Buy Walking VideosBingeing Is Most Common Eating Disorder
I have always felt alone with my bingeing. Whenever I read about eating disorders, they always talked about anorexia and bulimia. It turns out that binge eating is three times more common than either of those eating disorders.
So, if bingeing is more widespread than anorexia or bulimia, why doesn’t the media talk about it? This article has a clue:
In the public eye, binge eating springs from a faulty sense of self-discipline rather than a diagnosable physical condition, but it is very much a clinical disorder, often occurring in tandem with major depression and anxiety.
People believe that bingeing is a self-discipline issue, but anorexia is a mental disease. The entire weight loss industry hinges on the idea that obesity is a self-discipline issue and the idea that we might need to heal our brains before we can think about eating healthy would put a lot of fitness gurus out of work.
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March 6th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Notice that this article is published on the site that has financial interest in binging being declared a mental disorder? This, in itself, does not make the article findings incorrect, but definitely makes them suspect.
Another thing that makes the findings suspect is the following puzzle. If binging is a “regular” mental disorder (like schizophrenia, for example) one wonders why it does not occur in the same numbers in Africa as it does in developed countries. Same applies for bulimia and anorexia, of course.
Here is my problem with this approach: instead of looking for solutions (why is a subset of population in the developed world more likely to behave this way?) we re-label the problem and make everybody feel better (it is not my fault). Why are we even concerned about faults?
March 6th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Some extreme binge eaters due have mental problems but not all binge eating is due to the same issues. Some binge eaters have depredation binges, some might be undiagnosed bulimics So they might be classifying different disorders in one large group.