An Introduction to Compulsive Eating

Compulsive overeating is an diet disorder than can simply be characterized by an "addiction to food". In just the same way as any other addiction, the person affected by compulsive overeating will possess a constant urge for food and he will consume a much larger amount than he requires as a result.

Compulsive Eating or Binge Eating?

A lot of us tend to put together compulsive overeating with binge-eating, which is a similar, but graver eating problem. Binge-eating is also characterized by uncontrollable bouts of overeating, but the major difference is that binge eating is a lot more mentally dependant than compulsive eating. For example, someone with compulsive eating may feel joyful after a meal, satisfied with the quality of the food, even though he knows he went too far with the amount he had eaten. People affected by binge eating in contrast, may eat as recklessly and as much as the ones affected by a compulsion to eat, but they will feel an additional sense of remorse, pain and contempt towards their own persona resulting from the simple fact that they couldn't hold themselves back, and of the thought that that one particular meal will have grave effects on their physique (despite the fact that one meal won't really make much difference. Nonetheless, in their state of depression sufferers of binge eating tend to exaggerate the effects).

Because these depressive episodes are missing, A compulsion to overeat is considered less damaging than binge eating, since it has a smaller risk of turning into bulimia nervosa. Nonetheless, a compulsion to overeat can easily turn into the binge-eating disorder if its effects on body mass index and shape will have quite an impact on the individual's emotional and psychological wellbeing.

Causes of Overeating

The original causes of an overeating compulsion will be nearly the same those of binge eating, namely of emotional nature (as a matter of fact, the vast majority of addictions are emotional or psychological in nature). Just like smoking, it's oftentimes not the body that lusts for the cigarette, but the mind. The case of overeating impulses is similar. Some sufferers of this eating problem make use of food as a self-medication to get over problems in their day to day lives and this habit quickly progresses into addiction.

On other occasions, an individual that has been emotionally and psychologically abused (a person who has just experienced a harsh breakup with his or her partner, to give an example) will eat too much with the sole intention of getting fatter, making them more unattractive thus less likely to be abused at another time. The last category of overeating compulsion disorder sufferers includes people that are extremely slim (either resulting from their natural structure or resulting from a secondary condition they are affected by) and are ashamed of how slim they are. In their longing to reach an average weight, they eat too much and turn it into an addiction.

Difficulty of Diagnosing Compulsive Eating

The simple fact that compulsive eating can only with difficulty be distinguished from binge eating in some cases makes it even harder for medical practitioners to diagnose one of these diet disorders with complete efficiency. In any case, both conditions have to be treated as soon as the very first symptoms begin, since they can lead to critical damage to one's body and can also be the beginning of some more serious diet disorders such as bulimia nervosa.

Article contributed by Your Health Guide who feature articles on eating disorders along with many other health topics.

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