Compulsive overeating patients tend to be overweight or obese but persons of normal or average weight can also be affected. Unlike individuals with bulimia, compulsive eating patients do not attempt to compensate for their binging with purging behaviors such as fasting, laxative use or vomiting. Compulsive overeating usually leads to weight gain and obesity, but not everyone who is obese is also a compulsive eater. They spend excessive amounts of time and thought devoted to food, and secretly plan or fantasize about eating alone.
Compulsive overeating can lead to serious medical conditions including high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, and major depression, kidney disease, arthritis, bone deterioration and stroke. Compulsive overeating patients overeat primarily through binge eating and they can be said to have binge eating disorder. Compulsive overeating patients can also engage in grazing behavior, during which they return to pick at food throughout the day resulting in large overall number of calories consumed even if the quantities eaten at any one time may be small.
Compulsive overeating patients have increased tendency to secrete insulin at the sight and smell of food. Some researchers also attribute it to excessive neurological sensitivity in taste and smell of food. Studies show that there is an abnormality of endorphin metabolism in the brain of compulsive eaters that triggers the addictive process. For the compulsive overeating patient, the ingestion of trigger foods causes release of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. The patients of compulsive overeating disorder might consume anything from 5000 to 15000 kilo calories in a day causing an addictive “high” like those experienced through drug abuse leading to release from mental stress.
Stoppage of addictive food causes withdrawal symptoms in those with eating disorders leading to the decreased levels of serotonin in the individual. This in turn causes anxiety and depression. Food is nothing but a complex mixture of chemicals that can affect the body in multiple ways, which is magnified by stomach-brain communication. It may be much more difficult for the patients to recover from food addiction than drug addicts.
The patients of this disease are aware that eating habits are abnormal since they tend to eat huge quantities of food even if they are not hungry. They are always preoccupied with their weight and feel guilty about themselves. They eat alone to avoid the embarrassment of overeating. The symptoms of compulsive overeating disorder are many. The patients of compulsive overeating disorder suffer from depression and mood swings. They eat very little in public but eat more rapidly than normal and are almost always overweight. They have very low self esteem and avoid social activities .
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