Why do I binge eat and what can I do about it?

I must have asked myself that question a million times over in my lifetime! 

Whether you consider yourself a binge eater or not, at some point in our lives we’ve all emerged from some kind of binge. Perhaps surrounded by beer bottles, sweet wrappers, or shopping bags, and asked ourselves, “What the hell happened?” How can rational, functioning adults totally lose control of their impulses?

The causes of binge eating

In simple terms, bingeing is the act of consuming an excess of something in a short amount of time, be it food, alcohol, drugs, you name it. Bingeing behaviour might be more common than you think.

For example, binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder there is.

Binge drinking — that is, knocking back four or five drinks in two hours or less — is also widespread, especially among college students.

As it turns out, binge behaviours — whether drinking, eating, or shopping — actually have similar causes. Psychologists explain that all types of bingeing are

“ways of dealing with negative emotions that are not rational or healthy.”

But when does the occasional overindulgence become a real problem? Full-fledged binge disorders are characterized by feelings of powerlessness, secrecy, shame, and social isolation.

Once someone feels a need to binge in private or schedule binges around (or instead of) work and social obligations, it’s time to ask why.

Triggers for bingeing behaviour

Psychological

A lot of the time, binge eating is simply a way to numb unhappy feelings. For example, studies show that some common risk factors for binging are anxiety, stress, and — you guessed it — depression.

Naturally, the pain and guilt that come in the aftermath of a binge can trigger stress, which can trigger another binge — not exactly a fun cycle to get caught in.

Deprivation

Depriving yourself of certain food groups or counting calories is deprivation. If you have a mindset of “I need to lose weight” this causes you to go on a diet or consciously eat less. When you are told you can’t have something, you want it even more. This is just how humans operate. When you stop yourself from enjoying your favourite foods in order to change your body then this all builds up to a binge. Think of a pendulum. If you send a pendulum one way, it HAS to swing in the other direction, that’s just the law of cause and effect. You are no different. If you go to the extreme in one direction, then you will go to the extreme in the other direction until you find balance. So when you think “What’s wrong with me, why do I keep binging?” look at WHY you binge. There WILL be a reason.

Another point I would like to add before I go onto the next one is to get to the source of WHY you want to change your body in the first place because this is what leads you to deprive and then binge. This is something I talk about often and I won’t go into detail here but most of the time it is due to pressure from society and society’s ideals.

Chemical

Sometimes people overindulge because it feels great (until regret sets in, anyway). When we eat junk food, for example, our brains release the feel-awesome neurotransmitter dopamine — and in staggering quantities.

Dopamine contributes to feelings of pleasures and satisfaction as part of the reward system,

You can imagine what happens next. Once our brains’ secrete dopamine during a binge, that feeling can become a physical addiction. We then binge more and more because we crave that same rush of chemicals.

Sociocultural

For people without a strong sense of self-confidence, the pressures of a culture that emphasizes coolness through consumption can also lead to bingeing.

“We’re always being told that you’re not worth anything if you’re not thin or if you don’t drink or if you don’t own certain things,”

“The pressure to be perfect can definitely lead to anxiety and binge-like behaviour.”