Address the treatable emotional eating.(CLINICAL REPORT)

Publication: Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow

Publication Date: 01-JUN-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Manisses Communications Group, Inc.

Medical authorities say obesity is an epidemic in the United States, affecting all age groups. Some Americans are overweight because of emotional eating problems. In fact, emotional eating affects far more Americans--of all backgrounds--than do the more extensively researched eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia.

Emotional eating problems have become so common that we forget they are seriously distressing to people and very treatable. In addition, many people are ashamed of their emotional eating, so they keep the behavior secret. For both reasons, the 25 to 30 percent of Americans with emotional eating issues are not being routinely identified by counselors or seeking help for their problems. It's time to ask our clients direct questions about their eating behaviors and to offer sound assistance.

Emotional eating refers to a range of behaviors in which people eat for reasons other than physiological hunger or participation in cultural events. The best-researched emotional eating problems is binge eating. When this occurs with regularity and without efforts to purge calories consumed, the individual might have Binge Eating Disorder (BED; see the DSM-IV).

Other forms of emotional eating include eating when not hungry, eating foods perceived as "forbidden," grazing, and...

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