Bookmark and Share

Binge Eating Disorder: Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

By Staff Writer

Binge eating disorder (BED) is characterized by habitual overeating in periodic bursts. People who binge eat feel an intense urge to eat and have difficulty making themselves stop. A binge eater may consume thousands of calories in one sitting, and he or she may do this at regular intervals. As a result, unlike eating disorders like bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa that lead to excessively low body weight, binge eating often leads to overweight, obesity and all-around poor health resulting from unhealthy dietary habits. 

If left untreated, BED can lead to illness and poor quality of life. Since many people with this condition tend to binge on unhealthy foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt and low in nutritional content, the condition can wreak havoc on the body, leading to serious conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and high blood pressure.

In addition, people with binge eating disorder tend to suffer in other aspects of life. When going on a binge, some allow work, school and other responsibilities to fall by the wayside. Many sufferers have low self-esteem and tend to withdraw from relationships and social gatherings. They also tend to be highly secretive about their behaviors, which can cause them to withdraw even further.

Signs of Binge Eating Disorder

If you exhibit some of these symptoms, you may want to seek help at an eating disorder treatment program:

  • Experiencing a serious eating binge at least once a month;
  • An obsessive and excessively emotional relationship with food;
  • Habitually responding to emotional triggers (such as stress or fights with a spouse) with eating binges;
  • Eating excessively even when you feel bad about it;
  • Habitually eating to reward yourself for minor accomplishments; 
  • Feeling as if you’re not in control of yourself when it comes to food;
  • Feelings of depression, anxiety and disgust in oneself after a bout of binge eating;
  • Repeated failed attempts to diet;
  • Secretive eating behaviors such as sneaking snacks at work, eating in the middle of the night or eating when no one else is home;
  • Thinking about food even when you should be doing other things;
  • Eating when you’re not hungry;
  • Rapid weight gain.

Causes of Binge Eating Disorder

There is no single cause for binge eating disorder, and it likely varies from person to person. Studies have found that this and similar disorders tend to run in families, so it could be genes, household behaviors passed from parents to children or a combination of both. In any case, whether it’s genetic or learned, it’s clear that there are certain adults who are predisposed to binge eating behaviors and may struggle with them throughout their lives.

Binge eating disorder has been associated with non-food-related mental conditions. For example, it’s been found that around half of people with binge eating disorder have also had trouble with depression. Anxiety and difficulty coping with strong emotions can also play significant roles.

For many people, food serves as source of comfort in a very direct way. The types of foods that people typically binge on – sweets and salty snacks – when consumed in excess can give the eater a high feeling that helps him or her to cope with stress, depression, anxiety or feelings of low self-worth.

In this sense, binge eating is very similar to binge drinking or binge drug use. A binge drinker may have a beer or a glass of wine to take the edge off after a stressful day, but before he or she knows it, this one drink turns into 10 or 20, and the binge may stretch over a weekend or longer. The same happens to a binge eater, but with candy, ice cream, pizza, potato chips or whatever one’s binge-food of choice happens to be.

BED and Other Eating Disorders

Although the effects are different, binge eating disorder has some things in common with other eating disorders. Like bulimia sufferers, binge eaters have intense emotional connections with food, exhibiting orthorexic (i.e., food obsession) tendencies with frequent loss of control followed by guilt and depression.

In a sense, bulimics are binge eaters who purge, fast or exercise to balance out the calories they consume, and binge eaters are bulimics who don’t engage in the purging step. Both conditions are dangerous in their own ways. Bulimia, along with anorexia, can be fatal in extreme cases, and while BED doesn’t have the exact same risk factors, it can lead to serious and potentially life-threatening health problems.

Binge eating disorder is very similar to compulsive overeating, and the two are often confused, but there are differences between them. If binge eating disorder is akin to binge drinking, compulsive overeating corresponds to alcoholism. The compulsive overeater is literally addicted to the high they get from eating food. A binge eater, rather than having this type of addiction, loses control from time to time. Again, both conditions are equally dangerous, but their symptoms and treatments are slightly different.

Treatment for Binge Eating Disorder

If you think you may have BED, then you probably already know that you can’t just stop, and that dieting on its own is not a solution. No matter how many times you try to change the patterns, there are always going to be those moments of weakness. Without professional eating disorder treatment, you may end up going through the same cycle over and over again. And the longer you wait to seek treatment, the more damaging the binges will become.

Although binge eating disorder is not yet recognized in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, most nutritionists, psychiatrists and eating disorder specialists are well aware of this condition, as it is closely tied with many recognized disorders.

Exact modes of treatment vary from person to person, and the course must be decided between patient and doctor. With that being said, binge eating disorder treatment may include one or more of these methods:

  • Psychotherapy: The patient will work with a therapist to understand the underlying reasons for their disorder and identify ways to change unhealthy patterns.
  • Medication: There are no drug treatments specifically for BED, but there are many medications for underlying conditions such as depression and anxiety.
  • Medically supervised weight-loss programs: Without medical guidance, weight-loss programs can be dangerous for binge eaters. However, in combination with other types of therapy, such programs are essential for getting back to a healthy way of life.
  • Twelve Step programs and other group meetings: Programs such as Overeaters Anonymous give BED sufferers a chance to interact with others who have been through many of the same struggles, and this can have tremendous therapeutic benefits.