What is Binge Eating?

As with binging behaviors in bulimia, people with BED tend to eat large quantities of food in a relatively short amount of time. Binges can consist of excessive amounts of calories - in the thousands and tens of thousands at one sitting. Unlike bulimics, binge eaters do not purge afterward or compensate for the excessive amount of calories.

Why do it?

BED, like other eating disorders, is a way to avoid dealing with feelings. As I said in my description for bulimia nervosa, the act of binge eating - stuffing food down in large quantities - is like stuffing down emotions. Typically this is because a person with BED feels some sort of void inside. The act of eating such large quantities of food is an attempt to fill the void inside. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. The food may seem to fill the void in the moment, but the feeling of emptiness always comes back.

Treatment for binge eating disorder is similar to other eating disorders. You can read about eating disorder treatment centers and other treatment options in that section.

Following is diagnostic criteria for BED, which can help your doctor make a clinical diagnosis. Just because you may not have every criteria listed below does not mean you don't have BED. Please let your doctor make that call.

While BED has not officially been included in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it has been included in the section of the DSM requiring further study.

1. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
   • Eating, in a discrete period of time (eg, within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances;
   • A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (eg, a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
2. The binge eating episodes are associated with at least three of the following:
   • Eating much more rapidly than normal
   • Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
   • Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry
   • Eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating
   • Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or feeling very guilty after overeating

3. Marked distress regarding binge eating.
4. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least 2 days a week for 6 months.
5. The binge eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (eg, purging, fasting, excessive exercise) and does not occur exclusively during the course of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.

Go from Binge Eating back to Types of Eating Disorders

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