Though this scene may be hard for you to imagine, it's reality for many teenagers - a reality called binge eating.
Binge eating, sometimes called compulsive eating, affects approximately 4 million people in the United States, many of them teenagers. It's characterized by extreme overeating, feelings of shame or guilt associated with the binges, and often obesity. Most binge-eating sufferers are 20 to 30 percent above their ideal weight and have had weight issues their entire lives.
It's important to distinguish between someone who has an occasional binge and someone who has a binge-eating disorder. You may have too much to eat at a friend's birthday party, or go overboard with the Halloween candy. You may even gorge yourself on hotdogs and potato chips at a summer barbeque. But binge-eating is different.
First, binge-eating is often done in private. People with binge-eating disorder feel ashamed of their inability to control their eating so they rarely do it in front of other people. It's not uncommon for someone with binge-eating disorder to have food stashed away in a bedroom or other place where they can hide while they eat.
Second, binge-eating isn't an occasional occurrence. Most binge-eaters do it almost every day, sometimes consuming thousands of calories in one sitting.
Third, compulsive overeaters don't binge because they want to, but because they feel powerless to stop. Once they start eating, they feel almost no ability to control the amount of food they consume.
An eating binge can be triggered by any number of things: stress, anxiety, anger, depression, or other emotions. Researchers have found that stress activates the same response in binge eaters as in someone with a drug addiction. It's a part of the brain that seeks comfort and pleasure, but craves it in excess in the brain of an addict. This same craving appears to exist in people with binge-eating disorder.
Another part of the brain, called the hypothalamus, may also play a role in binge-eating. The hypothalamus controls appetite, telling the body when it's hungry and when it's full. If the hypothalamus isn't functioning properly, it won't signal the body that it's had enough to eat.
A person's upbringing can also contribute to the development of binge-eating disorder. If he was raised in a household that used food to soothe or comfort, those tendencies can be carried into adolescence and adulthood. If the person was taught that negative feelings should be suppressed rather than expressed, she may turn to food to try and cover up those feelings.
There's no easy solution for binge-eating disorder. Someone who struggles with it needs to seek professional help from not only a counselor but also someone in the nutrition field. There are also many outstanding residential eating disorder facilities that can help the healing begin.
Posted By: jgarcia