BINGE EATING DISORDER EXPLAINED
Reflecting on the discussions of the past two weeks, one reader highlighted that she had a close acquaintance who consumed large quantities of food in a short period of time, and did not have control over their eating patterns which caused emotional distress to them.
In addition, the consociate ate even when full and would be seen stashing food in secret places to access later. Whilst a diagnosis cannot be made without a full mental status assessment, the symptoms expressed may be indicative of binge eating disorder which will be among the foci points for today.
Although most people don’t realise it is an eating disorder, the symptoms include the deed of eating more rapidly than normal, eating even when one is not hungry, eating very fast and eating secretly without other people seeing. Individuals with binge eating disorder often have feelings of being depressed, guilty, ashamed or disgusted after binge eating.
For a diagnosis of binge eating disorder to be made, there is need for the binges to occur frequently for at least once a week for three months and they should be not controllable with three of the aforementioned symptoms.There are many risk factors that can be attributed to binge eating disorders. Some binge eating behaviours are a way of compensating for unmet needs as well as numbing or circumventing uncomfortable feelings (emotional eating).
Other factors may be that an individual has history of trauma and abuse and also a personal history of food insecurity.
Mental disorders like depression, anxiety disorder, substance use disorders may also exert risk for one to develop binge eating disorder. A paper by Streatfeild and colleagues paints a gloomy picture of the adverse impact of eating disorders in the United States with high economic costs and reduced wellbeing.
Though there is no documented evidence in lower to middle income countries (LMIC), binge eating disorders can complicate to physical challenges like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases like elsewhere in the world. Treating binge eating disorder can come in the form of psychotherapy, more specifically cognitive behavioural therapy, as well as pharmacotherapy.
Binge eating comes with excessive eating which can lead to weight gain hence individuals may seek help in order to reduce weight, and often not striving to address the binge eating disorder itself. The services of a dietician may come handy in weight loss treatment.