Prevention Of Compulsive Eating Disorder

Compulsive eating disorder sufferers constantly battle with excessive weight gain as a result of binging. Like other eating disorders, it is a psychological disease. It differs from bulimia in that sufferers do not purge, but instead eat compulsively. More men are victims of compulsive eating than women (see Reference 1). This disorder is a continuing cycle which ends only with proper treatment.

Symptoms and Risks

The most noticeable symptom of compulsive eating disorder is binge eating. This happens regularly, lasting about two hours each time (see Reference 2). Other symptoms include diet hopping, depression, self-deprecating thoughts, and being afraid to eat in public (see Reference 1).

Obesity is not a reliable symptom of compulsive eating disorder, because not all overweight individuals suffer from this disorder. Those who have compulsive eating disorder hate binging, but keep doing it because the act of eating is a source of comfort to them. They will continue eating long after they are full (see Reference 2).

There are serious health risks of compulsive eating disorder, and include obesity, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, toxemia in pregnant women, and death as a result of heart problems (see Reference 1).

Treatment

Treatment cannot be effective until the cause of the individual's compulsive eating is discovered. Some causes are psychological or derive from social pressures. There are cases in which individuals have a disorder in the brain, where the hypothalamus (the part of the brain that controls appetite) does not function properly (see Reference 2).

Sufferers should try to find other methods to relieve stress, such as exercise. Another big step is to stop dieting. Those with compulsive eating disorder usually try several diets and binge even worse when they discover that the diet does not work as fast as they would like. Treatments include individual and group therapy, meditation, and prescriptions that suppress the appetite (see Reference 2).

A preventive measure against compulsive eating disorder is to learn healthy eating habits, rather than to follow a fad diet. Eating habits are formed during youth, so if an individual used food for comfort as a child, the habit is surely still there today (see Reference 1). Sufferers of the disorder will need to learn look at eating as a method of nourishment, not escape.

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