Everyone overeats once in a while. There's the feast at Thanksgiving, where you gorge yourself, unbutton your waistband and sprawl on the couch. And the dinner party where you toss down one too many cocktails and nosh on far too many appetizers. But there's a much more serious condition involving overindulgence. It's called binge eating disorder, and it's the most common eating disorder, affecting more people than anorexia and bulimia combined.
Binge eating makes people obese, and the disorder can be life threatening. That's why binge eating dis- order has alarmed health officials and why it's been hitting the news lately.
Here are seven key questions that you can answer to help you decide whether or not you have binge eating disorder:
■ Have you ever eaten a huge amount of food in a short period of time (i.e., more than 2,000 calories in less than two hours)? People who binge do not graze continually. They eat a lot at once and feel helpless to stop until uncomfortably full. (And sometimes they still keep going.)
■ Do you ever shovel food down, barely chewing, barely tasting or savoring what you are eating? People who binge use food as an anaesthetic for agitation, anxiety, anger or any un-comfortable feelings. When you binge, you're psychologically stuffing down negative emotions and swallowing them, before they can reach the surface.
■ Do you sometimes, and perhaps often, eat alone in secret? People who binge feel woefully ashamed about their eating habits. So they tend to cut off social contact, relying on food as their best friend.
■ Do you ever find that your appetite craving is so strong that you eat frozen or scalding hot food? People who binge are so driven by the urge to binge that they can't wait for food to thaw or cool down.
■ Have you ever eaten food from your trash? People who binge often know a binge is coming and throw food away in the hopes of thwarting their bingeing urge. It's a doomed tactic. People who try it only retrieve the food from the trashcan and binge anyway.
■ Have you ever mixed strange or unpalatable foods (e.g., adding chili peppers to ice cream)? People who binge do this as a tactic for preempting binge eating. One woman who regularly binged would drop her son off at preschool every day, return home and put all the leftovers from the night before into a pot with water. She'd combine fried chicken with salad and cake, stew the ingredients for 20 minutes, then eat the horrid concoction. She hoped the nausea from the mixture would keep her from binging. It didn't.
■ Have you ever gone to great lengths to procure your "favorite foods," which often are also your "forbidden foods" (such as chocolate, ice cream or junk food)? People who binge feel trapped in their heads, obsessing about and acquiring food. Willpower does not work to thwart a full-blown case of binge eating disorder. For example, a person who regularly binges might drive out to a convenience store at 2 a.m. to buy the perfect double chocolate brownie mix, make the dessert and eat the entire panful. As it is with a substance abuse problem, nothing short of shackles and chains will stop them.
If any of this is you, take heart. Binge eating is treatable, especially if you catch it early on.
So don't postpone getting help no matter how ashamed you feel. You are not alone. There are at least 4 million more Americans like you, nearly 40 percent of them men.
If you have binge eating disorder, you are not lazy or powerless. You simply need treatment, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which works on both your behaviors and the feelings behind those behaviors. Remember: it's your mind, your body and your life. And you can take charge. Today.
Trisha Gura is the author of "Lying in Weight: the Hidden Epidemic of Eating Disorders in Adult Women" (Harper Collins). Visit her online at trishagura.com
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