Binge Eating Disorder: What It Is, Where It Comes From, and How to Get Support
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is one of the most common yet misunderstood eating disorders.
Many people experiencing binge eating disorder describe feeling out of control, ashamed, or confused about why it keeps happening. They often tell themselves they should simply "try harder," be more disciplined, or finally find the right diet. But binge eating disorder is not a failure of willpower.
It is a recognised mental health condition, described in the DSM-5-TR, with clear diagnostic features and deeply human psychological roots. Understanding what binge eating actually is — and what it is not — can be an important first step toward support.
In this article:
What Binge Eating Disorder is and how it is clinically defined
DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria
The psychological and relational roots of BED
The restrict–binge cycle explained
How to access support in Australia
What Is Binge Eating Disorder?
Binge Eating Disorder involves recurrent episodes of eating a large amount of food within a discrete period of time, accompanied by a sense of loss of control. During these episodes, a person may feel unable to stop or regulate what they are eating. Afterwards, intense feelings of shame, disgust, guilt, or low mood are common.
The DSM-5-TR describes binge episodes as being associated with three or more of the following:
Eating more rapidly than usual
Eating until uncomfortably full
Eating large amounts when not physically hungry
Eating alone due to embarrassment about the quantity eaten
Feeling disgusted, depressed, or intensely guilty afterwards
To meet diagnostic criteria, binge episodes must occur at least once per week for three months, and must cause marked distress.
Importantly, unlike bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder does not involve regular compensatory behaviours such as purging, laxative use, or driven excessive exercise.
Binge Eating Disorder is not defined by body size. People in both larger and smaller bodies can have BED. You simply cannot determine if someone is experiencing BED by looking at them: the diagnosis is about the pattern of eating and the emotional experience surrounding it.
Where Does Binge Eating Disorder Come From?
There is no single cause of binge eating disorder. It usually develops from an interplay of biological vulnerability, psychological factors, and cultural pressures — but in therapy, we often discover that binge eating makes sense in context.
The impact of diet culture and restriction is one of the most well-documented pathways. Many people who develop binge eating patterns have a history of dieting or food restriction. When the body experiences restriction, it responds with increased preoccupation with food and eventual loss of control. The restrict–binge cycle is both common and self-perpetuating:
Restriction creates physical and psychological deprivation
Deprivation intensifies preoccupation with food
Loss of control leads to a binge episode
The episode triggers shame and self-criticism
Shame motivates further restriction — and the cycle continues
Over time, eating becomes morally charged: "good" days and "bad" days, "clean" eating and "failure." This moral overlay intensifies shame, which paradoxically fuels the cycle rather than interrupting it.
Binge eating may also develop primarily as an emotional regulation strategy. Food can soothe anxiety, quiet loneliness, fill boredome, soften anger or grief, and create a brief sense of comfort or escape. In schema therapy terms, binge eating can function as a Detached Self-Soother mode — a strategy that distances a person from overwhelming internal thoughts and feelings. It usually works well for a short period, but is the followed by intense self-attack afterwards. When eating is one of the only reliable ways to manage distress, it becomes difficult to relinquish even when it causes suffering.
Childhood experiences and relational history are also frequently implicated. Emotional neglect, chronic criticism, inconsistent caregiving, or developmental trauma can shape how someone relates to their body and emotions in adulthood. When emotions were not safely held or validated in childhood, they can feel intolerable later in life. Food becomes a consistent, predictable source of comfort — or a way to suppress internal states that feel too large. In this sense, binge eating is rarely simply "about food." It is often about unmet needs, early survival strategies, and the long reach of what wasn't provided.
There are also neurobiological components. Binge eating is associated with dysregulation in reward pathways and impulse regulation systems, which further reinforces its compulsive quality. This is not a moral weakness, it is a condition with genuine biological underpinnings.
What Should I Do If I Think I Have Binge Eating Disorder?
If you recognise yourself in this description, you may already be carrying a significant amount of shame, and that shame commonly delays people from seeking support for years. The shame usually suggests that there is something wrong with you, that this should be manageable alone, or that nobody would understand.
Binge eating disorder is both common and treatable, and the appropriate response is clinical support, not increased attempts at self-discipline.
Talking with your GP is a good starting point. In Australia, an Eating Disorder Treatment Plan provides access to Medicare-supported sessions with a psychologist and dietitian.
Effective treatment for BED typically includes:
Stabilising eating patterns and reducing dietary restriction
Identifying emotional and situational triggers for binge episodes
Developing more effective emotional regulation strategies
Addressing underlying trauma or relational wounds where relevant
Working with a non-diet dietitian to rebuild a functional relationship with food
Working with a psychologist and a Health At Every Size (HAES) aligned dietitian simultaneously offers the most comprehensive support, addressing both the psychological and physiological dimensions of recovery. Effective psychological approaches BED include CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for eating disorders) and Schema Therapy, particularly where complex trauma or entrenched emotional patterns are present.
It's also worth reframing the central question: rather than asking "why can't I control this?", a more clinically useful question might be: "what is this behaviour doing for me, and what would need to be different for it to be less necessary?"
A Note on Body Size and Diagnosis
BED is not a condition that presents only in larger bodies, and it is not a disorder defined by size or weight. It is one of the most under-referred eating disorders in clinical practice, in part because it can be invisible to others and because the shame surrounding it is significant enough to prevent people from disclosing it. If you are concerned about binge eating, get in touch with your GP to begin your pathway to safe and effective recovery.
Waxflower Psychology offers psychological treatment for eating disorders and complex trauma in Carlton North, Melbourne, and online across Australia. If you'd like to explore whether therapy might be the right next step, a 15-minute phone consultation is available.