2023-06-20 16:39:00
NEW YORK — At 2 or 3 am, David Tedrow used to hide an empty cereal box in the back of the trash can or cupboard, where his wife wouldn’t notice it. Tedrow was in his 60s, retired, and usually slept until followingnoon, so he stayed up late at night, following everyone had gone to sleep.
In their frenzied nocturnal outbursts, he used to eat an entire box of cereal (Oatmeal Squares, Frosted Mini-Wheats or whatever) and then dispose of the evidence. Tedrow recounted that he had binge ate his entire lifebut following months of eating a box of cereal every night, she decided to seek help.
In 2016, she left her home in North Carolina to seek treatment for what she thought was a food addiction at a Wisconsin hospital that specialized in eating disorders. Her diagnosis was Binge eating disorder (also known as binge eating disorder).
“I had no idea that this existed.”, he commented. But the diagnosis made him feel relieved. “There was an explanation for this.”
Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States. Exact numbers vary, but according to the National Institute of Mental Health, almost 3 percent of the US population has suffered from an eating disorder at some point in your life, more than double the reported numbers for bulimia nervosa and anorexia. However, this disorder is little talked regarding and under-recognized by both the general public and medical professionals, in part because many are unaware of the diagnosis or its possible severity.
It usually happens that people display symptoms for decades before being diagnosedsaid Cynthia Bulik, founding director of the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina. “For too long they have been told things like: ‘Oh no, this is just emotional eating’, ‘you’re out of control’, ‘it’s because you don’t have willpower’, ‘gluttony is a sin’ or however people explain it, and they don’t realize they have a disease that can be treated,” he said.
binge eating disorder is relatively new to the world of diagnosable mental illness; it was included 10 years ago in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which doctors and researchers use to classify mental illnesses. At the time, the diagnosis was quite controversial, according to B. Timothy Walsh, who led a group that recommended changes to the existing criteria for eating disorders and proposed adding new ones to that edition of the manual. Walsh said some thought it “pathologizes normality” and didn’t understand how it was different from simply overeating.
But binge eating behaviors are different, he said. On average, a person with this disorder has at least one binge eating episode a week for three months or more, during which you eat an objectively large amount of food in a short period of time (for example, three or more main courses in one sitting) and, above all, you feel a loss of control and find it difficult to stop eating. “It’s not regarding: ‘I ate an extra piece of pizza that I wish I hadn’t’; It’s regarding: ‘I ate multiple slices, multiple pizzas, in this short period of time,’” explained Holly Peek, associate medical director of the Klarman Eating Disorders Center at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts.
People with binge eating disorder too tend to eat faster than usual during an episode; many also secretly eat and feel guilty, said Kelly Allison, director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania.
People with this disorder sometimes develop bulimia and vice versa, according to Andrea Vazzana, a clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders at New York University Langone Medical Center. Bulimia sufferers also experience binge eating episodes, but they also have recurrent purging behaviors, such as induced vomiting or excessive exercise, to “compensate” the intake. Binge eating disorder itself is not related to recurrent purging behaviors.
People with binge eating disorder also tend to eat faster than usual during an episodeShutterstock
And, most importantly, binge eating disorder interferes with people’s daily lives. Some of Bulik’s patients have stopped going to work because they stayed up late eating and then felt sick; other patients have awakened with crumpled wrappers between their sheets and unchewed food in their mouths. One of her patients bought a cake for her son’s birthday party, and on the way home from the supermarket, she ate it all with her bare hands.
During a binge, Kaitlin Schaefer, 36, who manages corporate sustainability efforts for a clothing brand in Toronto, often felt as if she were floating outside her body: time vanished in the minutes between opening a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and for the scoop to reach the bottom of the container.
“It’s almost like you become a robot,” said Kelsey Grennan, 25, a content creator who has posted videos on TikTok regarding her experiences with binge eating disorder, which she was diagnosed with at age 18. At her worst moment, she commented, food was her refuge, a shortcut to calm her stress, which made her get “to this state of wanting to escape”.
Grennan has found a growing community of people recovering from this disorder online. Videos tagged #BingeEatingRecovery (#BingeEatingDisorderRecovery) have more than seven million views on TikTok and a host of users share intimate details regarding their binge eating episodes and their journeys to treatment, helping to reduce the stigma around a disorder that is too often is marked by shame.
Researchers continue to work to identify how genetics play a role; trauma, particularly a history of sexual abuse, can also predispose someone to the disorder, Vazzana said.
In some cases, restrictive diets can lead people to develop this disorder. Rachel Goode, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work, calls this the “boomerang effect,” as people go from not eating to binge eating. The longer they deprive themselves of food, the more likely they are to binge because they are hungry.
When he was in high school, Chris Garcia, a 30-year-old nurse who lives outside Washington, DC, made a point of not eating all day, thinking that if he lost weight, he would be less bullied. But at night, sometimes following working a shift at McDonald’s, he’d go from drive-thru to drive-thru and buy fries or tacos, feeling hungry and trapped. “Focusing on dieting and trying to be ‘good’ — really unrealistic stuff — when you cut yourself off from so many foods, I think it’s impossible, really,” he said.
The cognitive behavioral therapy it is the standard treatment for binge eating disorder. Doctors sometimes use another type of talk therapy, known as interpersonal psychotherapy, but it’s less common.
The Food and Drug Administration has only approved one medication to treat binge eating disorder: Vyvanse, a drug often used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Some doctors prescribe antidepressants, though it’s not clear if those drugs are to treat binge-eating behaviors or if addressing underlying depression can help alleviate symptoms, Peek explained.
Hospital treatment, while expensive, can also be transformative. At the Wisconsin hospital, Tedrow spent three weeks focused on getting better. He started cognitive behavioral therapy and medication and went to support groups and shared stories with others who were also in treatment.
Binge eating disorder remains “a constant battle,” he says. “But we can get through it.”
“I did it,” he added. “It’s not a conviction.”
By Dani Blum
The New York TimesConocé The Trust Project
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