If you have Binge Eating Disorder (BED), you may constantly feel under pressure to perform at high levels at work, school or home. This sense of pressure often leads to altered eating habits–sometimes causing you to skip meals during the day. Irregular eating along with with high stress levels can lead to eating extremely large amounts of food (bingeing). Some people who participate in fad diets end up with binge eating behaviors. This happens when diet plans require severe calorie restriction (deprivation) that leads to extreme hunger. The deprivation-driven hunger can eventually lead to binge eating behaviors. People with BED engage in binge-eating behaviors on an increasingly regular basis. The amount of food eaten during a binge is generally more than most people can eat at one time. You might also experience:
What Are Eating Disorders?
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that affect how a person thinks and feels about:
- Body weight, shape and size
- Food, eating and nutrition
- Physical activity
- Self worth and self esteem
We treat all eating disorders. Below are some of the most common. If you don’t see yourself fitting neatly into one of the descriptions below, that’s ok. It’s normal to not fully fit a definition or struggle in ways that are not always discussed. Anyone struggling with a preoccupation with body, movement and/or food (which sometimes looks like an obsession with ‘clean’ eating, plant-based living, etc.) deserves help.
Eating disorders are no one's fault and very common.
Anorexia Nervosa
If you have Anorexia, you may have an intense fear of gaining weight. Some describe this as a constant fear of “becoming fat.” Desperate to avoid this, you may do any of the following to prevent weight gain:
- Restricting the amount or types of food you eat (dieting or fasting)
- Burning calories by exercising a lot more than most people
- Ridding your body of calories quickly (purging) after eating snacks or meals. This might be done through:
– Taking pills such as diet pills, laxatives or diuretics
You might view your body shape or size differently than others. You might feel you are overweight, or at risk of becoming overweight, when other people tell you that you are normal weight or underweight.
Learn More About AnorexiaBulimia Nervosa
If you have Bulimia, you likely feel extremely unhappy about your present body shape and size. You may also feel overwhelmed, stressed, and even out of control. These feelings in addition to irregular eating can lead to overeating, which is often followed by purging your body of extra calories through behaviors such as:
- Self-induced vomiting
- Using pills (laxatives or diuretics) to cause food or drink to pass through your body quickly
- Exercising intensely or for long amounts of time
- Restricting food
You may find yourself engaging in these behaviors daily, or 1 or more times per week.
Binge-Eating Disorder
- Eating when you are not hungry
- Eating until you are uncomfortably full
- Eating alone because you feel embarrassed about your eating behaviors
- Feeling sad, angry, guilty or disgusted after a binge eating episode
You may find yourself engaging in these behaviors between 1 and 14 or more times per week.
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
Unlike other eating disorders, people with ARFID do not engage in disordered eating because of concerns over their body weight, shape or size. Instead, if you have ARFID, you might avoid eating certain foods, or categories of foods because you:
- Generally lack interest in eating or in food
- Dislike the textures, tastes or smells of many foods
- Worry about possible health risks of certain types of foods
Others may have thought of you as a “picky eater” at a young age. In some people, this can become so extreme that it causes problems such as having:
- A lower body weight than expected for your age or size
- Extremely low levels of important vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in your body
- Difficulty concentrating at school, work or home
Your food avoidance may cause you to need nutrition support through tube feedings or dietary supplements. Despite this, you might continue disordered eating behaviors, causing you to feel a great deal of social and emotional distress.
Learn More About ARFIDOther Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED)
OSFED stands for “Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder” and it is the most common eating disorder diagnosis that we see at EDCMT.
OSFED is a feeding or eating disorder that causes significant distress or impairment, but does not meet the criteria for another feeding or eating disorder. It includes conditions such as Atypical Anorexia, Sub-threshold Bulimia Nervosa, Sub-threshold Binge Eating Disorder, Purging Disorder, and Night Eating Syndrome. (Sub-threshold is a psychological term for talking about clinically relevant symptoms that don’t meet a diagnostic criteria for an established disease or disorder.)
These kinds of disordered thinking are psychologically and physically destructive, and need to be addressed, even if they don’t meet all the criteria for other more well known disorders.
A common misconception about OSFED is that because it does not meet all the criteria for other ED’s, it is less severe. This is not true. OFSED is a very real and debilitating disorder deserving treatment.
Some warning signs of OSFED include:
- Preoccupation with food and eating
- Preoccupation with body and weight
- Distorted body image
- Dissatisfaction with body
- Depression, Anxiety, or Irritability
- Increased anxiety or irritability around meals
- Refusing to eat certain categories of food
- Low self esteem and feelings of shame, self loathing, or guilt
