Emotional & Psychological Issues

The mysteries of the night have been fodder for fiction writers, storytellers, and myth-makers for centuries. But in the past few decades, scientists have turned their attention to the midnight hour in an attempt to understand two rare disorders that affect eating habits and sleep patterns.

NIGHT EATING SYNDROME

Ask most people why they eat, and odds are you'll be answered with a quizzical look and something along the lines of an abrupt "Because I get hungry - why else?"

Though the relationship between food and hunger seems to be among the most fundamental exchanges, the truth is that many individuals are inspired to eat - and often impelled to overeat - for complex reasons that have little to do with the status of their stomachs.

For many overweight children and teens, their physical health and well-being is the least of their problems. Their real suffering comes when they contend with name-calling, rejection by peers, taunting, and other poor treatment they receive from other children at school and in the community. And for many, it's not only how others think of them, but how they think of themselves. A sizable percentage of overweight kids - particularly girls - are clinically depressed as a result of a preoccupation with being overweight.

You're on a diet - again - and judging by your moodiness, everyone knows it. Even though you've made your weight-loss intentions clear, your best friend sits down and inhales an entire bag of cookies in front of you. Your husband surprises you with a fancy dinner as a reward for your hard work. At the family barbecue, your mom turns to you and whispers, "You've lost so much weight - you can have one little piece of cake." Why do our loved ones make losing weight so difficult?

Lisa is a classic emotional eater. She uses food to escape and soothe negative emotions, and responds to upsetting internal triggers in a repetitive, automatic self-defeating way. If you find yourself eating when you are not really hungry, Lisa's story of relapse recovery may provide strategies to help you get back in control.

Lisa's Story

Patty uses her food diary to track overeating episodes and triggers, and to maintain communication with me, her therapist. She has lost 70 pounds to a weight of 323. A recent 10-day plateau resulted in the following comments in the diary: "Grazing on ice cream, feeling sick of this weight, tired of carrying it around." During phone contact she explained that despite her success, she felt a mounting impatience with her rate of losing weight, and then tries to numb these feelings with passive, mindless eating.

Genetic Mutation Associated With Binge Eating

Rrecent multinational study strongly linked irregularities in the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) gene-which many previous studies have related to eating behavior and obesity-to binge eating disorder.

Binge-eating disorder is characterized by recurrent binge-eating episodes during which a person feels a loss of control over his or her eating. Unlike bulimia, binge-eating episodes are not followed by purging, excessive exercise or fasting. As a result, people with binge-eating disorder often are overweight or obese. They also experience guilt, shame and/or distress about the binge-eating, which can lead to more binge-eating.