Seeing the wide variety in age, socioeconomic status, gender, weight, ED/diet history across the "Chicks in Control" forum has made me realize that binge eating disorder etc is a very common and widespread problem. I posted a frustrated entry on my personal blog and got sympathetic "I can relate to this because I do it too" comments from people I never would have expected to have an unhealthy relationship with food and body image.

I have no idea how to go about doing this but it has crossed my mind to create some kind of awareness campaign about binge eating. I've had so many moments where I thought "why couldn't I have an eating disorder that resulted in weight loss instead?"

Attempts to talk about my problems with friends have often resulted in dismissal because I'm neither very fat nor very thin. People just don't get it and I'd like to change that, but I'm not sure how...

Anyone else ever think about it?

I read somewhere the rate of occurrence in the US and remember the statistics being quite large. Unfortunately we live in a country where food is in abundance, and people don't see anything wrong with the portions and sizes of food restaurants serve.

I don't wish any eating disorder upon myself, whether it makes me lose weight or not. But I get what you mean.

I just want a healthy relationship with food again. I had this at one point, but dieting seems to bring on the binge eater in me.

I read about your father and feel sad about what you said. I started thinking about where my binge problem began...in my childhood perhaps? It came from somewhere. I remember some bad things I did when I was a little girl, like put cheese slice wrappers behind the couch, instead of the trash. My mom found the celophane wrappers and yelled at me. She also would praise me for finishing my slice of pound cake for breakfast, when my sister didn't. Maybe these memories have caused me to turn to food now for comfort. I'm going off topic, but it's just like you said, I wish I could talk about this further without feeling rejected.

It is pretty surprising to see just how many people have ED or even a "mild" improper relationship with food.

Especially with something like binging. When I first joined 3FC a long time ago, and read through the Chicks in Control section, it seemed so odd to know I wasn't the only person who did those same things! (Secret eating & binging.) I used to brush it off as "I just eat too much", because that's what I was always told. And that's partly true, but there were definitely times when I was having an all out binge, not just having a second helping of ma's dinner or the like.

It's another one of those disorders where there's really little to no physical evidence (especially if there's no purging involved), so people aren't aware. A person "looks normal" and therefore couldn't have anything "wrong" with them.

I just tend to talk about it with people (fellow 3FCers) who do understand. Not that it needs to be hidden, but sometimes it's just easier than trying to explain what can't always be explained.