Binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the U.S., and Black Americans are not exempt. But in general, we just don’t know what it is.
READ: Is Your Love For Food Actually A Binge-Eating Disorder?
“BED has a huge impact on the African-American community,” says Dr. Lesley Williams, chief executive officer at Liberation Center in Phoenix, Arizona. “Despite this, there is limited awareness and understanding of the condition and clinicians themselves rarely recognize or diagnose it.”
Although binge eating is a complex problem, here are five essential aspects of the disorder that you need to know:
Binge eating can be life-threatening. Those who suffer from it feel as if they’ve lost control during episodes and can’t stop eating. They are often accompanied by shame and guilt, which can turn into more dangerous reactions such as purging. Other possible dangers are an increased risk of surgeries such as gastric bypass surgery, gallbladder surgery, and other health complications such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease and heart attacks.
“This is an eating disorder that greatly impacts people’s quality of life and cannot be cured by just ‘going on a diet,’” Williams shares.
READ: How To Help Your Loved One Recover From An Eating Disorder
There is a huge psychological aspect to binge eating, and the condition often stems from — and attributes to — mental health problems.
“The psychological and emotional dangers are that when people binge, that out-of-control feeling around food lowers their self-esteem, sense of worth, and colors almost everything they do,” says Karen Koenig, clinical social worker, eating educator, and author.
“They begin to fear being around food, going out to eat, or being alone with food. They lose trust in their appetite cues, especially a sense of hunger or satiation. Binge-eating also contributes to self-hate, purging or taking laxatives, remorse, and a total devaluation of the self.”
One of the reasons binge eating is so dangerous is because dieting, which people incorrectly perceive as a solution, pushes binge eaters back into the same actions they are trying to stop.
“The other physical problem is that after a period of bingeing (a day, a week, months), binge-eaters then start dieting, and studies tell us that food restriction causes bingeing,” Koenig says “And round and round we go.”
READ: Why Being Thin Doesn’t Automatically Make You Healthy
When “Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat” author Stephanie Covington Armstrong first realized she had an eating disorder, she thought she was supposed to go at the problem alone. What she describes as “getting over the strong Black woman archetype” served as a giant barrier to recovery.
“Realizing that was as much of a problem as the disease itself: the belief that I didn’t have support and that I was supposed to suffer in silence,” she says.
Although people suffering from binge eating disorder may be reluctant to seek it, help from therapy groups and loved ones can be the key to recovery. Armstrong’s breakthrough came from eventually finding such support.
“Once I realized I couldn’t do it myself, I went to Overeaters Anonymous meetings, and eventually, I started looking for more help,” Armstrong says.
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