Binge Eating and a Weight Issue

Binge eating is defined as uncontrollable eating of excessive amounts of food in a relatively short period of time.

People often feel embarrassed and ashamed of having this problem however they are unable to stop because they have a compulsive urge to eat. Estimates are that between 0.7-4 percent of the US population suffer from this eating disorder.

People who binge eat when not hungry and can continue to consume the food even after they feel uncomfortably full. They also can be extremely secretive about their eating problem simply because they do feel ashamed.

This is a problem that I have worked with many times. One of those times was filmed by a Swedish TV company called Titan, in the documentary series, "The Outsiders". This show followed the life of Claire. Claire was a binge eater and ate £30/ $60 per week of chocolates. In order to stop people noticing she used different shops to buy sweets from. The documentary shows Claire as she buys her sweets and in her own words tells her story.

Of course as time goes on with a binge eating problem the person begins to put weight on, and with this comes more issues. Claire explains how she found the clothes that she was buying no longer fit her shortly after she purchased them.

The session where I worked with Claire on her problem was filmed in its entirety by the film crew. It lasted about 45 minutes. This was then edited for the show. By the end of the session Claire gave the chocolates we had brought as a means to test her problem away. She stopped binge eating. As of Christmas 2007, when I phoned Claire she had not had any more episodes of the problem.