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Compulsive Eating Disorder: Eating to Alleviate Emotional Stresses and Strains

Compulsive eating disorder is usually found to occur in people who have an uncontrollable desire to eat and then have feelings of shame and guilt. It differs from bulimia in that there is no purging and though it does result in gaining weight it should not be confused with obesity. It is not each and everybody who happens to be overweight that is suffering from a compulsive eating disorder.

More Information on the Disorder

There are a few warning signs, that if found to occur in people should serve notice of a compulsive eating disorder and these include bingeing, purging by strict diet, using laxatives or diuretics to lose weight, going frequently to the bathroom, being over-occupied by one’s body weight, depression or changes in mood, irregular periods as well as having dental problems and swollen cheek glands.

When a person suffers from compulsive eating disorder he or she would have weight-related hypertension as well as feeling fatigued, have nausea, gain weight and also be prone to being struck down by diabetes, have high blood pressure and even be in risk of cancer.

People who have a compulsive eating disorder are usually taken up with issues of food, eating and weight as well as have uncontrollable bouts of eating in an attempt to manage other issues. This means that the person with a compulsive eating disorder uses food to handle stress, upset, emotional distress as well as depression, anxiety and low esteem.

Compulsive eating disorders start slowly and may begin in early childhood when the formation of eating habits takes place and may cause the child to turn to food whenever they are upset. Gradually, with the passage of time, food begins to act as a means to soothe these upset feelings and the destructive pattern will continue as the person does not learn to trust that feelings will pass and that he or she should be able to soothe these feelings without recourse to eating food.

Those who have compulsive eating disorders may make an attempt to stop and this may take the form of rigorous dieting or existing with inflexible standards of eating. In the long run, however, strict diets may not work as it is depriving and compounds a feeling of depression in the person. Only recently has compulsive eating disorder been taken seriously and even then, prejudicial impressions continue to be very strong. This has resulted in people with compulsive eating disorders being portrayed as stereotyped lazy and gluttonous.