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Overeating has been identified as the singular cause of weight gain, and if it really is we are left to explain the cause of the overeating. Here is where all our colorful theories come in. What makes people eat too much, especially when they know that overeating will make them fat? Since everybody rejects fat people, it must be something very powerful that compels a behavior that causes weight gain. Aha! It must be deep-seated needs, like love. Or perhaps deep-seated hurts, like childhood trauma. Or maybe deep-seated issues, like sexuality. Yes, these things could do it! And voilà! The clients we counsel, one after another, just happen to have at least one of these deep- seated problems. Aren't we smart?

I have discovered that overeating, by itself, is not the cause of overweight but merely a symptom of an underlying problem. In fact, overeating is a healthy, normal response to this problem: undereating. I believe that undereating provokes compensatory overeating, preoccupation with food and all the symptoms of eating disturbance. These symptoms are really manifestations of adaptation — the body's survival system — designed to keep body and soul together under stressful environmental conditions. Lack of food is one such condition that forces the body to make changes, sometimes rather drastic ones, for survival's sake.

Undereating, food avoidance, portion control and meal-skipping because of busy schedules all inspire the adaptive make-up eating and preoccupation with food that we have all experienced. There's nothing psychological about it until we start feeling guilty and ashamed about overeating. And that comes from a lack of understanding. If we only knew that food isn't really the problem but the solution we just might have a chance to get over our fear of eating and get on with developing a normal relationship with food. Wouldn't that be something? It's all coming up, so keep reading.

Almost every psychologist and psychiatrist whom I know of reflects a confidence in the theory that aberrant eating behavior is psychogenic in origin. In fact, every individual I have ever interviewed who had a history of an eating disorder has confirmed that she learned from professionals or from books that her trouble with eating was originally caused by, and continued because of, psychological disturbance. Not one, however, reported significant or lasting relief from symptoms as a result of psychological or behavioral therapies as long as her undereating efforts continued.

In her third year of college, Patti finally sought help for her long-standing struggle with bulimia. She was beginning to feel some serious physical effects — muscle weakness, heart palpitations, occasional light-headedness and trouble concentrating. The psychologist to whom Patti went, after two sessions that covered her family history, sexual development and relationships with men, told her that she was in a depression and suggested she see a psychiatrist for an anti-depressant medication.

The next six months Patti went faithfully to her therapist. She took the anti-depressant and thought it made her feel better. She talked and talked about her feelings, dreams, hurts and struggles week after week. She never missed. Finally, the therapist began to gently explore with Patti the "significance" of her binge/purge behavior. She told Patti that repressed anger was often a trigger for bulimic behavior, and perhaps Patti would be interested in doing some "anger work." Then again, Patti had some sexual issues that might be coming out in her bulimia. Would she like to explore that possibility?

Gradually, Patti felt better, at least emotionally. The medication was probably helping. Physically, she was dragging a bit and still eating and purging as crazily as ever. Little the counselor had said about her emotional problems really rang true to Patti, except maybe the anger with her father. But she just wasn't into it, so she quit.

If eating problems really do have a psychological basis, why do almost all victims fail to gain lasting relief from their eating disturbances even after years of therapy? And how could so many individuals benefit so dramatically from a program, outlined in my first book, that is not psychological at all, but physical both in theory and in practical application? I am not implying that psychotherapy is not indicated or ever beneficial for some people when they suffer from disturbed eating, especially for other problem areas of life. It may be extremely helpful in some ways, but eating problems continue in spite of this progress when overall eating patterns are not addressed. I am suggesting that the theoretical connection between eating disorders and emotional problems is highly exaggerated, to the detriment of millions who suffer with eating afflictions.

Eating Disturbances Redefined

The definition of eating disturbance that I use is this:

Any pattern of eating that interferes with a person's
emotional, physical or social balance or health.

In other words, if your eating behavior or relationship with food is a problem for you, you have an eating disturbance. Of course, this definition would include the classic categories and the popular labels. Now forget all the technicalities that we've discussed before. Does this definition fit you? It's important to admit because that's the first step in getting well.

What's the Difference?

I have lumped all eating troubles together in my definition because I believe these disturbances all come from the same basic problem. All eating-disturbed people have several major symptoms in common and the most obvious one is abnormal eating behavior. The other symptoms they share, though not so apparent on the surface, are so similar that they ultimately blur the distinctions among the different categories. The evidence that best points to this breaking down of the distinctions between the classic eating disorders is the new term "bulimarexia."

If the main symptom of anorexia is lack of appetite, and the main symptom of bulimia is excessive appetite, then how can these disorders, which claim opposite central characteristics, possibly overlap? Isn't it remarkable that most anorectics also have symptoms associated with bulimia? Yes, it is. And is it just a coincidence that most bulimics also share the classic symptoms of anorexia? No, it isn't.

Flip Sides of the Same Coin

The term "bulimarexia" has been coined because anorexia and bulimia are flip sides of the same disorder. They share the same basic cause, which is undereating, and only a few symptoms separate these categories: degree of appetite experienced, success in controlling eating, and purging. But, as we've discovered, even these symptoms overlap. What's left to make these disorders separate? Not much.

The Connecting Cycle

Anorexia, bulimia, and all of the other eating disturbances described in this chapter are simply variations on the same cycle — the Feast or Famine Cycle. The interesting discoveries that come from this cycle model are (1) the similarity of the eating and behavior patterns among the different disturbances, (2) the obvious consistency of symptoms between eating disturbances and the cycle, and (3) the common origin — undereating — among all eating disturbances.

The Feast or Famine Cycle is propelled by conscious attempts to undereat for weight control or by unconscious undereating habits (i.e., when schedules interfere with the availability of food). You're about to discover the powerful effect this cycle has on your body, your eating and your emotional life. Armed with this information, you can finally learn to eat normally and start enjoying a long and happy relationship with food.

Prerequisites to Breaking Out

If you really want to get your eating problems solved, you've got to shake off the victim role of the dieter and accept the personal power you have to change what you can now. You can't change your history, but you can carve out a different future for yourself. This is not going to be easy. Change for human beings is never easy. But if you want your life to be free of eating disturbances, you have to eat differently — and you can.

Copyright © 1995 by Jean Antonello

Tags: Eating Disorder

About the Author

Jean Antonello, R.N., B.S.N., an obesity, eating disorders, and co-dependence specialist, is the director of the Naturally Thin Training Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is the author of How to Become Naturally Thin by Eating More. She lives in St. Paul.