So when Ed Sheeran opened up in a interview with Rolling Stone, that he struggles with “a real eating problem,” his words likely held more power than he realized. Despite the fact that approximately 10 million males in the US alone, will experience an eating disorder at some time, men have historically all too often been left out of conversations about these diseases. The fact that Sheeran opening up only serves to further the voices of men with eating disorders, but it also spots on an often neglected, misunderstood and undervalued embodied experience — at once highly prevalent as well: binge-eating disorder (BED) , by far the most common known form in adults.
How Is Binge Eating Disorder (BED) Defined?
The vivid images of anorexia and bulimia — bone thin, ribs in the media, showing; individuals having to kneel over toilets sometimes for hours at a time suffering from severe dehydration as their bodies look like skeletons with some leftover tissue paper either covering them or littering beneath prolapsed eyes inside sunken eye sockets do not accompany binge eating disorder. Binge Eating is an example of it in which person eats large amounts of food in a short amount of time while feeling that they have no control over how much and what they eat. BED was first officially recognized in 2013 as a new category proposed to be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is filled with criteria that someone would need fulfill under this section including “recurrent and persistent episodes of binge eating,” “eating until feeling uncomfortably full” “feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed or very guilty after overeating.” At the present time, it is considered that BED affect up to 1.5% of women and 0.3% of men globally—approximately between 2-4 million U.S. adults. Masses are struggling with undiagnosed disorders or “subclinical” symptoms, not severe enough to meet the full criteria for a diagnosis but still ruining lives.
How Is BED Different from Other Disorders?
While Sheeran didn’t specifically identify his diagnosis, the singer-related to Elton’s experiences and said he has encountered similar feelings. I did what Elton explains in his book, binging & then purging it back out again. Although these symptoms are more of bulimia (binges followed by purges), the two disorders have much in common. Greater consciousness about the dangers to health of overeating, both physical and psychological regardless diagnosis is needed.
“Erin Parks, PhD” Eating disorders are multifaceted brain-based mental illnesses with genetic vulnerabilities and largely an infectious component to the cause. D., who is the chief clinical officer, co-founder and COO at online recovery platform Equip. “Because all eating disorders are based in restriction, the type and variety of behaviors that can arise with Binge Eating Disorder vs. Bulimia Nervosa as opposed to Anorexia Nervosa is wide-ranging due to this underlying limitation placed on food.”
Parks points out that while anorexia is typically considered the disorder most of clearly defined by deprivation, “bulimia and BED often emerge from a history of metabolic unrest. That’s the way I look at it, in a circle around. “Humans are starving, and eventually the biological need for a food trumps all else as they have to start eating even in more quantity than normal do eat during one meal. But above all, while eating, they feel deprived and ashamed of themselves.
These intense post-binge emotions are why, in bulimia sufferers the world over, this leads to “compensatory behaviors”—vomiting back up those eaten calories; or exercising at an insane level for hours on end or using diuretics and laxatives. Although binge eaters do not usually exhibit these compensatory behaviors, Parks argues that the two disorders have more in common than some might think. “Restricting is the major behavior… for binging, and then compensatory behaviors [are] purging—and all of that exists in almost every eating disorder,” she said. “Where binging can occur is if one has been under eating or depriving oneself to the point that you actually put on weight, your body all of a sudden says fuck this and goes into survival mode,” nutritionist Sam Beau Patrick told Body Soul. And sometimes, the emotional reasons people go on a binge are just to zone out — like when self-harmers cut themselves to literally not feel anything anymore; plenty of us describe binging as doing exactly that.” The physical complications of BED, such as high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease along with the mental health risks like depression.
Sheeran is not alone in being open about bingeing. Outspoken gay celebrity Jonathan Van Ness opened up about his long history of struggles with BED last year, and pop song-stress Demi Lovato recently confessed that she first started binge eating at only eight years old. Parks says that identifying whether one suffers from anorexia, bulimia or BED can help clinicians identify the correct disorder and treatment logically but formal diagnosis is not a prerequisite for someone to seek assistance in treating it.
How Is BED Diagnosed?
“Full stop: Our diagnostic system is not working,” Parks says. They allow clinicians to easily communicate more about a patient’s status and for researchers, but they are hardly perfect. There are people who struggle with binge eating without satisfying the requirements to be diagnosed as having BED. Rather, we ought to take notice of how some eating disorder behaviors are vilified and others praised — restriction is a typical example behavior in which the greater society celebrates it for growth purposes where bingeing i see as so wrong and dirty. I mean, obviously none are desirable to have — but better or worse?
How Is BED Treated?
No matter what kind of eating disorder or food-related battles someone is currently battling with, Parks said the first thing that everyone should do to heal their relationship with nourishment is to be nutritional. So your best weapon in combatting inevitable binge is actually to do it every day by following a structured meal plan, Fernando says. “…You need a therapist or psychiatrist to help you get to the bottom of what’s going on with why the eating disorder is present. In the context of treatment for BED, they tell patients to shed limiting diet myths and opt for ‘all foods fit’ model instead that can put a stop in patterned binges post persistent restriction. Recovery work involves an individual achieving body image resilience as well as learning a variety of coping skills and re-establishing trust and safety with food.
Each person has their individual path to healing, but generally psychotherapy, sometimes medications and ongoing support are needed in order to recover from binge eating. By shedding some light on how common BED might be, Sheeran’s revelation could help to break down some of the stigma and ignorance that still exists when it comes to eating disorders generally and particularly about who gets affected. There’s this idea that only people in larger bodies struggle or suffer with binge eating disorder but the truth of it is, BED affects a wide range of body sizes and types as well as an array of different races/ethnicities/gender/socioeconomic backgrounds,” Parks explains. “Individuals moving through eating disorders often have more than one diagnosis and symptomatology. Everyone, irrespective of what they are diagnosed with deserves to be treated 🙂
