The act of eating to excess; to eat too much food; to eat immodestly – these are all definitions for overeating. And the term also covers a wide spectrum of eating habits – from those who occasionally overdo it, to those who make a habit of overindulging, to those who are addicted to food in some way.
What is normal?
Occasional overeating is just that – overeating that happens on the odd occasion, and usually on a special one. You eat to celebrate. This is perfectly normal and everybody does it.
Habitual overeating is like the snacking we do when we are at home, in front of the television and relaxing at the end of the day. The only reason we habitually overeat is simply to give our jaws something to do.
When it takes on a new meaning
When food becomes an obsession and eating becomes the most important thing in your life, you cross the line to food addiction.
The most common reason people with this addiction overeat is to suppress feelings such as anxiety, nervousness, even frustration and anger. Loneliness and feeling unfulfilled can also lead to overeating. Eating becomes the coping mechanism. And overweight or fluctuations in weight is merely a symptom, and not the disease itself.
Cases in point
A 55-year old woman explains how food is her obsession, how she constantly keeps thinking about food. “If I binge every night for a week, I will then diet like mad for another week so I don’t put on weight.”
Donna Simpson, a 42-year-old woman from New Jersey in the USA who already tips the scales at 272kg, wants to become the world’s heaviest living woman by almost doubling her weight to 455kg. She readily admits that a big part of her motivation for putting on the kilograms is the attention she gets – she seems to crave the attention just as much as the food she guzzles down on her Website for the world to see.
Some people may overeat as a way of protecting themselves. A classic example of this is the female victim of childhood sexual abuse. She might be overeating and packing on the kilograms to create an overweight body image that makes her less attractive to men. In this way, she believes, she can keep men at a distance.
Almost always a women in this situation does not even realise the reason for overeating and being overweight.
What to do
Our Employee Wellbeing Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day if you or a loved one is overweight and you want to know more about the psychology of overeating.