Binge Eating Disorder is Officially Recognized in the DSM-5
Since 1999, the American Psychiatric Association has been working with over 400 individuals to rework what is the guide to modern psychiatry. Commonly referred to as the DSM-5, it's full name is: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Binge Eating or Compulsive Eating (or Overeating) is included in the new version.
As psychiatry, like all science, progresses, attitudes change and theories are reworked as studies and experiments reveal new truths about the world we live in and in the case of psychiatry, the way our minds work.
One of the many changes in this new version of the DSM, is the criteria of eating disorders being reworked to include a recognition of binge eating disorder. This would move the binge eating disorder into the same category held by Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.The DSM-5 website lays out the criteria for binge eating disorder to be diagnosed. They are:
The patient has binge eating episodes repeatedly, where binge eating is consists of eating in a short period of time an amount of food that is decidedly more than most people would eat in the same situation, plus they have a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode. They give the example, “a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating.”
In addition, the guidelines state that to meet the new criteria, the patient must show a marked distress regarding the binge eating, and the binge eating must occur, on average, at least once a week for three months. Plus the episodes themselves must be associated with 3 (or more) of the following:
1. eating much more rapidly than normal
2. eating until feeling uncomfortably full
3. eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry
4. eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating
5. feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating
The final criteria to meet this new definition of binge eating disorder, is that the episodes should not be associated with acts like purging, or only occur during the course of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.
On first glance, it may not seem like a big change, this reclassification of a disorder that many psychiatrists and eating disorder clinics have already been treating, but it is small steps like this that help raise awareness of these conditions so that further study and correct diagnoses will occur in the future. Relatively, it wasn't long ago that anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa weren't classified, and who knows how many people suffered because they weren't properly diagnosed during that time? Now they are readily recognized and people are able to get the help they need rather than live a life of secrecy.
This secrecy is especially true when it comes to eating disorders, where many people, including family and friends don't realize their loved ones are living a life unnecessarily filled with shame and guilt commonly found in people with these disorders.
If you feel that you may have a problem with binge eating, anorexia or bulimia, please contact Sober Living by the Sea by calling 866-323-5609.
