How does the coronavirus pandemic influence binge eating disorder?

Beyond the COVID-19 disease, the context of the coronavirus pandemic has led to the appearance of a whole series of diverse pathologies, some very different from each other. In fact, many of them do not affect specific cellular organs or tissues, but are of a psychological nature.

In this sense, several investigations show, for example, that the psychological consequences are relatively frequent in those who have suffered COVID-19: they could be present in more or less half of the cases.

However, one of the characteristics of the pandemic is that it is not necessary to have been in contact with the virus to experience mental health problems: the context of fear of contagion, health restrictions and economic crisis is, by itself, enough to have problems that trigger psychological and psychiatric disorders. In this article we will focus specifically on The relationship between binge eating disorder and the coronavirus pandemic.

• Related article: "Keys to understand eating disorders"

What is Binge Eating Disorder?

Let's start with the most important thing: what exactly did you sew binge eating disorder into? It is a disease that is part of the Eating Disorders and that, as its name indicates, is characterized by episodes of uncontrolled binge eating, which do not correspond to the actual hunger experienced by the person.

Thus, those who develop binge eating disorder develop a dynamic in which at certain times they feel the need to immediately eat relatively large amounts of food, something tied to what is known What emotional hunger: the person “learns” to mitigate their discomfort through the sensations that the act of eating produces, despite the fact that your body does not need these foods and in fact it generates a higher health problem to the problem that makes you feel bad at the time.

On the other hand, this disorder is not as famous as anorexia and bulimia, pathologies that have been receiving media attention for years. and that tend to attract the spotlight of all mental health awareness campaigns, which complicates its prevention and rapid treatment when it appears: many times, people who suffer from it take a long time to identify it as a problem, and sometimes assume that it is part of their habits or their "manias". This may be due to the fact that Eating Disorders are associated with excessive concern about controlling what is eaten, and this pathology seems to go against that logic.

However, if we examine it carefully, we will realize that binge eating disorder has a lot to do with bulimia, although in this case purging behaviors such as induced vomiting are not carried out (which avoids major damage to the skin of the hands and the the upper tract of the digestive system, but at the same time it increases the chances of being overweight, while the risk of malnutrition is maintains).

• You may be interested: Binge eating disorder: causes, consequences and treatment

The relationship between the pandemic and binge eating disorder

Mental health problems cannot be understood without the economic, social and cultural context in which they are produced. They are not simple diseases that appear due to an abnormality in a gene, in an organ or in a cellular tissue caused by a pathogenic agent.

In fact, this is also partly true with certain medical pathologies such as COVID-19 (in which the study of behavior patterns is very important for understand its contagion), but it is even more true when we talk about psychological disorders, because they are greatly influenced by the way in which people experience the social relationships, the beliefs that they internalize from the society in which they live, the lifestyle they adopt for fun or to promote their development staff etc

In this sense, the coronavirus pandemic has given rise to a context in which alterations such as binge eating disorder can appear with relative ease. Thus, in the times of the coronavirus there are elements such as stress and anxiety, generated by the anomalous nature of what is happening worldwide and the dangers it entails for both health and the social and financial situation of people; the uncertainty due to the lack of information about what will happen during the coming months and weeks; the boredom generated by the lack of activities to do if you can hardly go out on the street or there are many shops and businesses closed; and lack of support and supervision from family and loved ones (for those who have spent a long period in quarantine or simply unable or unwilling to meet with others due to fear of contagion or the health restrictions applied to the population in general).

This combination of sources of stress and fear, social isolation and disruption of habits and routines that people have become accustomed to makes it relatively easy to misuse the resources available at home, fall into repetitive behavior dynamics, seek immediate sources of well-being that can end up leading to a food addiction, etc.

In addition, we must not forget that the pandemic fosters panic situations in which waves of fear spread running out of certain kinds of food, which makes it easy for people to get the “fear” of having to go quickly to buy large amounts of food to store in the pantry. This high availability of food that can occur in some houses increases their visibility, which It makes it easier to think about food when facing certain types of stress or fear generated by the pandemic.

• Related article: "How the pandemic has influenced the development of hypochondria and OCD"

Looking for psychological support?

If you are going through a difficult stage in your life and are looking for professional psychological help or treatment to overcome certain disorders that damage your mental health, get in touch with us.

On APPOINTMENT Clinics We have a team of professionals from both the field of psychotherapy and medicine, and we have a lot of experience treating problems such as eating disorders or addictions.

We stand out for giving the possibility both of carrying out outpatient treatment with support for patients and relatives and of carrying out hospital admission treatment. our fully equipped residential module and located in a privileged space, surrounded by nature and full of rooms for individual activities or directed.