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When life gets stressful, do you find yourself reaching for the biscuit tin, or for a large bag of crisps? Or maybe you'll treat yourself to a big bowl of ice-cream after a bad day at work. But then that one biscuit leads to another - and another. Do you ever find you just can't stop?You are far from unique. Experts say that for a significant number of people - potentially 1.3 million in Britain - a treat can repeatedly turn into a full-blown food binge.
Indeed, so common is this behaviour that it has now been officially classified as a new type of eating disorder: binge eating disorder.
Widespread problem: For potentially 1.3 million Britons, a treat can repeatedly turn into a full-blown food binge
This will give binge eating disorder the same psychiatric importance as anorexia and bulimia. So what characterises this new disorder, and will the diagnosis really make a difference to sufferers?
'People suffering from binge eating disorder tend to be overweight and, in addition to this, have phases when they regularly binge eat - but without the purging behaviour associated with bulimia,' explains Christopher Fairburn, professor of psychiatry at Oxford University and a leading authority on binge eating.
Those affected often suffer from depression, and the binges are almost always done in secret. People who are extremely self-critical may be particularly prone.
Sufferers have a long-standing tendency to turn to food in response to emotional issues, says Professor Fairburn.
'When binge eating, people can't stop eating once they've started - and many can't resist starting in the first place,' he says.
IT'S NOT THE SAME AS BEING GREEDY
Hayley Bennett: Obsessed with food
Self-loathing is certainly an emotion that 23-year-old Hayley Bennett recognises only too well from her own eating problems.
These date back to when she was eight years old and was called 'fat' by another child at school. The taunt led to a preoccupation about her weight, and she became introverted and miserable. Food became both her comfort and her 'enemy'.
'At the age of eight, I was a bit chubby but unaware of it,' she says. 'Maybe I'd just have lost that weight naturally in time, but as it was, I became obsessed with my body - and with food. I thought about it all the time, but I never ate from hunger.'
Hayley says that starting a binge - which she always did in secret - would bring a sense of relief and satisfaction, but afterwards she would find herself filled with self-hatred.
'I did have some hurtful comments from others about my weight, but it was mostly that I was so hard on myself; so self-critical. I felt I could never live up to having the perfect, slim body that I wanted.
'Like me, my parents thought that if I lost weight I would be healthier and happier. Like me, they had no idea I had an eating disorder.
'My mum and my teachers tried to help me by encouraging me to eat healthily. In retrospect, though, saying that I couldn't have a dessert when other children were having them just made me want one all the more.'
By the age of 11, Hayley was already 'sneaking' food. 'I couldn't just have one KitKat, I'd have to have a pack of six,' says Hayley, an English graduate who lives in Bristol with her parents.
Her worst binge was a large family bag of Doritos and two of the biggest blocks of Dairy Milk chocolate, one after the other.
Hayley's binge food of choice was almost always chocolate - and there are good biological reasons why it's fatty and sugary foods that binge eaters choose, say doctors.
Fat and sugar trigger the release of endorphins and dopamine - the body's feel-good chemicals, inducing a natural high. But when this recedes, guilt and depression set in.
'You feel like you've just sabotaged yourself again,' says Hayley. 'You just feel disgusted with yourself, and out of control.'
Perhaps not surprisingly, those who suffer from binge eating disorder are usually overweight (although they can also lose weight, even significant amounts). The weight gain is because they overeat generally, not because of the binge episodes, says Professor Fairburn, who is director of the Centre for Research on Eating Disorders at Oxford (CREDO).
This excess weight means they are also at risk of other serious health risks associated with obesity, including type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart and gallbladder disease.
WHY DIETING WON'T HELP
Lack of awareness: Many GPs think sufferers just need support dieting
Experts stress, however, that it's vital the underlying psychiatric problems are tackled first.
'I knew that what I was doing was not normal or right, but it never occurred to me I might have an eating disorder,' says Hayley. 'I thought I had a weight problem.'
Professor Fairburn says a great deal of research has gone into how to help people lose weight and to discover why some people overeat.
'Some researchers believe it's a genetically-determined problem, while others think it is more the product of our food-rich environment,' he says. 'In fact, it is likely to be the result of both. Moreover, obese people do not all behave in the same way.'
Hayley agrees: 'I feel many health professionals don't understand that you can be overweight and have an eating disorder.
'I also think people in general see a fat person and think you're lazy and greedy, and that you've got into this situation because you just love food.
'I didn't love food, although I was obsessed with it.'
Treatment that encourages a person who is already obsessed with food to focus on it still further could do more harm than good, says Julia Buckroyd, emeritus professor of counselling at the University of Hertfordshire.
In many cases, dysfunctional eating patterns were developed in childhood. Professor Buckroyd says that a number of recent studies have highlighted the fact that obesity and overeating are attempts to 'control an overwhelming internal anxiety state'.
'Typically, many people who are significantly obese are emotional eaters,' she says.
'Human behaviour - however bizarre or destructive it may be - does have meaning. These people are trying to make themselves feel better, even if, of course, they're not doing this in actual fact.
'They need help to find ways of coping other than food.'
BINGE EATERS ARE NOT ALWAYS FAT
Another complication is the fact that people with eating disorders do not always fit neatly into the established diagnostic categories.Binge eating is common to those with binge eating disorder and bulimia, for instance - and it occurs in some people who've tried and failed to keep to a strict diet.
Depression: Keith, pictured at his biggest in 2009, binged because he was unhappy and viewed food as a pleasure
Hayley herself has successfully lost weight three times on very low-calorie diets, losing two or three stone in as many months - only to find it creeping back on again.
'Although binge eating disorder sufferers have a tendency to be overweight, it is also common for them to have periods of successful dieting which may last for months at a time, and periods of overeating when they also binge,' says Professor Fairburn.
'As a result, their body weight may change markedly from month to month and year to year.'
But how important is it, in fact, to have a diagnostic label for patients with binge eating disorder?
'I'd say the disorder is right on the edges of what one would want to call a mental illness,' admits Professor Fairburn.
'People with binge eating disorder undoubtedly have a problem - but whether you would want to call it a mental illness is questionable.
'If raising it to a diagnosable condition helps them get the help and recognition they need for their problems, then yes, I'd say it's a good thing - and its inclusion in the DSM is helpful.
'This should, in the future, help GPs to recognise it as a separate disorder and enable the patients to get the correct help.'
He adds that this ought to help prevent people being prescribed antidepressants unnecessarily. 'Antidepressants have a valuable role to play in treating many conditions, but they will not tackle the root cases of binge eating disorder,' he says.
(Before bulimia became a recognised illness, sufferers were often prescribed antidepressants, but this changed once the condition became understood.)
Men who are affected might find it doubly hard to get the correct diagnosis and treatment, as many health professionals associate eating disorders with women, says Sam Thomas of the charity Men Get Eating Disorders Too.
In fact, binge eating disorder affects men and women equally, whereas with anorexia and bulimia it is predominantly women who are affected.
'Many men don't realise they have an eating disorder,' says Mr Thomas. 'They'll know that they have issues with food, but it often won't occur to them to think that they could be suffering from an eating disorder and need help.'
PEOPLE BINGE WHEN UPSET
Indeed, it was Keith Addison's wife Suzanne who first realised her husband had a problem.The 34-year-old father-of-three from Newcastle-upon-Tyne had begun bingeing when he was 14, around the time his parents split up.
Initially, the bingeing was masked by the fact Keith played a lot of rugby so was seen as a 'chunky rugby player'. But he was bingeing daily - saving up his dinner money and bus fares to blow on food to eat at home in the evening.
'I wasn't very popular at school and used to get bullied, so this was my treat for getting through the day,' he explains.
Tackling the problem: Keith's wife Suzanne is helping him control his weight and, as a result, he's lost 4.5 stone
'Mum never saw because she got home from work late,' he says.
With hindsight, Keith says the problems relate to the changes in his family life after his parents split. Instead of sitting down to meals together, he'd eat alone while his mother was at work.
'I started to focus on food as a pleasure because it reminded me of the happy meals we'd had as a family. When you first start on a binge, it feels like a huge release - and I felt on top of the world. But immediately afterwards, you are overwhelmed with disgust.'
Keith's bingeing was compounded by depression, and over the past ten years he has been prescribed anti-depressants by his GP on four occasions.
'But they didn't tackle the real problem of my eating disorder - and the depression would return.'
Suzanne has taken practical steps to help Keith control his weight - including doing all the family shopping - and he's lost 4½ stone. His weight had reached 22 st, but today he weighs 17½ st and he's recently started seeing an NHS psychologist to help him understand what makes him binge eat.
For Hayley, finding someone to talk through her problems also marked a turning point. At 19, she sought help from a student counsellor and was offered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
This helped her take her first steps towards recovery - part of which has involved sharing her eating experiences in a blog (doesmybumlookbiginthis.org).
Today, she is about to start a new job in a call handling centre and feels her future is looking brighter than for many years.
Professor Fairburn's book, Overcoming Binge Eating, has a self-help programme based on cognitive behavioural therapy. It sets out key strategies including monitoring eating patterns, weighing yourself every week and establishing a habit of eating three proper meals a day.
Other sufferers may need a personally-tailored programme devised by a psychologist. Professor Fairburn suggests they contact Beat (b-eat.co.uk) - a charity for people suffering from eating disorders - to find a qualified professional in their area.
'The important thing is to empower people to gain lasting control over their eating and take charge of their health,' he says.
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