There are three major eating disorders that affect millions of people of all ages. Many people know about anorexia and bulimia, but very few people are aware that compulsive eating disorder, also called binge eating disorder, is affects more people than the other two disorders combine.

Instead of getting the help they need, many think that sufferers of compulsive eating disorders are hardly victims and are instead considered to be just people who love to eat too much and have a lack of willpower. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Compulsive eating disorder is not a physical disorder as much as it is a mental disorder. Willpower and food have very little to do with compulsive eaters. Many of the sufferers eat in order to soothe themselves, much like an alcoholic will drink to soothe themselves.

The guilt and shame that follows a binge eating episode is intense and can bring about thoughts that border on deep depression. This deep depression that people suffer affects their entire life. Compulsive eating disorder sufferers will swear they won’t do it again after an episode and they will beat themselves up over their transgression, but when the need to be soothed comes again, they will once again turn to the enemy that they have turned to many times in the past, food.

Many sufferers of compulsive eating disorder begin their battle when they are in their pre-teen years. It’s seems only natural at the time as they are going back to the same thing that gave them comfort years before, food. They equate the soothing feelings with a fix for their problems. It’s something they return to time and time again.