I just want to know why Bulemia/Aneorexia all get so much recognition and sympathy but compulsive over eating does not? If you say someone has an over eating disorder people just automatically think well they are just fat and need to stop putting the food in their mouth. But you don't see them saying that Bulemics need to "just stop throwing up." I mean I know some people will bash all eating disorders but the over eaters get most of the flack. It's so annoying that they can't realize it's a mental disorder also and that we can suffer with it just as bad as any other eating disorder patients. It just infuriates me!

Lovable, there is a fantastic book out there that I've just read called The Hungry Gene by Ellen Shell. It's about the history of weight loss schemes and even more importantly, the science behind weight gain. The part that absolutely fascinated me was the discussion about the genetic programming behind getting/staying fat. There is research--careful scientific research--to show that for a lot of people, being fat is programmed into them IN THE WOMB! Talk about "overeating" being entirely out of one's control!! That's not to say that nothing can be done about it--but for a certain proportion of people, overeating and gaining weight is something they're genetically programmed to do.

I think you'd like this book.

We watched 60 minutes (I think) last night about Ghrelin... it is the hunger factor in your belly. They say that most overweight people have an over production of it. The pharmasuitical companies are going crazy trying to find a way to stop it. Of course it will be yet another expensive drug that could cause more problems.

But if it helps, it's not all you. It's your body. Our ancestors were the ones who survived famine... so that means we were the chubby ones. It's in our genes.

HTH,
Michele

I thought it was a mental disorder for the better part of 30 years. Turns out 90% of my compulsive overeating is a reaction to blood sugar crashes. Get rid of the sugar and I just don't have the same need to eat. Think I'm firing my therapist next week; there's just nothing to talk about now that I'm not binging every night.

So it's made me wonder if there isn't some physical trigger that hits buliemics, too, but that's another day's issue.

Good for you, cs_carver, for firing your shrink! So many of the "mental diseases" that we seem to suffer from are really biochemically rooted. It is arrogance on the part of the psychiatric establishment to think that all we need to do is to have "insight" in order to rid ourselves of these dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors.

And I would stake MONEY on the idea that bulemia is a biochemically rooted behavior, too.

Hi all,
Rose, my therapist would agree with you about the biochemical roots of various behaviors.

You know, Lovable, all those other addictions: drugs, alchohol, cigarettes are somewhat romanticized by society. Addiction to food & food behaviors is not. And it seems to me that those other addictions are viciously lethal--as much as overeating. Overeating doesn't make us look haggard. Don't know why some folks think skinny is sexy.
My DH doesn't! In other cultures and other parts of the world, fat is a status symbol. It means you've got enough to eat--and I bet the women in those cultures don't hide their bodies away under dark A-line robes...
Eri Z (just my 2 cents)

I need to go to a country where your weight= status, I would be rich haha. I'm going to look for that book. I have noticed that I no longer binge while on Atkins, but I don't know if that is because Atkins gives me some type of control or because I'm not touching the food that makes me binge.

Atkins gives you control BECAUSE you are not touching the food that makes you binge!!

At least, that's it for me. almost complete freedom from binges, in exchange for giving up high carbs. Hum.

30 years of failed "control." I can try this for the next 30 years, and we'll see when I am by 74.