you have a loved one you think may have symptoms of binge-eating disorder, have an open and honest discussion about your concerns.
Provide encouragement and support. Offer to help your loved one find a qualified medical care provider or mental health professional and make an appointment. You might even offer to go along.
Request an appointment
Causes
The causes of binge-eating disorder are unknown. But genetics, biological factors, long-term dieting and psychological issues increase your risk.
Risk factors
Binge-eating disorder is more common in women than in men. Although people of any age can have binge-eating disorder, it often begins in the late teens or early 20s.
Factors that can increase your risk of developing binge-eating disorder include:
- Family history. You're much more likely to have an eating disorder if your parents or siblings have (or had) an eating disorder. This may indicate that inherited genes increase the risk of developing an eating disorder.
- Dieting. Many people with binge-eating disorder have a history of dieting.
Dieting or restricting calories during the day may trigger an urge to binge eat, especially if you have symptoms of depression. - Psychological issues. Many people who have binge-eating disorder feel negatively about themselves and their skills and accomplishments. Triggers for bingeing can include stress, poor body self-image and the availability of preferred binge foods.
Complications
You may develop psychological and physical problems related to binge eating.
Complications that may be caused by binge-eating disorder include:
- Poor quality of life
- Problems functioning at work, with your personal life or in social situations
- Social isolation
- Obesity
- Medical conditions related to obesity, such as joint problems, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and some sleep-related breathing disorders
Psychiatric disorders that are often linked with binge-eating disorder include:
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- Anxiety
- Substance use disorders
Prevention
Although there's no sure way to prevent binge-eating disorder, if you have symptoms of binge eating, seek professional help.
Your medical care provider can advise you on where to get help.
If you think a friend or loved one has a binge-eating problem, steer her or him toward healthier behavior and professional treatment before the situation worsens. If you have a child:
- Foster and reinforce a healthy body image, regardless of body shape or size
- Discuss any concerns with your child's primary care provider, who may be in a good position to identify early indicators of an eating disorder and help prevent its development
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Related
Associated Procedures
News from Mayo Clinic
Products & Services
Binge Eating Disorder Diagnosis
Written by Sharon Liao
In this Article
- How Is BED Different From Other Eating Issues?
- How Is BED Diagnosed?
- What Are the Risk Factors of BED?
- What Should You Do If You Think You May Have BED?
Sometimes you help yourself to a third plate from the buffet.
Or you polish off an entire bag of cookies in one sitting. You may wonder if you could have binge eating disorder (BED).
Everyone overeats from time to time. But there’s a big difference between the occasional splurge and BED.
How Is BED Different From Other Eating Issues?
Symptoms of BED may overlap with some other eating-related problems. But there are ways to tell them apart.
You’re watching a movie when you suddenly realize you’ve polished off that entire bag of chips. The difference between this mindless eating and BED is that with mindless eating, you aren’t compelled to consume a large amount of food. You also don’t feel like you can’t stop eating.
Stress or emotional eating is common. Nearly one in three Americans say they eat as a way to cope with stress. BED isn’t a once-in-a-while splurge. You overeat at least once a week for months and feel distressed about it. Stress or anxiety may not be triggers for people with BED.
Food addiction causes a loss of control around food, but losing control doesn’t happen in a short window of time like it does with BED.
People who are addicted to food may overeat all day long. They also are less likely to think about how food affects their weight and then restrict foods than are those with BED.
After a binge, someone with bulimia will try to purge the calories by vomiting, using laxatives, or exercising excessively. A person with BED wouldn’t do that.
How Is BED Diagnosed?
Diagnosing eating disorders can be challenging because secrecy, shame, and denial are part of them. So the disorder might not be noticed for a long time. In most cases, binge eating disorder is discovered when a person gets professional help with weight loss. Other times it is identified when the person sees a doctor for an obesity-related health problem, or a mental health problem like depression or anxiety that might be linked to the illness.
If binge eating disorder is suspected, the doctor will likely start an evaluation by doing a complete medical history and physical exam. Although there are no laboratory tests to specifically diagnose eating disorders, the doctor might use diagnostic tests, such as blood and urine tests and other laboratory procedures, to rule out physical illness as the cause of the symptoms.
These tests may also help find the medical effects of an eating disorder, such as changes in digestive enzyme levels, liver functioning, or electrolytes (the normal salt concentrations in blood).
You may also be referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist, health care professionals specially trained to diagnose and treat mental illnesses. Psychiatrists and psychologists use specially designed interview and assessment tools to evaluate whether you have binge eating disorder.
You can be diagnosed with BED if you:
- Binge regularly -- on average, at least once a week for at least three months
- Eat a large quantity of food (more than others would eat) in a short amount of time, such as two hours, while feeling like you can’t stop or control how much you’re eating
- Eat when you’re not hungry
- Eat until you feel uncomfortably full
- Eat more quickly than usual
- Eat alone out of embarrassment
- Feel upset about your binges
- Feel guilty, depressed, or disgusted afterward
You may also:
- Feel angry, anxious, or worthless before the binge
- Adjust your schedule to make time for binges
- Hide, steal, or hoard food
- Diet, skip meals, or eat very little to make up for binges
What Are the Risk Factors of BED?
While experts aren’t sure exactly what causes BED, they do know some things may increase your risk of having it:
- Family history.
You’re more likely to have an eating disorder, including BED, if your parents or siblings have or had one. Research suggests your genes may play a role. - Personality traits. Being a perfectionist, having low self-esteem, or being depressed may increase your odds.
- Childhood issues. Painful experiences, such as being made fun of for your weight or body, are linked to BED.
- Unhealthy relationship with food. Dieting and cutting calories in unhealthy ways, such as skipping meals, can lead to this condition.
What Should You Do If You Think You May Have BED?
See a doctor. BED can take a toll on your physical and mental health. It can lead to stress, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. It also can set the stage for headaches, digestive problems, muscle pain, weight gain, and obesity.
A doctor can refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist. You may need counseling or cognitive behavioral therapy to change the thoughts and actions that lead to binges.
The medication lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) has been FDA-approved for BED. Doctors might also prescribe medications usually used for seizures, and some antidepressants. The drug Contrave (naltrexone HCI and bupropion HCl), which helps to control cravings, is prescribed for chronic weight management in patients with a high BMI.
Compulsive overeating, psychological overeating, symptoms, signs
(Psychogenic overeating): SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS
What is compulsive overeating? A person suffering from compulsive overeating, as a rule, begins to gain weight, and he is well aware that his habit regarding food consumption is abnormal. He seeks emotional comfort, trying to find it in eating food, which leads to obesity and related problems in society.
Compulsive overeating (psychogenic overeating): symptoms and signs
For a person suffering from compulsive overeating, words such as "just go on a diet" can be emotionally devastating, as it is not so much a matter of life support as an opportunity to cope with emotional stress.
People who suffer from compulsive overeating sometimes hide behind their appearance, using it as a shield against society - this is common among women survivors of sexual violence. She may feel guilty for not looking good enough (according to society's standards), ashamed for being overweight, and generally has very low self-esteem. Her constant overeating is an attempt to cope with these feelings, which, due to this addiction, only intensify, forming a vicious circle that leads to even more dissatisfaction with herself and even more overeating.
Having low self-esteem and a burning need for love and approval, she may try to suppress these needs by spending money and overeating. Even when she really wants to stop eating a lot, she cannot cope with the disease without help. The inability to stop it, despite the potentially life-threatening consequences, is a sign of a pathological addiction that needs to be treated.
What are the signs and symptoms of compulsive overeating?
Signs and symptoms of compulsive overeating include:
- overeating or uncontrolled eating, even in the absence of physical hunger
- eating much faster than usual
- eating alone due to shame and embarrassment
- feelings of guilt due to overeating
- preoccupation with body weight
- depression or mood swings
- awareness that such a diet is abnormal
- cessation of all activity due to embarrassment due to being overweight
- unsuccessful attempts to use various diets
- eating a small amount of food in crowded places, but maintaining a large body weight
- a strong belief that life will be better when they can lose weight
- leaving food in strange places (closets, cupboards, suitcases, under the bed)
- indefinite or secretive diet
- self-abasement after eating
- strong belief that food is their only friend
- weight gain
- loss of sexual desire or promiscuity
- tiredness
an episode of binge eating, through vomiting, exercise, or taking laxatives.
Compulsive overeating risk
Compulsive overeating leads to emotional, psychological and physiological side effects that significantly reduce the quality of life and rob you of hope for the future.
When binge eaters consume excessive amounts of food, they often experience a feeling of euphoria, similar to that which occurs with drug use. They experience temporary relief from psychological stress and a distraction from feelings of sadness, shame, loneliness, anger, or fear. Researchers have suggested that this is due to abnormal endorphin metabolism in the brain.
In the case of compulsive overeating, eating causes the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin. This may be another sign of neurobiological factors contributing to addiction. Attempts to stop systematic overeating can lead to increased levels of depression and anxiety due to a decrease in serotonin levels.
Left untreated, compulsive overeating can lead to serious illnesses and conditions, including:
- High cholesterol level
- Diabetes
- heart disease
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- APNOW of sleep (temporary respiratory suspension during sleep)
- Depression
- Arthritis
- Iznes
- Iznos INSE INSIS
What do you need to know?
Binge eating disorder is a very serious eating disorder, especially if it is accompanied by comorbid disorders such as bulimia nervosa, etc.
Binge eating disorder is a disease that can lead to irreversible complications, even death. If you are unsure whether you or a loved one has binge eating disorder, you should seek qualified medical attention to diagnose and prescribe appropriate treatment. You can also independently try to determine what type of disorder you or your loved one suffers, in which this material can help you. What is binge eating, how to diagnose it and how to treat it
December 3, 2018 Health Column
If, at the slightest stress, you rush to the refrigerator or go shopping for cakes, and after overeating you feel self-loathing and guilt, this may indicate a serious eating disorder.
Lidiya Yanko
Psychiatrist, psychotherapist, narcologist of the Federal Scientific and Practical Center of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia.
Human eating behavior - taste preferences, diet, diet - depends on cultural, social, family, biological factors.
Eating behavior is strongly influenced by the prevailing ideas about beauty in society, especially women's. There are several types of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and compulsive overeating. The latter is often combined with obesity, and anorexia nervosa, if left untreated, can lead to death.
The main manifestations of these disorders are fear of fullness, self-restriction in food, bouts of gluttony and unloading.
If a person in a state of stress simply awakens a brutal appetite, which he is unable to fight, we are talking about an eating disorder. This is not the norm. Moreover, both serious situations (death of a loved one, dismissal from work) and minor unpleasant moments that cause negative emotions (the boss raised his voice, a quarrel with a loved one) can provoke an attack. Unfortunately, the habit of eating any problem with a large amount of high-calorie food is one of the most common causes of obesity.
Diagnosis
With the problem of compulsive overeating, you need to contact a psychotherapist - he is the one who treats this disease.
Since no tests and instrumental research methods can confirm or refute this diagnosis, a regular interview is used and a special test is performed. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a diagnosis is confirmed when three of five criteria are met:
- Stomach fullness after eating causes discomfort.
- Even a large portion is eaten very quickly, almost imperceptibly.
- Self-disgust, depressed mood, guilt after overeating.
- Eating when not hungry.
- Eating alone.
If the patient confirms that he has at least three symptoms, the psychotherapist diagnoses compulsive overeating.
Further monitoring of weight is carried out: how much the patient weighed before the stressful situation and how much - at the time of contacting the doctor. An increase in body mass index is another confirmation of the diagnosis.
Treatment
Therapy will be carried out in two directions at once, since the disease is complex.
It combines psychological and physiological factors. Firstly, the disorder leads to weight gain, followed by obesity, metabolic syndrome, metabolic disorders, excessive stress on the internal organs, fatty liver and other concomitant diseases. All these diseases will have to be treated.
Secondly, you need to eliminate the root cause of overeating, that is, treat depression, reduce anxiety, and normalize sleep.
Psychotherapy
To overcome compulsive overeating, a psychotherapist can offer several methods of treatment - depending on the condition and personality of the patient.
Cognitive behavioral, person-centered, group or hypnosuggestive therapy is used.
The Cognitive Behavioral Approach is a "transformation" of the patient's thoughts as well as the circumstances that surround him. For example, the desire to eat another chocolate bar gives way to the opportunity to show a toned body on the beach. Among the main components of this method are goal setting, self-control, feedback/reinforcement, persuasion reinforcement, incentives.
Personality-oriented approach in the fight against excess weight is a solution to an intrapsychological conflict, that is, mental stress caused by the inability to satisfy one or another need. Initially, to solve the problem, it is necessary to identify the conflict, then to realize its essence, to highlight the motives that can be accepted and which should be abandoned.
The last method is hypnotherapy . The therapist identifies experiences that disturb the patient and, as a rule, are accompanied by psychosomatics, which is expressed in the appearance of various diseases: for example, bronchial asthma, hypertension, problems with the stomach and duodenum, allergic reactions. In the course of treatment, the psychologist turns the traumatic experience into a resourceful one, cleansed of bodily manifestations.
Finding a good doctor is important for a quick recovery. When choosing a psychotherapist, it is necessary first of all to pay attention to the qualifications of a specialist, as well as the proposed method of treatment.
On average, therapy lasts about six sessions, between which a certain time must pass so that the body has time to adapt to the changes. In terms of time, this will take at least three months. So doctors who offer you to get rid of the causes of obesity in a week or even a month are most likely charlatans. Nutrition
It is very important to properly organize nutrition in case of compulsive overeating: this is part of the therapy. Since the treatment is carried out on an outpatient basis, it falls on the shoulders of the patient himself. Due to the fact that the disorder has psychological causes, it will be difficult for a person, and the help of someone close will probably be needed so that they can control the meal schedule and portion size from the outside.
What recommendations should be followed?
- Learn to distinguish between psychological and biological hunger. Satisfy only the last one. Do not neglect the help of relatives and friends, allow them to take control over meals.
- Include at least three full meals throughout the day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can afford a light snack, but the choice here must be stopped on natural products - fruits or yogurt. It must be remembered that fasting with compulsive overeating will deal a blow to the entire body, as the body will begin to accumulate fat "in reserve". Therefore, meals should be regular and healthy.
- Find an alternative way to relieve nervous tension (this could be books, sports, music, movies, dancing, other hobbies).
- Eat mostly low-calorie foods. Do not go to restaurants, cafes and fast food establishments. Do not buy many products at once. Do not buy sweet, starchy foods, give preference to vegetables and fruits.
- Stop aimless grocery shopping. Do not watch cooking TV shows, do not leaf through recipe books. Do not discuss food with anyone. Stock up on small dishes that will eliminate the use of large portions.
- Do not go on diets and do not set strict bans on your favorite foods - allow yourself to relax at least once a week (not to the point of gluttony, but one pack of chips will not hurt).
Learn more
