There are now more Dutch people who suffer from an eating disorder than before the corona crisis. This includes anorexia and bulimia, but also binge eating disorder. People who binge eat regularly are often (seriously) overweight. Healthcare providers therefore mainly focus on losing weight, but it is better to tackle the binge eating yourself. And now you can even do that online.
By Mirjam BedafA pack of stroopwafels, a few large bars of chocolate, five Snickers bars – she can’t imagine anything with it now, but Linda Vos (56) regularly ate that much during a binge. She first started dieting when she was nineteen years old.
“After that I never really got rid of it. And so I have been busy for 35 years with overeating, losing weight, dieticians, general practitioners,” says Vos. “And binge eating, a lot of binge eating. At my lowest point I was seriously overweight.”
Vos was prepared for binge eating. “I always had a very strong urge to have food in the house, in case I had a binge. If I had nothing in the house, I became very restless and I felt rushed. I had to go to the supermarket to get enough food. at home. Just in case.”
Then you don’t eat just one cookie or chocolate, but multiple packages and multiple meals. Sometimes even frozen or spoiled products.
People with binge eating disorder have frequent binge eating, during which they experience large amounts of food and loss of control. “Then you don’t eat just one cookie or chocolate, but several packages and several meals. Sometimes even frozen or spoiled products,” says Bernou Melisse, psychologist at Novarum, a center for eating disorders and obesity.
Unlike other eating disorders, there is no compensatory behavior, such as exercising or vomiting. People with binge eating disorder are therefore often overweight.
Melisse: “This also means more physical complaints and a greater chance of conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. These physical conditions are associated with social costs. Not to be forgotten: binge eating also costs the person a lot of money. In addition, someone often gives in vain. spend a lot of money on different diets.”
Clients learn about their own behaviour
The binge eating disorder was only recently recognized, in 2013. “There is little recognition and the focus is mainly on weight loss and not on recovery from the binge eating disorder,” explains Melisse. Novarum specializes in eating disorders and has developed an online treatment: BEDonline. BED stands for Binge Eating Disorder.
The relatively new treatment is based on cognitive behavioral therapy and was developed by Professor Christopher Fairburn, a British psychiatrist and researcher.
Online, clients learn about their binge eating disorder and complete assignments. These vary from a few minutes to three quarters of an hour. Once a week there is a digital appointment with the practitioner, during which they discuss how things are going and what the client is encountering. The treatment lasts a total of twelve weeks. Vos also followed the online training.
“The most important thing I learned is that there are roughly five reasons why you can have a binge. I apply that knowledge to this day.”
Five reasons for a binge
The urge to binge has not gone away. “If I now have an uneasy feeling, I look at those five reasons. And there is always one that applies to me at that moment. For example, I skipped a meal. That is why I now eat at six daily moments and I try to stick to that.”
“Either I feel bad, or I have broken a so-called eating rule. That is when you eat something that you actually don’t like. A pink cake for example, but that can also be a sandwich too much.” Furthermore, Vos has a list of alternative things she can do if she feels the urge. “I now know that that urge disappears. I didn’t know that before, because I kept giving in to it.”
If you want to change certain behaviour, you have to pull out all the stops to make it happen.
The regular treatment of binge eating disorder also consists of cognitive behavioral therapy, 24 sessions of fifty minutes with a therapist. About 65 to 70 percent recover from the binge eating disorder. The online variant is certainly not inferior to this, according to recent research by Melisse and her colleagues.
Helping more people in the same time
The advantages of an online tool are clear: clients can do the assignments when it suits them best and there is no travel time. “In addition, the online treatment takes much less time than the regular treatment. This allows us to treat and cure more people from their binge eating disorder in the same time,” explains Melisse.
“Certainly with a shortage of mental health practitioners, this is an enormous gain. The time gain also has a knock-on effect. The waiting list is shorter, and other complaints also decrease. Binge eating disorder is often accompanied by anxiety and depression. and people are less often at home sick.”
Vos has not had a binge since the start of the treatment, 2.5 years ago. “It may seem like it takes little effort to me, but it isn’t. It was very difficult, but I really wanted it. If you want to change certain behavior, you have to pull out all the stops to make it happen.”