Compulsive Overeating Can Lead To Serious Medical Conditions

Compulsive overeating, also sometimes called food addiction is characterized by a compulsive relationship to food which is addressed by professionals with either a behaviour-modification model or a food-addiction model.

An individual suffering from compulsive overeating disorder engages in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, or binging, during which they may feel frenzied or out of control, often consuming food past the point of being comfortably full.

Binging in this way is generally followed by feelings of guilt and depression. Unlike individuals with bulimia, compulsive overeaters do not attempt to compensate for their binging with purging behaviors such as fasting, laxative use or vomiting.

Compulsive overeaters will typically eat when they are not hungry, spend excessive amounts of time and thought devoted to food, and secretly plan or fantasize about eating alone. Compulsive overeating usually leads to weight gain and obesity, but not everyone who is obese is also a compulsive overeater.

In addition to binge eating, compulsive overeaters can also engage in grazing behavior, during which they return to pick at food throughout the day. This results in a large overall number of calories consumed even if the quantities eaten at any one time may be small.

When a compulsive eater overeats primarily through binging, he or she can be said to have binge eating disorder. Where there is continuous overeating but no binging, then the sufferer has compulsive overeating disorder.

Left untreated, compulsive overeating can lead to serious medical conditions including high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and major depression. Additional long-term side effects of the condition also include kidney disease, arthritis, bone deterioration and stroke.

Signs of compulsive overeating

* Binge eating, or eating uncontrollably even when not physically hungry
* Eating much more rapidly than normal
* Eating alone due to shame and embarrassment
* Feelings of guilt due to overeating
* Preoccupation with body weight
* Depression or mood swings
* Awareness that eating patterns are abnormal
* History of weight fluctuations
* Withdrawal from activities because of embarrassment about weight
* History of many different unsuccessful diets
* Eating little in public, but maintaining a high body weight

Addiction Awarness

During binges compulsive overeaters consume as much as 5,000 calories and up to 60,000 calories per day, which results as an addictive “high” not unlike those experienced through drug usage, and a release from psychological stress. In bulimics, this high may be intensified by the act of purging.
Some researchers have speculated there is an abnormality of endorphin metabolism in the brain of binge eaters that triggers the addictive process. This is inline with other theories of addiction that attribute it not to avoidance of withdrawal symptoms, but to a primary problem in the reward centers of the brain.

Further, research has shown that those with eating disorders most often crave high carbohydrate “comfort foods” and use these during binges. The ingestion of these foods causes release of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. This could be another sign of neurobiological factors contributing to the addictive process.

Abstinence from addictive food and food eating processes causes withdrawal symptoms in those with eating disorders. There may be higher levels of depression and anxiety due to the decreased levels of serotonin in the individual.

There are complexities with the biology of compulsive eating that separate it from a pure substance abuse analogy. Food is a complex mixture of chemicals that can affect the body in multiple ways, which is magnified stomach-brain communication. In some ways, it may be much more difficult for compulsive overeaters to recover than addicts.

There is an anecdotal saying among Overeaters Anonymous members that “when you are addicted to drugs you put the tiger in the cage to recover; when you are addicted to food you put the tiger in the cage, but take it out three times a day for a walk.”

The physical explanation of compulsive overeating may be attributed to an overeaters’ increased tendency to secrete insulin at the sight and smell of food, though medical evidence supporting this is controversial.

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