In the photo: Man dubbed Britain’s Fattest Man fell into compulsive eating after suffering heartbreak from a relationship.
I admit it. I don’t understand what is it about compulsive eating that makes it difficult for the person to simply employ willpower and begin to have a healthy relationship with food. Yet if people can develop disorders related to chewing on sponges or snacking on toilet paper, why wouldn’t a compulsion towards tasty foods be real?
But I haven’t experienced the issue of compulsive eating firsthand, and do admit to struggling on and off with the concept of why the person just can’t stop eating. This is not me judging. I just want to understand.
So what’s your take? If you or someone you know has struggled with compulsive eating, please share! How does one break the cycle?
- Edited 1/8/11: Two wonderful commenters who have struggled with food compulsion took the time to answer this question more in-depth on their own blogs. Please visit their posts: Compuslive/Emotional Eating by TeeTee71, Opening Up by Kerri O. and Love Me For Who I Am by Jules.
I struggle with compulsive eating and binging, but I don’t think anyone is ever stuck, or can’t change themselves. We always have hope and choices in life. It’s been a lot of hard work learning what helps me.
FINALLY. Something I have real knowledge of.
I would consider myself a compulsive eater. It STARTS with a poor relationship with food but it then spirals out of control. I can’t speak for all compulsive eaters but I will say that when I’m slightly hungry and feel a little bored? I mindlessly eat WAY MORE than I should. My vice is pizza. Why eat one slice when I can just order an entire pizza (no cooking!) and eat as many as I like*?
*Note: “As many as I like” is proportionate to the number of slices in the pizza.
There’s a lot of guilt and self-loathing when the food coma wears off. But it happens. Over and over again. It’s very mindless. Like hoarding! But in my belly.
I’m making no sense now.
Although I do understand it can be a disease/condition, what I don’t get is the people that enable them. I’m sorry, if you can’t get up and make your own damn food, there is no way in hell I’m going to cook you your 5 lbs of bacon, stacks of pancakes and overindulgence of eggs. I watch a lot of these documentaries on these types of people and it amazes me the co-dependent support they get! And if they don’t, they are ordering from places. Where the heck do they get the money for this? I have my impulses when it comes to certain foods, but it’s never gotten to the point of being out of control. These people need help, and it shouldn’t get to the point to where they are immobile. If I knew someone like this, they could hate me all they wanted, because my focus would be on their health, not their compulsion.
@cher, I know. I remember this call to the police ( I knew about this story because she was a patient of mine). Her husband beat the crap out of her almost every day. One night, the neighbours called the police. They took her husband into custody. WHat do you know? She actually attacked the cops, bite them, while screaming “He’s my husband, don’t take him away!!! He’s my husband, he can beat me if he wants to!!!”
It’s like Stocolmo Syndrome, when the person getting kidnapped actually defends the kidnapper. It’s not just he morbidly obese that is stuck in a loop- his family, buying him and feeding him crap and 8,000 cal/day are stuck in the same mental loop too. A horrible, horrible loop.
@Reinaldo, YEP that’s what domestic violence does and not just to the victim. and its actually called the Stockholm syndrome..its actually a very, very interesting psychology syndrome. Amazing how the brain changes your thoughts to help you survive.
@Jules – Big Girl Bombshell, and keeps this horrible circle moving along- the overfed and the over feeders…I just wont blame “just” their family. They’re all sick, and need treatment.
@Jules Yeah, Stockholm! Wich is spelled in Spanish as Stocolm. Or better-spánished, “Estocolmo”. Same sh!t, slightly different smell…. 😀
Well, I don’t really know for sure either. I get what Ron said above (been there, done that, trust me) but that type of behavior just got me fat and at 30% bodyfat. But I (we) could still move, you know. But this dude from the pic looks like he can’t even get up his bed by himself.
Can a heartbreak makes you eat until you are prostrated? Sure, just like it can makes you drink/drug yourself till you die or jump from a bridge. But that really talks sh!t about yourself. It means you don’t have the tools to endure the hard stuff of life.
I mean, must of us will bury our parents. Pets will be lost. You’ll ge fired sometime in your life. People are going to make you cry. You are going to get dumped. You need to overcoming it. Or, some people give in into destructive behavior because they don’t know how to deal with it.
I believe – and I might be wrong- most people reading this are not postrated in bed from being overweight. We are just fat. Or have some fat to loose. But we still hold our own life. If you’re reading this and are actually postrated in bed, get help! Anyone can get out of it. And if you’re not, and just need to loose some fat/get healthy, dude, you already get it easier than the man from the pic. That’s like, 80% of his journey already done. Should we focus on that last 20%, aren’t we?
Holy Hot Dogs, I love your comment. I actually heard the Rocky theme music playing as I read it.
@Josie, effing amazing. Yo do know that IS my theme song, right?
Okay, I’ll take this one on.. I believe compulsive eating is a disease just like other eating disorders AND addictions. However, I also think people use the term compulsive eating for emotional eating a lot and there is a difference. I am not a professional but I have lived with this and also a co-dependent and enabler. Let me elaborate a little bit.
The enabler or co-dependent was learned EARLY on (elementary school) because of my home life and that was my role. you are taught early on to *take” care of others. (I was playing bartender for the adults at 9 years old) It becomes what you know.
The compulsive eating in true fashion takes over. It’s hard to explain to those that have never experienced it but it is an unconscious disconnect. Think about when you were younger out drinking and just drinking more until your point of being sick. DID it stop you from drinking ever again? Probably not.
Or even runners? You find you like how you feel from the runners high and push for longer and more… That is what the compulsion of the eating gives you …a high and your body gets use to it.
It is something that is used to make yourself feel better in that moment and it takes over. Then the cycle ensues.
sorry Josie, this turned out longer than I intended… I’ll end it here but if you truly want to know more there are tons of blogs out there where you can find out more.
@Jules – Big Girl Bombshell, I agree with this, the term gets misused a lot. When it’s compulsive, it’s almost like it’s automatic, uncontrollable (although I still believe we can stop). I think compulsive eating and binge eating are comparable to alcoholism. Why don’t they just put down the damn drink? It’s more complex than that. But, as someone on the other side (I feel) of compulsive and binge eating, I do feel we are responsible and capable of stopping ourselves.
@Kerri O and @Jules You both are awesome and I just had to jump in and say woohoo. I think because so many people overeat in general we’ve become desensitized to the term compulsive eating and binging, those are clinical terms, that have clinical definitions. A day of overeating is not a binge and a person with compulsive overeating disorder does not have a little trouble with food, it’s all consuming.
So really, it depends on what you’re talking about, a general overconsumption and lack of movement resulting in some unwanted weight or a clinical disorder that often requires professional assistance to stop.
They are just very different things.
I would think the experiments with rats that will eat themselves to death in the presence of desirable foods and the accompanying brain responses in such situations (ie, habituation, etc) show that it’s real.
The situation in modern time, unlike so many other eras, is that we have a constant state of FEAST, and not just FEAST, but OPTIMIZED feast–food presented to us that makes us want to overeat. McD’s, Chili’s, BK and other places know that certain combinations that make food especially brain-pleasing will get us to eat more and more often. It makes monetary sense to put it out there, that perfect combo of flavors and textures–that they spend money to create AND advertise.
We wouldn’t have this selection and ease of eating in a pre-modern-age setting. But today, food is available 24/7 in cheap and tasty ways within seconds (microwave) to minutes (drive thrus).
Yes, I believe compulsive eating is a brain-activated thing that is aided and abetted by the human need to eat and the ease in which we were created to pack on fat to survive lean time s(ie, winter, famine).
🙂
Interesting this is your topic of discussion, Josie. I went to my first Overeaters Anonymous meeting today. And it gave me such hope to see normal people of varying ages, racial, and professional backgrounds who know what it’s like when food isn’t simply food. When it means so much because our personal narratives are stories about food and not in positive ways. I don’t necessarily understand a alcoholic’s issue nor do I understand an anorexic’s, but it’s easy to see how any of us could lose touch. I remember one of the people in today’s meeting–a 70 year old man– was sharing that he’s been coming to OA meetings for 33 years now. He started in 1978 when he was desperate for help with his eating. When I left the meeting, two blocks over I saw a young woman from the meeting walking towards me and I marveled at how normal she looked, how none of us would know she struggled if she never said a word. I don’t believe my problems with food are severe and I know that there are people so much worse off.
There is a reason why people in my meeting today started with sharing their condition, “Hi, I’m XXXX. And I’m a food addict/compulsive overeater/binge eater/recovering anorexic/recovering bulimic.” I suppose it’s a real enough disorder for them.
All great comments – I especially like what Jules said about the difference between compulsive and emotional eating.
Now can you please bring my boyfriend back. You know the one – the hottie holding himself up on one warm with the hawt tennis shoes.
Stop punishing us with pics like the one above ::my eyes::
Honestly, I don’t know. I **do** know there are times I just can’t stop myself but is it the same compulsion that my OCD kid has to line things up a specific way or he can’t function at all? No. So maybe it IS just a lack of willpower. But come to think of it, I do remember reading about how lots of processed foods these days have chemicals that practically cause addiction. So I’m thinking … let’s blame food companies! Vee at http://veegettinghealthy.blogspot.com
fantastic post and FANTASTIC comments as well, Josie.
for me
what Ive seen
I lean toward chemical…
disorder.
Josie just bring Sexy Tyrone back…..I need my lasik touched up after this.
I have to admit. Scrolling down to this post made me feel a little like I was going to throw up.. You know that sucker-punch-in-the-gut feeling? I have it. Compulsive eating is about so much and can stem from almost anything that can be deemed traumatic. For me, I believe that the body stores early trauma, and for some people, trying to fill those holes with food in the most plausible response. And then the eating becomes a cycle of bad-feeling. You feel hungry, but the hungry is in your heart, in your pores, in your bones. When I envision what this looks like, I see a really little kid that is being ignored as adults shuffle around the house, and is just standing there, big eyed and tearful, with their hands reaching up in the air – waiting for someone to pick them up. That said – it is possible to pick yourself up. I have done it, successfully, but even having succeeded prior, its not automatic – I have to choose, each and every time, how I want to respond. I have to remind myself that each bite is an opportunity to turn it all around. I have to remind myself that I’m not a little kid any more, and that it’s my life to either live.
Thank you so much for sharing. The analogy you of the little kid give really does open up my understanding a bit more. Looking in from the outside, it’s easy for someone to sit back and judge the disorder. I don’t want to be that person.
@Josie, I promise, I didn’t feel judge. Just sad, but mostly for myself. Because it’s kind of a sad thing, and it consumed (no pun intended 😉 so much of my life. I’m glad you put it out there and asked. It’s something that i’m just sort of figuring out myself. For most of my life, I just didn’t understand WHAT my problem was and I lived submerged in self-hate. But you know? Once you can name a problem, once you can take all of those behaviors and habits and isolate them as symptoms of a disorder instead of “what it means to be me,” the whole world opens up in a new way. xoxoxox
@marzipan, OH, how I relate. YES. The shame, the self-hate. But, yes, once you can name it and isolate the symptoms…you can attack it.
@marzipan, YES! all of what you said. Still figuring all this out, YES! I believe your body holds trauma and triggers those early on survival compulsions, and self-hate…
Figuring out what it means to be me and NOT being viewed as lazy, ugly, unmotivated and ALL the other stereo types! I believe this is the core underlying turning point…
Many of us have said…Just love me for who I am…but WE have to figure that out and give it to ourselves first!
***THANKS Josie for asking BIG HUGS of gratitude to you***
This is a great question and it was good to see everyone’s thoughts and opinions here. For myself, I don’t think I would have understood compulsive eating if I hadn’t experienced it for myself (the same that I wouldn’t have “got” depression if I hadn’t experienced it for myself).
For example, my parents still don’t think I was ever depressed. And they smile indulgently when I talk about my disordered eating. It’s because they’ve never experienced those things. But yes – I do believe that compulsive eating is every bit as real of a chemical disorder as depression and other forms of eating disorders and mental illness. At the same time, I don’t think that it’s ALWAYS a chemical thing… I think that for some people, it really is just that they’ve gotten into a lifestyle rut and that sort of thing. That’s the only way that you can really explain why some people are able to transform their habits within days, and why other people struggle for years.
Lastly, I love what Alexia said. I’m still within my healthy BMI and I always have been, yet I’ve struggled with both under- and over-eating. My eating issues aren’t as serious as other peoples’, but they are no less REAL.
Okay – now I’ll sit back quietly and listen some more to what other commenters have to say 🙂
Myself nor anyone I know has ever compulsively eaten to the extent that the man above has. Perhaps we all have our moments or times when we react to things, such as a break up. But I have to think we have some control? The only other thing I can think of is physiological. When we overeat the foods that taste awesome: ice cream, bagels, chocolate, pizza, bread, etc, so much insulin pours into your bloodstream that all the stuff floating around in our blood stream is taken into our fat and muscle cells VERY quickly. Then because all the glucose is gone from the bloodstream, the body panics and gives you a craving to eat more of the sugary goodness. It’s a horrible cycle that can really only be broken by eliminating those types of carbs and allowing your body to reset itself.
@Susan @Home Workouts, when you compulsively eat it’s not about taste, honestly often you don’t really even taste the food, but I do think it could be physiological, certain foods seem to be triggers and some aren’t. I believe we have control…but when you’re in that moment, it’s really hard to see it.
@Kerri O, not about taste? I’m not discounting that, but now I think my understanding just took a side swipe. Thank you for all of your insights, Kerri.
@Josie, I agree – not about the taste. Weird right? I mean, obviously, delicious is preferred, but it’s more about the automatic hand to mouth mechanism, shutting off your brain while your stomach becomes full and your anxieties are quieted. Back before (when it was bad) I would have eaten anything for that quieting, discounting of course things that are blatantly disgusting.. but delicious was not a dealbreaker, I would have taken “meh”
For me it started with a tragic situation and then several bad decisions afterwards. I just wante to feel good. You know when you get that first bite of something really yummy. You feel all warm and tingly. I wanted that feeling ALL THE TIME. So I ate and ate. But I’m an athlete. So when I got up to 230 on my 5’2″ frame sports were VERY HARD. It was my love of competition that over came my reason to seek out my “feel good” food. I still have my “feel good” foods, but in moderation. Or when I’m really sick.
I don’t know if what I do is a symptom of a disease or if it just a choice I make. I don’t know if it stems from something that happened earlier in my life, or the way I was raised or because I was dropped on my head at some point.
I don’t know if it is something I will ever be fully free of, but I hope so.
I hope someday that when my husband takes the kids and runs out to catch a movie my first thought isn’t – what can I eat and how much of can I eat before they get back. I hope someday I won’t have to lie about the chocolate cake being old and having to throw it out because I ate the whole darn thing.
I have always believed that my biggest problem was will power. I eat when bored, angry, sad, but when it comes down to it “I” am doing the eating and “I” am the only one who can stop it.
I never thought I’d hit 200, but I knew I would never get close to 300, until I did. I knew the mere thought of 350 was ridiculous, until I passed right by it.
I don’t know why we do what we do to our bodies but I am a firm believer that I am the only one who can control what I do.
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one coming in with the mental health perspective. For me, it has to with the cultural disgust and denial we have going on here.
For starters we allow obesity to be treated with ‘polite’ denial. I don’t want to hear that my back/knee/glucose/cholesterol is caused by my obesity. So strangers, doctors, and family understandably let me excuse them with secondary causes. I slipped. It’s in my genes. etc.
Secondarily, we perpetuate the myth. This is the most harmful of all. Our denial of a problem causes the family to deny the problem. The family pretending the problem doesn’t exist leads to the person pretending the problem doesn’t exist. Think “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and think of the perpetuation everyone in the whole film caused. (except maybe the girlfriend)
What is the leading cause of death in mental illness? Denial. No treatment. Family hiding the mental illness. Fear. Shame.
I used to binge eat, but I did not have binge eating disorder. Like most things, it’s a spectrum. There’s cleanliness and then there’s OCD. There’s dissatisfaction with life and then there’s clinical depression. Everyone is on the spectrum, and there are no official lines to cross; it’s not like the extreme cases in the media.
I do believe compulsive eating disorder is real, but like Jules said earlier, very few people actually have it and most confuse it with plain old emotional eating. Just being obese doesn’t mean you have compulsive eating disorder, just like being thin doesn’t mean you’re anorexic. People are too quick to diagnose themselves as an excuse. I knew a girl in college who would tell everyone on the floor she couldn’t go to class because she had severe depression. Having been hospitalized for depression as a teenager myself, I wanted to tell her, “Hint: If you’re seeking people out to brag about how depressed you are, you aren’t. And watching What Not to Wear marathons doesn’t count as ‘treatment.'”
So yes, there are compulsive eaters. Hormones go out of whack; self-destructive behaviors get stuck on replay. But most people who throw their hands up and say, “I can’t do anything about it; it’s genetic/a disease/whatever” are blowing hot air. However, they have some real issues to contend with, and emotional eating is a problem even if it’s not a clinical one.
I use to binge eat after a day of not eating back in my anorexic days. I’d get a large thing of chicken lo main and rice, then eat two large TCBY ice creams with M&M’s. That’s all I’d eat all day then not eat again the next day.
My mind went into overdrive reading this. Had to give my own take on my blog. I am a compulsive/binge eater. I’m 307 lbs. It’s not all just about willpower at least for me. http://www.teetee71.blogspot.com
I can’t even use the word “willpower” any more. This goes so far beyond that.
I’m with Marzipan and MizFit…this stuff doesn’t just happen as a matter of course. There’s mental illness/addiction plus a host of other issues that combine to put someone that far over the edge, whether it be obesity, hording, or any other form of self abuse. And I agree that compulsive eating is different than emotional eating…there’s something else going on…chemical/physical imbalances.
I mean, look at me…I spent years feeling hungry all the time, craving carbs, trying to “control myself” and it was just a matter of getting my hormones and some other things in balance. Adding a compulsion/OCD to the mix? I can’t imagine…
Sorry if this is a duplicate, but it’s not seeming to post. I get an error msg.
Thank you so much for writing this post. I had to expand on the discussion by writing my own on my blog because my thoughts are too much to leave a comment. I’d been wanting to do it for while a now and couldn’t get the courage to do it until I read your post. Thank you Terri
I think it stems from something traumatic past or present. I’m an emotional eater and when I was at my heaviest, I substituted food for dealing with problems and life. The best I can describe it as is Fat bastard “I eat b/c I’m unhappy and I’m unhappy b/c I eat”
I believe I’m a compulsive eater – maybe not to the extent of the guy in the photo. I still do not have any answers for you. I just wanted to pop in and say how horrible I feel when I saw his picture. I cannot imagine being locked inside a body like that. 🙁
Without a doubt, it is REAL, and it is fueled by underlying depression, self pity and self loathing. I’ve been there. Food gives you a high, and when you’re so depressed, your brain chemicals are altered (scientific fact). When you eat carbs your body releases serotonin, and for someone who has lost sensitivity to serotonin it’s literally a ‘happy feeling’. Wouldn’t you want that happy feeling all of the time? If you were so absolutely down in the dumps, wouldn’t you want to feel happy again? Depression makes it hard to move without real physical pain, so why not do the one thing that can give you some sort of high? Once I went on antidepressants did this realization come to me! Sometimes we need to admit that we need a little bit of help, then we can look back and say ‘I can see why I did that’
I agree with some of the posters above: it’s not actually about taste. I compulsivly eat and binge eat and it’s terrible. I am currently maintining my weight loss, but it’s a realy struggle some days not to eat until I’m sick. I wish I knew what caused me to start doing it, but I don’t. The funniest part is that I only realized I had this problem AFTER I had lost almost 150 lbs. Before that, I was able to work my binges into my daily calories and I barely noticed them. I have eaten before until I threw up. Chicken wings. I ate crap until I vomitted. If that’s not a sickness, I don’t know what is.
Wow. I just about cryed at the pic of the poor man. This post has pushed all kinds of buttons and I could probably write a thesis in response. But the kids have soccer games so let me just say. . . Do you struggle to understand why drug addicts or alcoholics continue to abuse their drugs of choice? Because addiction is addiction. There is a deep, overriding psychological need or deficit that leads to these compulsions. We’re not doing it for fun or for a hobby or because we’re morally inferior or weak. When I was at my thinnest, I practiced other compulsive behaviors like smoking, drinking, and other things, but I controlled my food intake! Nice way to diet. I’ve controlled myself now for about 9 months. Every single day is a struggle. Every meal is a struggle. Every time I can eat is a struggle. I have to battle myself continuously. Do you have to battle yourself about food all day? Obviously not. Do I enjoy torturing myself? I don’t think so (though in my messed up brain, perhaps I do). I’m just trying to point out that there is no way I would do this voluntarily for the past 9 months. I’ve lost 83 pounds — that’s great, right? I know that if I give up the battle for a month, I’ll be lost and regain that plus some in about 5 minutes. Do “normal” people have that problem? Is that just willpower? I think the idea of the “normal” people that is it just willpower and moral weakness on our parts is part of the problem too. For example, my mother who has never suffered a day from depression or eating/weight problems very much believes (and always has) that I’m just weak. I’m quite sure that her perception of me has also influenced me and made it worse. Not that it is really her fault, she couldn’t understand, but when I was a sad kid beginning to get fat and needing things other than what I got — it definitely influenced me negatively. And that sad, fat 9 year old lives in my head. So it still affects me. Clearly, there is something different about those of us with this problem than other people. We are like any crack whore in the street — except we have to indulge in our crack numerous times every day and live in a society that pretty much revolves around crack, every day for the rest of our lives.
Sorry to rant. Pushed all my big, giant, fat buttons!
Ohh the poor man. I have not tried being a compulsive eater. May suffer from heartbreaks but I would always set my mind that my food intake shouldn’t be affected. It’s a matter of setting your mind. If you stuck yourself from what you’re feeling inside you might tend to break loose.
I have heart ache.
Whats for lunch?
Never mind – I thought better of it!
Late on the replying and most have said it before…I do believe it’s a disorder of some sort. We all have will power in us but sometimes there are things that we cannot control. I do think that most snacks which contain sugar or corn syrup have the same effect as drugs. Not that I’ve done drugs before (never have) but I know the addiction sugar have. Personally I do not have a complusive disorder with food but when it comes to items (like M&M with peanuts) I go weak in the knees and although it’s always 1 handful at times it’s turned out to be 2 cups in one sitting or until finished with.
I don’t understand how anyone could not see this as a real disorder. If anorexia is a disorder, then essentially the exact opposite side of the spectrum would also be a disorder. And if I’m not mistaken, the DSM does acknowledge this as a legitimate psychological disorder.