#WellnessWednesday

Know about ‘Binge Eating Disorder’!?

BED diagnosis include at least one binge episode per week without any compensatory purging behavior. Which would then lead to a bulimia nervosa diagnosis. Binges must involve an objectively large amount of food, consumed within two hours, and accompanied by a feeling of loss of control.

In simple terms, binging is the act of consuming an excess of something in a short amount of time. It can be it food, alcohol, drugs, you name it. Bingeing behavior might be more common than you think.

Clinical psychologist ‘Michael Mantell’ explains that all types of bingeing are “ways of dealing with negative emotions that are not rational or healthy. Full-fledged binge disorders are characterized by feelings of powerlessness, secrecy, shame, and social isolation.”

Triggers for binge eating behavior

• Psychological:

A lot of the time, bingeing is simply a way to numb unhappy feelings. 

• Chemical:

When we eat junk food, for example, Chocolate/ burger; our brain releases the feel-awesome neurotransmitter dopamine in huge quantities.

Also when we are dehydrated; Lack of water can lead to overeating.

Dehydration also causes muscle fatigue.

If liver is not getting enough water, and not being able to produce glycogens. Low glycogen count means low energy.

Both these signs trigger the brain to release hunger hormone named ghrelin. Which causes unnecessary eating.

Solution:

• 1^st & foremost thing is identify your triggers.

2^nd ly ask if yourself, “are you hungry? Or bored? Or thirsty?”

• Stick to a schedule

A 2014 study showed that participants who ate three meals a day, plus two or three snacks in between, binged less frequently over the course of a week. 

But Remember, self-treatment is only okay for less serious cases of binge behavior.

If bingeing is continuously, negatively impacting your life to the point where it causes distress or financial, social or physical harm then you need to seek professional help.

• Community support groups, online support, and recovery program groups, and workshops. 
• Many of the new programs teach abstinence from food that trigger eating binges. And use methodologies that have proven to be successful in other recovery programs, such as the popular 12-step approach.

While no solution is guaranteed to work, the new types of programs provide additional options for people that previously may have bounced from fad diet to fad diet in an endless search for a sustainable solution.

Trends:

• Compared to healthy controls, those diagnosed with BED reported specific trends. They show more frequent family histories of depression, greater vulnerability to obesity. Also more exposure to negative comments about shape or weight, greater perfectionism, and higher negative self-evaluation.
• Compared to obese individuals who do not binge, those diagnosed with BED reported greater weight and shape concerns, more personality disturbance, more mood/anxiety disorders, and a lower overall quality of life.