Binge eating disorder is when one uses food to satisfy or cope with emotions/feelings.  People binge in order to repress feelings of anger, sadness, depression, general stress or boredom.  People have used food as a coping mechanism for such a long while that it is now an automatic habit.  When they feel, their “phantom” hunger automatically turns on and they eat and eat.

Bingeing in this way is a sign that one’s needs are not fully met, but instead of facing the emotion head on or listening to our inner critic, we instead suppress the feelings and zone out in front of the TV.  For some reason we believe this is easier than to face our feelings head on.

Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder and it is no wonder why when we live in a society that uses food to celebrate, mourn and for various social gatherings.  Food is very much attached to our emotions and something that is just built into us from an early age.  Unfortunately this leads to many using food as their life crutch, to cope in times of distress.

A person who binges usually will: eat an unusually large amount of food, feel they have no control while eating, consume the food quickly, eat large amounts even when they don’t feel hungry, prefer to eat alone, hide their eating habits, feel guilty, ashamed and disgusted with themselves.

Luckily there are many resources available to people to overcome binge eating.

Roger Gould has created a 12 week intensive emotional eating program online to help people overcome binge eating disorder.  For more information click here or visit ShrinkYourself.com.  He also has a book on the subject of emotional eating that is extremely useful for anyone wanting to educate themselves on how to overcome binge eating (and a great supplement to the 12 week program).

A great starting point though is a book called Combat Your Cravings.  This will help you address whether you are eating properly, whether you know the difference between hunger and true hunger and also will help you determine your emotional eating and help you make an action plan to overcome it with activities and guidance.  You can get this book here: http://www.combatyoucravings.com