What Does It Feel Like to Be Eaten Out
What Does Compulsive Overeating Feel Like?
It is normal to overeat from time to time.
Mayhap you lodge the pecan sundae when you're already full from the restaurant's main form. Y'all empty a bag of chocolates from the clearance Valentine's aisle, or gloat your girl's altogether with party treats and snacks galore. You swallow a box of Daughter Sentinel cookies in one sitting because you just "can't leave them alone."
Given this occasional overeating, you lot might assume yous know what compulsive overeating feels like. Overly full? Stuffed. Your pants are tight, and for a moment you wish you lot hadn't taken that concluding bite. Your next meal or snack may be lighter.
But compulsive overeating is more than eating too much.
What is compulsive overeating?
For those who struggle with compulsive overeating, the urge to swallow is overwhelming, as are the shame, cloy, and regret that typically follow. Dissimilar occasional overeating that is considered part of a normal and flexible relationship with food, compulsive overeating is experienced equally something unavoidable—beyond the control of the person afflicted. Those who eat compulsively are often aware their eating behaviors are aberrant or unhealthy, simply yet, they feel compelled to engage in them.
Compulsive overeating appears in both bingeing and "grazing" behavior, where people eat constantly throughout the day. Common to all experiences of compulsive overeating—and what distinguishes this behavior from occasional overeating—is in its name: it's compulsive.
We can explore this compulsivity by examining several common indicators of the compulsive overeating experience. Of course, thoughts and feelings vary by person, and these descriptions may not be comprehensive. But they do get beyond the simple bulleted list of symptoms to describe how compulsive eating actually feels.
What does compulsive overeating feel like?
Preoccupation with food
You lot can't stop thinking about food. The boxes of cereal your parents picked up at the grocery store before, the pocketbook of Doritos left over from terminal calendar week'south game night. The food is often highly palatable, its sugar and fat content high. Not always, though; sometimes it'due south "healthy" or banal, or whatever food is in the house. The bagels you bought for work tomorrow, the pizza in the freezer, the dry out oats meant for a month of breakfast, fifty-fifty the carrots and chopped salad in the produce drawer. Your mind is set on how desperately you want to consume it.
You can't recall of anything else. You try calling a friend, flip on a show. The urge won't quit. Maybe, you think, you'll eat merely a fleck, hoping that'll take intendance of it. Just three Oreos. A scattering of trail mix. Information technology doesn't help. You tin't motion on. Your brain says y'all need to consume more than and more. You lot'll miss out on this food if you don't eat it now. Just you lot know y'all are not hungry. You endeavor to "talk yourself out of it." You try to fight the urge with logic. Y'all cannot reason yourself out of this.
Powerlessness while eating
It feels inevitable, this eating compulsively. Not a thing of if—when. It feels equally if your torso has been taken over by another being, its needs and impulses beyond your control. The urge is instinctual and relentless. This is hardly what your best friend ways when she jokes she has "no self-command when it comes to sweets," or a bit of a sugar "addiction." That is a hyperbole. This is a trance. A coma. You lot are unaware of everything effectually y'all but this food.
Secrecy
By and large, y'all're alone. You lot eat a "normal" amount around others. A sandwich and some soup at your lunch appointment, a muffin at the coffee store a few hours afterward. You can go on upward appearances with others effectually, though distracted you may be. Sometimes you're planning a binge while your roommate babbles on about her new job, or yous're worrying you won't become plenty of tonight'south family pizza. You are not present. Later, left alone with your feelings, you find food. It's been hiding in the closet, some in the torso of your auto. You have a secret stash for when you are alone. Y'all engage in the compulsion.
Exhilaration turning into numbness
You find some relief in this trance. At start, the nutrient is the most delicious thing in the globe, a thrill it seems you've never before experienced. You are no longer feeling anything, expert or bad, fixated only on eating more. Yous experience numb. No thoughts near today's pain or the stressors of tomorrow. At some signal, you stop tasting the nutrient. Information technology is now cardboard and mush. No longer pleasant. You return to witting awareness.
Physical pain and discomfort
You lot experience sick, your stomach is swollen and distended. You're short of breath. At that place's acid reflux in the back of your pharynx and a burning pain in your breast. You lot are exhausted.
Shame
The overwhelming shame sets in. Empty packages and wrappers around you, you feel disgusted with yourself. You lot're afraid you'll gain weight—you know you'll proceeds weight. It feels like it will never end. You lot hate that you've gained weight since these behaviors started, and that others seem to be more than interested in that fact than in whatever issues backside it. Yous wonder why you can't swallow normally. Why tin can't y'all finish—where is all your "willpower"? You throw away the balance of the food so as not to be "tempted." You swear yous won't binge again.
Compulsive overeating and eating disorders
While compulsive overeating alone does not always betoken a clinical eating disorder, the beliefs is strongly associated with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder (BED). People with bulimia purge after excessive food consumption, frequently by airsickness, misusing laxatives and diuretics, or exercising excessively. There are no such compensatory behaviors in BED. Compulsive overeating affects both men and women. They may exist considered overweight or of good for you weight, or their weight may fluctuate as they engage in a cycle of restricting and overeating.
Compulsive overeating is not about willpower, and information technology differs from occasional overeating in both physical and psychological means. Fortunately, like other eating disorder behaviors, information technology can be successfully treated with professional person intendance.
Compulsive overeating doesn't have to control your life. If yous or a loved one is struggling with this matted behavior, The Emily Program tin can assist. Become started by completing our online course or calling u.s. at 1-888-364-5977.
Tags: Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia, Compulsive Overeating, Eating Disorders
Source: https://www.emilyprogram.com/blog/what-does-compulsive-overeating-feel-like/
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