Food Binging – A Demon by Any Other Name
Most people have heard of binge eating. However, many are not aware that there are two major categories of binging.
1. Binging and Purging (This is where food is consumed followed by self-induced vomiting.)
2. Binging without Purging (There is no induced vomiting.)
We will be addressing the second type of binging in this article (no purging). This problem is more common than many realize as some 3% of adults suffer from this disorder.
Binging is an even greater problem for obese adults. If we limit ourselves to this population only, we find the percentages increase to as high as ten to fifteen percent. So as you might expect, binging is much more of a problem for obese people.
A discovery that has turned up in research is that dieting is often the trigger for binging. Binging is one way in which some people try to reduce stress. Dieting certainly qualifies as a stressful event. For some people, binging is a way of self-medicating in an effort to relieve feelings of frustration and anxiety.
When food is used in this way, it becomes a type of addiction. Unfortunately, like most addictions, binging carries the sufferer through a circular nightmare.
At first binging relieves stress and/or anxiety around some event that is bothering the binger. But at some point, realization sets in about how much food has been consumed. This in turn leads to thoughts of being a failure, followed by quilt and shame. In other words, the binger finds him/herself back at the beginning, feeling stressed and needing relief.
And around and around we go.
If you are a chronic binger or if someone close to you is, it’s important to realize that:
1. Outside help may be required to cure the problem.
2. There are several options for professional help (types of therapy) available these days
If outside help is not an option, or does not appeal to you, consider some of the following approaches. They have proven to work well for many:
1. Do not try to lose more than 1 to 2 pounds a week. Severe calorie reduction is much more likely to trigger binging.
2. To make your diet more enjoyable and reduce stress, budget two hundred calories a day for foods that you really like.
3. NEVER go more than 4 hours without food.
4. Aim for 4 to 6 meals a day.
5. Structure your eating pattern. Eat on a schedule. The body seems much happier with this arrangement.
Exercise, some form of sports, meditation and other such activities can help to reduce the effects of stress. Another approach is reframing. In this approach, you learn to view events differently so that in the end, you don’t have the same emotional response. In other words, you can learn to view the world in a non-stressful manner.