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An eating disorder is when you have an unhealthy attitude to food, which can take over your life and make you ill.
 

It can involve eating too much or too little, or becoming obsessed with your weight and body shape.

But there are treatments that can help, and you can recover from an eating disorder.
 

Men and women of any age can get an eating disorder, but they most commonly affect young women aged 13 to 17 years old.

If you or people around you are worried that you have an unhealthy relationship with food that's affecting your eating habits, you could have an eating disorder.
 

Symptoms of eating disorders include:

• spending a lot of time worrying about your weight and body shape
• avoiding socialising when you think food will be involved
• eating very little food
• deliberately making yourself sick or taking laxatives after you eat
• exercising too much
• having very strict habits or routines around food
• changes in your mood

You may also notice physical signs, including:

• feeling cold, tired or dizzy
• problems with your digestion
• your weight being very high or very low for someone of your age and height
• not getting your period for women and girls

This web page addresses the specific symptoms of binge eating disorder. You can read, on the following links, more about the specific symptoms of:

• Anorexia
• Bulimia

It's important to remember that even if your symptoms don't exactly match those for anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder, you may still have an eating disorder.

It can often be very difficult to identify that a loved one or friend has developed an eating disorder.
 

Warning signs to look out for include:

• dramatic weight loss
• lying about how much and when they've eaten, or how much they weigh
• eating a lot of food very fast
• going to the bathroom a lot after eating, often returning looking flushed
• excessively or obsessively exercising
• avoiding eating with others
• cutting food into small pieces or eating very slowly
• wearing loose or baggy clothes to hide their weight loss

There is no one specific cause of eating disorders. However many people who have, or have had, an eating disorder, have experienced one or more of the following:

• belonging to a family that has a history of eating disorders, depression, or alcohol or drug addiction
• having been criticised for your eating habits, body shape or weight
• being overly concerned with being slim, particularly if they also feel under pressure from society or their job – for example, ballet dancers, jockeys, models or athletes
• anxiety, low self-esteem, an obsessive personality, or are a perfectionist
• have been sexually abused

That said, it is also true that experience of one or more of the above does not automatically lead to the development of an eating disorder - this is because people are different and not everyone reacts in the same way to the same things.

The most common eating disorders are:

• anorexia nervosa – when you try to keep your weight as low as possible by not eating enough food, exercising too much, or both
• bulimia nervosa – when you sometimes lose control and eat a lot of food in a very short amount of time (binging) and are then deliberately sick, use laxatives (medication to help you poo), restrict what you eat, or do too much exercise to try to stop yourself gaining weight
• binge eating disorder (BED) – when you regularly lose control of your eating, eat large portions of food all at once until you feel uncomfortably full, and are then often upset or guilty
• other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) – when your symptoms don't exactly match those of anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder, but it doesn't mean it's a less serious illness

OSFED is the most common, then binge eating disorder and bulimia. Anorexia is the least common.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is an eating disorder where a person feels compelled to overeat - the person regularly loses control of their eating, and eats large portions of food all at once, until they feel uncomfortably full, and then aftterwards they often feel upset or guilty about having 'given in to temptation' - yet again.

People who binge eat consume very large quantities of food over a short period of time, even when they are not hungry. Binges are often planned in advance and can involve the person buying "special" binge foods. Binge foods can typically be one specifiic food (e.g. custard cream biscuits), or a specific food type or genre (e.g. Chinese take aways).

In rare cases, people describe themselves as being in a "dazed state" during a binge – particularly binges during the night – and they are not able to recall what they ate.

Binge eating can sometimes develop following a strict diet, particularly if you skipped meals, cut certain foods out and didn't eat enough food. This can result in episodes of binge eating sometimes alternating with periods where the person cuts down on the amount of food they eat. 

This can lead to a vicious cycle that is difficult to break – where blood sugar levels rise and fall rapidly, and false messages are sent to the brain, which result in cravings for food when your body doesn't need it.

The starve-binge approach to dieting can be an unhealthy way to lose weight and may mean you're more likely to binge at another time.  

Men and women of any age can get binge eating disorder, but it typically starts in the late teens or early 20s.

Binge Eating Disorder is slightly more common in women than men, the numbers of men and women affected are more equal than in other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa.

Anyone can be affected by binge eating. The condition tends to first develop during early adulthood, although many people do not seek help until they are in their 30s or 40s.

It has been estimated that there is around a 1 in 30 to 1 in 50 chance of a person developing binge eating disorder at some point during their life.

The main symptom of binge eating disorder is eating very large amounts of food in a short time, often in an out-of-control way. But symptoms may also include:

• eating much faster than normal during a binge
• eating until you feel uncomfortably full
• eating a large amount of food when you're not hungry
• eating alone or secretly due to being embarrassed about the amount of food you are consuming
• feeling depressed, guilty, ashamed or disgusted after binge eating
• eating one specific food type (e.g. custard cream biscuits or tubs of ice ceram),
• advanced preparation for a binge by buying the preferred food in the knowledge that it will likely all be consumed, secretly, in a binge

People who regularly eat in this way may have binge eating disorder.

The following warning signs could indicate that someone you care about has a binge eating disorder:

• eating a lot of food, very fast
• trying to hide how much they are eating
• storing up their own secret supplies of food (e.g. in their bedroom).
• lying about how much and when they've eaten, or how much they weigh
• putting on weight – though this doesn't happen to everyone with binge eating disorder

There is no one specific cause of eating disorders but, like most eating disorders, Binge Eating Disorder is sometimes associated with being a way of coping with feelings of unhappiness and low self-esteem.

Things that may increase your risk of developing problems with binge eating, based on many people who have, or have had, an eating disorder, include the following: 

• you or a member of your family has a history of eating disorders, depression, or alcohol or drug addiction - a family history of eating disorders may be related to your genes.
• you have been criticised for your eating habits, body shape or weight
• you're overly concerned with being slim, or thin, particularly if you also feel pressure from society or your job – for example, ballet dancers, jockeys, models or athletes
• you have depression or anxiety, low self-esteem and a lack of confidence, an obsessive personality, or are a perfectionist
• you have been sexually abused
• you experience feelings of stress, anger, boredom or loneliness
• you have had stressful or traumatic events in your past
• you have differences in your brain or the level of hormones produced by your brain compared to people who don't binge eat
• Feeling powerless and 'stuck' in a poor relationship
• Additionallly, Binge eating can sometimes develop following a strict diet, particularly if you skipped meals, cut certain foods out and didn't eat enough food. These are unhealthy ways to lose weight and may mean you're more likely to binge at another time.

That said, it is also true that experience of one or more of the above does not automatically lead to the development of an eating disorder - this is because people are different and not everyone reacts in the same way to the same things.

Binge eating is often associated with serious psychological problems, including depression and anxiety which may get worse if you continue to binge eat.

A common physical effect of binge eating is weight gain, which can lead to obesity. This can put you at risk of a number of related serious physical health problems, some of which can be life-threatening. These include:

• high cholesterol and high blood pressure – which can increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease and stroke
• diabetes – a long-term condition that causes your blood sugar level to become too high
• osteoarthritis – a condition that causes pain and swelling in the joints
• some types of cancer – such as breast cancer and bowel cancer

Therefore, it's important to seek help if you think you may have a binge eating problem, because you may need support to help you tackle both your psychological and physical problems.

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Treatment Therapy for Binge Eating Disorder

The following are just some examples of possible causes of Binge Eating Disorder:

• Eating too quickly, so that the stomach is full before the 'full stomach' signals can be received and acted upon by the brain - and the appetite suppressed.
• Having a liking for a particular food or type of food, such that its very presence is irresistible.
• It can be a form of comfort eating taken to excess, where eating in that way provides some short term pleasure and enjoyment.
• It can be habitual, where the negative health consequences of binge eating have either not yet revealed themselves, or haven't yet been noticed. It is a 'bad habit' that can be difficult to break.
• It can be ignorance. The binge eater simply doesn't realise the significane of what they are doing with regard to their long term health.
• It can caused by being encouraged, as a child, to always eat and finish all of their food and to never leave any foood on their plate at the end of a meal.

Some binge eating may be traceable to childhood experiences - such as having insufficient food in childhood, such that the behaviour of eating as much as possible, when food did become available, formed.

Others may have the feeling that they are completely powerless to prevent a binge from taking place - and, again, that feeling of 'powerlessness' may have formed and been established over the years through numerous episodes of binge eating.

Others may have been encouraged, in childhood, to always finish all of the food on their plate when young - and the habit has developed and grown stronger and more noticeable over the years into adulthood.

Others may find a particular comfort in eating some particular food that they formed a liking for in childhood - and that comfort may help them to feel better about some events that may have occurred, either recently, or at some time in the past.

These thoughts and ideas can be identified, and reversed where necessary, using a combination of Hypnoanalysis Hypnotherapy Treatment and Suggestion Hypnotherapy Treatment.

YOUR NEXT STEP...

Either:

Contact Peter to make an appointment for a free initial consultation.

or

Read more about Hypnosis and the therapy used at The Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic.

Alternatively, continue reading on down this page for information on the approach used by the NHS towards helping people with binge eating disorder.

The main NHS treatments are:

• self-help programmes are often the first suggestion for treatment of Binge Eating Disorder – this may be individually with a book or online course, or as part of a self-help support group. Your GP might recommend books or self-help courses. 
• guided self-help (a self-help programme but under the regular supervision of a professional health worker, such as a therapist or nurse, to support you).
• specialist group intervention, based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• individual (one-to-one) psychological therapy – such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), or (sometimes) modified Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). 
• medication called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)as either an alternative or accompaniment to self-help or talking therapies. Similar drugs used to treat depression might be suggested by your doctor, and this can sometimes help to reduce the behaviour patterns associated with binge eating disorder.

These treatments can help you overcome the psychological issues associated with your binge eating, but they won't usually have a significant impact on your weight. You shouldn't try to diet while you are having treatment as it can make your binge eating worse.

Binge eating disorder often causes weight gain (though not always), which can lead to other health problems.

If you are overweight, a healthcare professional (therapist, nurse or dietitian) may also help you to draw up a weight loss plan to follow during treatment or after any psychological issues have been dealt with.

With the right treatment and support, most people recover from binge eating disorder, but it may take time.

The NHS may refer you for psychological therapy to help tackle the underlying problems that cause you to binge eat. You shouldn't try to diet while you are having treatment because this can make it much more difficult to stop binge eating.

The two main types of psychological therapy used to help people with binge eating disorder are:

• cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for binge eating disorder (CBT-BED) – a specially adapted type of CBT that involves talking to a therapist and working out new ways of thinking about situations, feelings and food.
• interpersonal therapy (IPT) – therapy that focuses on relationship-based issues and how they may be influencing your eating habits.

These therapies can be effective in helping people who binge eat, although it's not clear how long-lasting the results are.

It’s common to experience some periods where the problem improves (remission) and periods where they get worse (relapse), especially in the early stages of treatment.

NHS Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

If you're offered CBT, it will usually be in group sessions with other people, but it may also be offered as one-to-one individual sessions with a therapist.

CBT involves talking to a therapist, who will help you explore patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that could be contributing to your Binge eating disorder.

You should be offered about 16 weekly sessions (typically up to 20 sessions) over 4 or 5 months, each one lasting about 90 minutes for a group session and 60 minutes for an individual session.

During the first few sessions your difficulties are discussed and it will become clearer during this time whether CBT will be helpful for you. You and your therapist will create a treatment plan, outlining what treatment methods will be used and roughly how long treatment will last. Sessions usually take place at the same time and place weekly or fortnightly.

You will be asked to complete weekly questionnaires about your difficulties. These will help to monitor your progress, guide treatment and identify problem areas.

They will try to help you to adopt regular eating habits and show you how to stick to them. They should also show you ways to manage difficult feelings and situations to stop you from relapsing once your therapy ends.

Every session, your therapist will write a session plan with you to ensure that everything that is important will be covered in a structured way.

Treatment will involve a regular review of any risks that have been identified with you. At the end of your treatment you and your therapist create a plan to help keep you on track, help prevent relapse and a plan should you relapse.

Antidepressants are rarely prescribed for children or young people under 18 and should not be offered as the sole and only treatment for binge eating disorder, for which some change in thinking style is usually necessary via psychological therapy treatment. But you may be offered an antidepressant, like fluoxetine (Prozac), in combination with self-help therapy or psychological therapy treatment, to help you manage other conditions, such as:

• anxiety or depression
• social phobia
• obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Prozac belongs to the class of drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

Some people may be prescribed a type of antidepressant medication called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) instead of, or in addition to, a self-help programme.

SSRIs boost levels of a chemical called serotonin in the brain, which may help lift your mood and lead to an improvement in your eating habits. However, the long-term effects of the treatment for binge eating are unknown.

Common side effects of SSRIs include:

• feeling agitated, shaky or anxious
• feeling or being sick
• indigestion
• diarrhoea or constipation
• loss of appetite and weight loss
• dizziness
• blurred vision
• difficulty sleeping (insomnia) or feeling very sleepy
• low sex drive

These side effects will often tend improve, or become less noticeable, over time, although some can persist.

Although the treatments mentioned above won’t address your weight directly, you may experience some weight loss if you are able to control your bingeing – particularly if you combine treatment with regular exercise.

If you are struggling to lose weight, your GP or a weight loss management health professional (such as a dietitian) will be able to draw up a weight loss plan that will provide you with the nutrition your body needs to be healthy, as well as helping you to lose weight.

You may be advised to follow this plan alongside your other treatments, or after your psychological issues have been dealt with.

Your plan may involve:

• keeping a food diary to see if there is any pattern to when you binge and to highlight the types of food you binge on
• having regular, planned meals and not skipping meals
• eating healthy snacks between meals to stop you getting hungry
• not depriving yourself of specific foods – you may be encouraged to include some unhealthy foods in your eating plan to reduce your urge to binge on them
• having a balanced, calorie-controlled diet as recommended by your GP or other healthcare professional
• exercising regularly – most adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week

It's important that you lose weight healthily. Extreme dieting and cutting out meals can make binge eating worse.

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Treatment Therapy for Binge Eating Disorder

The following are just some examples of possible causes of Binge Eating Disorder:

• Eating too quickly, so that the stomach is full before the 'full stomach' signals can be received and acted upon by the brain - and the appetite suppressed.
• Having a liking for a particular food or type of food, such that its very presence is irresistible.
• It can be a form of comfort eating taken to excess, where eating in that way provides some short term pleasure and enjoyment.
• It can be habitual, where the negative health consequences of binge eating have either not yet revealed themselves, or haven't yet been noticed. It is a 'bad habit' that can be difficult to break.
• It can be ignorance. The binge eater simply doesn't realise the significane of what they are doing with regard to their long term health.
• It can caused by being encouraged, as a child, to always eat and finish all of their food and to never leave any foood on their plate at the end of a meal.

Some binge eating may be traceable to childhood experiences - such as having insufficient food in childhood, such that the behaviour of eating as much as possible, when food did become available, formed.

Some people may have the feeling that they are completely powerless to prevent a binge from taking place - and, again, that feeling of 'powerlessness' may have formed and been established over the years through numerous episodes of binge eating.

Other people may have been encouraged, in childhood, to always finish all of the food on their plate when young - and the habit has developed and grown stronger and more noticeable over the years into adulthood.

And some others may find a particular comfort in eating some particular food that they formed a liking for in childhood - and that comfort may help to feel better about some events that may have occurred, either recently, or at some time in the past.

These thoughts and ideas can be identified, and reversed where necessary, using a combination of Hypnoanalysis Hypnotherapy Treatment and Suggestion Hypnotherapy Treatment.

YOUR NEXT STEP...

Either:

Contact Peter to make an appointment for a free initial consultation.

or

Read more about Hypnosis and the therapy used at The Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic.

The Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic TM

For professional, caring and confidential help, adviice, therapy or treatment for, or about, any of the above issues or topics, or similar, just contact Peter, preferably by e-mail, to arrange an appointment for your free initial consultation.

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For Hypnosis therapy and Hypnotherapy in Surrey, the Surrey towns of: Addlestone, Aldershot, Bracknell, Byfleet, Camberley, Epsom, Farnborough, Godalming, Guildford, Knaphill, Leatherhead, Runnymede, Staines, Sunbury, Walton, West Byfleet, Weybridge and Woking are all within a short 30 minute drive from Woking Hypnosis Hypnotherapist Peter Back at the Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic,

If you would like to find out more about how Surrey Hypnotherapist Peter Back might be able to help you, or if you are simply looking for the best help, advice, therapy or treatment, from a highly qualified and experienced Psychoanalyst, Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist or Hypnotist, just contact Peter by e-mail, at the Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic, Woking, to arrange an appointment to learn more about Hypnosis and Peter's own unique form of specialist, evidence based, Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy.

Acknowledgements

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anxiety/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://evidencebasedpsychotherapy.com/therapist-directory/name/peter-back/

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Eating-disorders/Pages/Introduction.aspx

https://www.b-eat.co.uk/

https://www.b-eat.co.uk/assets/000/000/383/Beat_EOSG_survey_results_original.pdf?1427212028

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng69

https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/mental-health/binge-eating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B78yP6BuUjc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_75w0FMQD4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge_eating

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey

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