If you battle with binge eating, you endure emotions of guilt, shame, and even disgust about the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that disordered eating has caused you. You literally are out of control during a binge, food playing the most significant role in your life at that moment. You may use food to cope with uncomfortable feelings and emotions that are too painful to face.
Binge Eating Disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States affecting 2.7% of women, 1.7% of men and 1.8% of adolescents. These are the following criteria for the diagnosis of Binge Eating Disorder:
Eating, within a 2-hour period, a larger amount of food than “most people” would eat under similar circumstances.
Experiencing a lack of control during the binge episode.
Episode associated with three of more of the following:
Eating much faster than normal.
Eating until uncomfortably full.
Eating large amounts of food when not physically hungry.
Eating alone because of embarrassment by how much one is eating.
Feeling disgusted, depressed, or guilty after the binge episode.
Binge eating is causing you clear distress.
At least one binge episode a week for 3 months.
No compensatory behaviors associated with binge eating as in bulimia nervosa (purging, excessive exercise, laxatives, etc.).
Without treatment, it’s estimated that Binge Eating Disorder can last for roughly 14 years. Binge eating can be a constant cycle of guilt and pain and self-hatred that keeps repeating itself. If you're ready, we would love to be able to help you free yourself from the cycle and develop new healthy thinking and behavior patterns.
Through our approach to binge eating counseling, we can help you change how you think about food, target what feelings led to overeating, and manage those feelings with new coping skills. Using a combination of an intuitive eating coaching, evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness skills, distress tolerance skills, and compassion focused therapy, we can help you regain your power and work towards long-term recovery.
We welcome you to call us at 833-HEAL-ATL or contact us, and we’ll get started. We look forward to helping you!
[1] American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
[2] Deloitte Access Economics. (2020). The Social and Economic Cost of Eating Disorders in the United States of America: A Report for the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders and the Academy for Eating Disorders. Available at: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/striped/report-economic-costs-of-eating-disorders/
[3] Kjeldbjerg, M. L., & Clausen, L. (2023). Prevalence of binge-eating disorder among children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 32(4), 549–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01850-2