Q. What is Binge Eating Disorder

A. Binge eating disorder is described as having recurrent, or frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food in a short period of time with a feeling of being unable to control it.  It can be life-threatening.  Guilt, shame and loneliness are common results of binging.  According to the National Eating Disorder Association the follow statistics have been found:

• The prevalence of BED is estimated to be approximately 1-5% of the general population.
• Binge eating disorder affects women slightly more often than men--estimates indicate that about 60% of people struggling with binge eating disorder are female, 40% are male (NIH, 1993).
• People who struggle with binge eating disorder can be of normal or heavier than average weight.
• BED is often associated with symptoms of depression.
• People struggling with BED often express distress, shame, and guilt over their eating behaviors.

The health risks of BED are most commonly those associated with clinical obesity. Some of the potential health consequences of binge eating disorder include:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol levels
• Heart disease
• Diabetes mellitus
• Gallbladder disease

You can heal binge eating disorder but you must get to the root cause of it.  Healing the whole person from the inside out instead of trying to use willpower or scare tactics is the only way to truly be free. 

Q. What are the signs and symptoms of binge eating disorder?

A. When you have binge-eating disorder you regularly eat excessive amounts of food. A binge is considered eating a larger amount of food than most people would eat under similar situations. For instance, you may eat 10,000 to 20,000 calories worth of food during a binge, while someone following a normal diet may eat 1,500 to 2,000 calories in a day.

There is no set timeframe as to how long a binge lasts.  Binges can be anywhere from 15 minutes to all day.  It is the eating out-of-control that constitutes a binge.

You may have no obvious physical signs or symptoms when you have binge-eating disorder. You may be overweight or obese, or you may be of a normal weight. In fact, most obese people don't have binge-eating disorder.

On the other hand, when you have binge-eating disorder you often have numerous behavioral and emotional signs and symptoms. These may include:

• Eating large amounts of food
• Eating even when you're full
• Eating rapidly during binge episodes
• Feeling that your eating behavior is out of control
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Frequent dieting without weight loss
• Frequently eating alone
• Hoarding food
• Hiding empty food containers
• Feeling depressed, disgusted or upset about your eating

After a binge, you may try to diet or eat normal meals. But restricting your eating may simply lead to more binge eating, creating a vicious cycle.  It creates a secret shameful life.

Q. What did I do to cause my binge eating disorder?

A. There are many factors, situations, events, society, life changes, and relationships with people that can lead someone to use food as a comfort measure.  The person suffering from the disorder has not "done anything wrong".  Please don't think that you deserve to have an eating disorder because you feel like you did something to deserve it.  That is just not true.  Everyone deserves a chance at a happy joyful life filled with wonderful experiences. 

We all have horror stories we could share about traumatic events in our lives.  Every one of us.  These can all lead to eating disorders.  People use food to comfort themselves and at first this seems to work until the binges themselves become part of the problem.  Then it becomes an addiction and difficult to break free from.  There are many types of binges ranging anywhere from opportunity binges to habit binges. 

But there is no one particular "cause" that leads someone to binge eating disorder.  Binging is the end result of your thought patterns.  Finding out what the thought patterns are, challenging them, and learning how to handle stress can all help in overcoming the disorder.

Q. Can anyone heal binge eating disorder?

A. Absolutely!  But there is a catch.  They have to WANT to first.  It's that old saying, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink".  It's like that no matter what you are trying to do in life.  You must first want to do something in order to have it work.  For someone who truly is ready to heal, wants to follow the program and do the necessary work involved every day, then yes, it can be healed.

A binge is the end result of a thought pattern.  For example, if you experience a large amount of stress that you don't know how to handle your emotions can flare up are take over your thoughts.  You have feelings based on those thoughts.  So if you got yelled at today by your boss for being late, you may go home thinking that he is going to fire you tomorrow which is causing you a great deal of unwanted stress.  Your thoughts (whether they are accurate or not) are creating your experience which is stress.  You then turn to food to comfort the feelings that you are going to get fired.  You need to break the thought pattern, learn how to assess a situation and then learn coping techniques.  You can break free from the cycle of binging if you understand it and use the tools to do it.

Here is a quick exercise that we use in the program that you can use now.  With the above situation (thinking you will be fired) can you see where the emotions are and where the facts are?  Ask yourself, "what are the facts?"  List JUST the facts about the situation.  Do not speculate.  Your feelings are what is making you think you may get fired but that might not be true at all.  Use only facts to appraise the situation.  Now with those facts, can you see what your choices are?  You can arrive on time.  You can be early.  You can also choose to be late and face those consequences.  Evaluate the situation with just facts. 

Q. What if I'm not sure I have the strength or ability to heal myself?

A. It's important to understand what kind of emotional issues having binge eating disorder has left you with.  We get into finding the root cause of your eating disorder in the first module because unless you understand what you feel inside, you can't heal anything. 

Binge eating disorder is the result of a thought pattern so we need to change the thought patterns.  We do that from the inside out.  What we mean by that is when you join The BreakAway Program, we work through the "stages of change" model which shows the steps people need to go through in order for their minds and body to accept the changes they are making.  You don't have to use willpower or force to stop binging when you work on the core issues. 

And lastly, everyone is born with the ability to self-heal themselves under the right conditions.  When your mind and body join forces and stop being at odds with each other, then the healing just happens.  You don't need to be Hercules to heal yourself.

Q. I wish I could just stop binging but I can't.  I've tried Overeaters Anonymous (OA) and counseling but nothing works.

A. Overeaters Anonymous was one of the first programs available for compulsive overeating (binge eating) and it is still in existence today.  There are 12 Steps of their program.  We will list the steps here just in case there are others who are not aware of them.  This is taken directly from the OA website:

The Twelve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous

1. We admitted we were powerless over food, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Overeaters Anonymous served the public for many years.  However, in the past few years there have been many new advances in how we approach healing.  We are learning that there are newer and perhaps better ways to heal binge eating disorder than traditional ways of thinking.  If what you have tried in the past did not work, it is time to try a new approach.

Q. What if I need your help while I am working on the program?  Is there support?

A. Help is always just a click away.  As a client, you can email Nadine for personal support any time you like. 

Q. What should I expect once I join the binge eating program?

A. Once you become a member you will have immediate access to the online program and all the extras in the members area.  You will have your person journal, to-do list and goals section.  You can also sign up for weekly check-ins with Nadine.

You can begin any time you choose.  Follow along with the instructions given in the program.  It is self paced but there is a recommended pace which you'll see once you begin.  You'll have daily work to do which takes approximately 15-20 minutes to do each day.