Binge Eating Disorder: Symptoms, Causes and Treatments

Uncontrollable Appetite Disorder Called Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

Binge eating disorder (BED) is one of types of eating disorder in which the person consumes a a lot of numbers of food without able to control his or her appetites to eat. This binge eating disorder increases the risk of very serious illnesses including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and even every cardiac diseases. Unlike anorexia which controls every types of food, binge eating disorder cannot control his desire to eat.

Description of BED

Psychotherapy research involving binge eating disorder has been largely based on treatments for bulimia nervosa and, because substantial number of binge eating disorder patients are overweight or obese, on psychotherapy treatment research for obesity. Because obesity is a common comorbird condition, researchers have been concerned with how to relate treatments designed to reduce binge eating behaviour with those designed to enhance weight loss.

Based on available studies, most experts agree that initial therapeutic aims should focus on reducing binge eating episodes. Once may be more effective, nevertheless, when results are examined at five years after treatment the enduring impact of weight loss programs is not very impressive. For obese patients, "non-diet approaches that stress self-acceptance, improving body image, and improving health and fitness through exercise and better nutrition, are being developed as alternatives to unsuccessful weight loss programs.

Symptoms of BED

A person that has been diagnosed as having binge eating disorder usually consumes lots of foods in high amounts, and he also cannot control the eating process. Probably, this could be like a new phenomenon of mukbang. However, the difference lies on the self-contemplation after eating too much of foods. For BED patients, they often to feel emotional, guilty, anxious and depression after eating the foods.

Physical and behavioural symptoms of BED patients can be observed by:

• Rapid pace of eating compared to normal eating process
• High amount of foods even though he or she does not feel hungry
• Over-eating that makes uncomfortable abs
• Isolated person in particular for eating by themselves
• Highly related to bulimia  nervosa

Common appearance of BED symptoms may have been seen around once a week within three months. The BED is classified into light symptoms which can be observed in once a week, while acute eating disorder occurs 14 times a week.

Causes of BED

Binge eating disorder is a condition in which individuals binge eat large quantities of food in very short periods of time, often 1000 to 2000 calories or more at a time beyond their nutritional needs, at least several times per week for months on end, and have accompanying feelings of shame, disgust, and being out of control. As the symptoms of BED are highly related to bulimia nervousa, the causes might have related to that disorder too. Although, scientific explanation of binge eating disorder remains blur due to psychological factors including emotional trauma, bipolar disorder, drugs and alcoholic addiction or some kind of brain impairments.