People suffering from eating disorders (DCA) have specific difficulties in their relationship with food and their bodies that significantly affect their quality of life.
At the diagnostic level, three main categories of eating disorders are distinguished: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder (BED).
The central feature of these disorders is their excessive importance in relation to weight, body shape and nutrition. This makes most of the dysfunctional behaviours that are acted upon understandable: self-induced vomiting, improper use of laxatives or diuretics, concern about eating and extreme sensitivity to changes in weight and body shape.
DCAs mainly affect adolescents or young adults, on average around 17 years of age, and in most cases they are girls (the ratio is 9 to 1, i.e. out of ten people who suffer from eating disorders, nine are female and one is male). In the specific case of uncontrolled eating disorder the onset is more frequent in early adulthood.
It is common for people with this type of disease to move from one eating disorder (e.g. anorexia nervosa) to another (e.g. bulimia nervosa) during their lifetime.
DISTURBANCE FROM UNCONTROLLED POWER SUPPLY
Uncontrolled feeding disorder, generally known as binge eating disorder (BED), is a feeding disorder whose main feature is the recurring episodes of binge eating, at least once a week for three months. People who suffer from this disorder binge, but do not use regular behaviors of compensation as in bulimia nervosa. Moreover, they do not follow a diet and tend to eat in excess even outside the binges, which explains why in most cases there is a condition of overweight or obesity.
In most cases, as in other eating disorders, excessive importance is attached to weight and body shapes, although in a subgroup of people there is only the search for food control and body dissatisfaction is less than that observed in bulimia nervosa.
HOW IT MANIFESTS ITSELF
A person with binge eating disorder presents recurring episodes of uncontrolled feeding.
Uncontrolled feeding episodes are binge eating episodes that have three or more of these characteristics:
- eating faster than normal;
- eating until you feel unpleasantly full;
- eating large amounts of food even if you don't feel physically hungry;
- eating alone because of embarrassment or shame for what you are eating;
- feel disgusted at himself, depressed or very guilty after the binges.
The binge, in this clinical population, is characterized by the simultaneous presence of both these elements:
- eating, in a defined period of time, for example two hours, a quantity of food clearly more abundant than that which most people would eat in a similar period of time and in similar circumstances;
- a feeling of loss of control during the episode, i.e. the feeling of not being able to stop or control what and how much one is eating.
The clinical characteristics of uncontrolled eating disorder are very similar to those of bulimia: people affected are very concerned about their behavior, they are ashamed of it and consider it a serious problem, both for the feeling of loss of control, and for the consequences that binges have on body weight and health.
20-30% of subjects requiring treatment for obesity and 5-8% of obese people generally suffer from an uncontrolled eating disorder.
HOW TO UNDERSTAND IF YOU SUFFER FROM UNCONTROLLED EATING DISORDER
Uncontrolled eating disorder is diagnosed in people who are usually overweight and who show some symptoms of eating disorder without being diagnosed with bulimia nervosa.
The symptoms by which one can understand if one suffers from binge eating disorder are:
- Binges similar to those present in the bulimia nervosa or frequent meals or snacks during the day, more or less consistent, which follow one another continuously;
- absence of vomiting caused voluntarily, which is why people suffering from BED tend, with the passing of months and years, to evolve towards forms of obesity of extremely variable degree;
- presence of a sense of shame, rather than guilt, for the fact of not being able to control one's own diet.
The probability of suffering from this disorder seems to increase as the severity of the individual's obesity increases.
WHAT ARE THE CAUSES?
It is not possible to identify a single factor responsible for the onset of a food problem, rather it is necessary to consider a combination of physical, environmental and personality factors.
The risk factors are the same for all eating disorders:
- The presence of a family member on a diet for any reason;
- Criticism from family members about diet, weight or body shapes;
- Life episodes in which you were teased about diet, weight or body shapes;
- parents' obesity;
- personal obesity in childhood;
- frequentation of environments that emphasize thinness (e.g. dance, fashion, sport);
- eating disorders in the family.
There are also specific personality characteristics found in patients with eating disorders. These personality aspects are considered as individual vulnerability factors, i.e. they make those who carry them more vulnerable than others to developing an eating disorder.
A person will be all the more at risk of developing a nervous anorexia if:
- has a poor concept of self (low self-esteem);
- does not have self-confidence;
- has little awareness of his own emotions;
- is excessively perfectionist;
- tends to exaggerate things, that is "see all white or all black";
- shows impulsive or obsessive behaviors;
- tends to give excessive importance to the weight and shape of one's body.
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?
Uncontrolled eating disorder influences the life of the person who suffers from it both from a physical point of view and from a psychological and social point of view.
There may be medical complications, usually secondary to the state of obesity (eg reduced life expectancy, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, dyslipidaemia, cholelithiasis and hypertension). Usually physical problems require normalisation of weight, nutrition and, if present, suspension of compensatory behaviour (e.g. improper use of laxatives and diuretics).
From a psychological point of view people are often depressed or stressed because of the food problem, and may have social isolation, because they are ashamed of their eating style or because they are overweight or obese.