People suffering with this Eating Disorder tend to be overweight, are usually aware that their eating habits are abnormal, but find little comfort because of society’s tendency to stereotype the “overweight” individual. Words like, “just go on a diet” are as emotionally devastating to a person suffering Compulsive Overeating as “just eat” can be to a person suffering Anorexia. A person suffering as a Compulsive Overeater is at health risk for a heart attack, high blood-pressure and cholesterol, kidney disease and/or failure, arthritis and bone deterioration, and stroke.
Many of the clinical criteria for addiction/dependence focus on the consequences of continued use or on failure to discontinue use. If there are no negative consequences of eating food and there are no failed attempts to discontinue eating large amounts or certain types of food, there is no diagnosis of addiction. On this basis, most healthy, normal-weight people would not be diagnosed as food addicts and food would not be considered an addictive substance, because, for the most part, it produces positive rather than negative consequences.
Food addiction diagnoses are positively associated with BMI and, therefore, increased in obese individuals and even more in obese patients with BED. Moreover, this relationship between body mass and food addiction may be non-linear. Interestingly, participants who received a food addiction diagnosis did not differ in body mass from non-food addicted participants. This result could also be confirmed in a sample of obese individuals seeking bariatric surgery where food addicted participants (40%) did not differ in BMI from non-food addicted participants.
Men and Women who are Compulsive Overeaters will sometimes hide behind their physical appearance, using it as a blockade against society (common in survivors of sexual abuse). They feel guilty for not being “good enough,” shame for being overweight, and generally have a very low self-esteem… they use food and eating to cope with these feelings, which only leads into the cycle of feeling them ten-fold and trying to find a way to cope again.
Quitting eating is obviously not a possibility for food addicts or anyone for that matter, so they need to learn how to have a better relationship with food. Medications can be prescribed for depression or anxiety, but patient and effective therapy is the key to compulsive over eating recovery.
Food addiction, also called compulsive overeating, is characterized by frequent episodes of binge eating, where the patient may feel out of control and unable to stop eating until he or she is uncomfortably full.
While food addiction is different than a drug or alcohol addiction in that psychoactive substances do not alter the brain, food addiction does meet many of the criteria for addictive and obsessive-compulsive behavior. There is research that has shown that many of the molecular mechanisms in the brain that drive people to drug addiction are also present in compulsive overeaters. Other studies have suggested that food addicts have disruptions in the reward centers of the brain. Some theories propose that high fat, high sugar, and high salt foods affect the reward centers of the brain and release endorphins, which cause pleasurable feelings and comfort.
Treatment and management of food addiction is similar to other behavioral addictions, with therapy and behavioral modifications as the mainstay. Other eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa result from emotional issues that need to be resolved in order for treatment to be effective, and compulsive overeating is thought to be no different.
There are many parallels between feeding behavior and drug addiction. Treatments for drug abuse focus on craving, impulsivity, and learning and are not generally focused on withdrawal or other physiological measures of addiction. In contrast, many, if not most studies of obesity focus on minimizing hunger. But not all diet failures are due to hunger; some of them are probably due to nonhomeostatic eating or impulsive eating. Given the many parallels between food and drug cravings, it would make sense to use lessons from drug addiction to aid in the fight against obesity.
Medications
Naltrexone treatment, a pharmacological manipulation that does lead to reduced palatability ratings, is not associated with increased weight loss. Furthermore, subjects in a monotonous diet study learned to crave a not-very-palatable dietary supplement beverage. Thus, food does not need to be palatable to be craved.
Therapies
Cognitive behavioral therapy, peer support groups such as Food Addicts Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous have been successful for many people. It is suggested that alternating restriction and availability of food, i.e. the way in which the food is used rather than its sensory or nutritional properties, may produce the addictive pattern of eating. Going on and off diets may be the human analogue to the restricted access paradigm.
There are a couple of options available to quit overeating. A therapist can help the person stop turning to food to zone out or for comfort and therapy is typically the best bet for those seeking compulsive eating help. The addiction may be a symptom of an underlying condition, such as abuse, which needs to be addressed to help the client learn to have a more healthy relationship with food and discover how to stop compulsive overeating.
A support group, such as Overeaters Anonymous or Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, can also be part of the treatment process. As most food addicts tend to suffer from low self-esteem and/or depression, a group like Emotions Anonymous might also be able to help. Sharing experiences and getting support from people who understand the addiction can be an effective part of treatment.
In humans, increasing evidence suggests that individuals with binge eating-related disorders, i.e., bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and obesity, experience behavioral symptoms and neurochemical changes that are highly comparable to other addictive behaviors. In recent years, neuroendocrine pathways have been identified that are involved in both drug- and food-seeking behaviors. Specifically, appetite-regulating peptides like ghrelin, neuropeptide Y, orexin, or leptin have also been associated with craving for alcohol or tobacco.
It is sometimes asserted that obesity rates have increased because there is too much palatable food available. However, although palatability does increase intake in the short term, it is not clear that palatable food leads to overeating over the long term. Many parallels have been drawn between substance dependence and excessive consumption of such hyperpalatable foods. Animal models show that rats develop behavioral symptoms, but also show neurochemical changes, that are comparable to drug use when they have intermittent access to sugar and chow or receive a cafeteria-like diet.
Symptoms of food addiction can include the obsession and preoccupation with food and eating, an inability to control oneself around food, binging and eating despite negative consequences, eating when not hungry, rapid eating, feeling shame and embarrassment that results in solitary eating, and decreased pleasure from eating. Often food addicts have a preoccupation with their weight and have a history of dieting unsuccessfully.
The most common food addiction symptoms include consuming large amounts for a long period, repeated attempts to cut down, and continued use despite adverse consequences. Tolerance and time effort are further, but less frequent symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms and reduction of social, occupational, or recreational activities are rarely reported.