ABSTRACT

I am a nurse manager at a local hospital, am married, and have two adolescent boys, ages 13 and 17. I’m seeking treatment for binge eating (BE), which occurs several times a week. As a child I would sneak food from my family’s kitchen and hoard it in my bedroom. I would come home from school and binge in my room by myself. In typical episodes I would eat half a bag of brown sugar or a box of cookies. My BE has fluctuated in severity since childhood, with the worst periods occurring during college, my late twenties, and currently. My binge episodes usually occur in the evenings after dinner, when alone in the kitchen cleaning up and watching TV. In a typical BE episode I eat two pints of ice cream or 30 to 50 snack crackers and experience a sense of loss of control, particularly a feeling of being unable to resist eating the food that I know is in the kitchen. I have struggled with being overweight since adolescence and have made multiple attempts at weight loss, including structured programs and diet pills. My BMI has fluctuated from 24 to 36.5, based on measured height and weight, and it was 31.2 at the time of the evaluation.