Huh. So we're all mentally ill now

[elfs]

I was listening to an NPR article about making binge-eating a DSM-category disorder. The reporter asked one physician what the criteria was for "binge eating." The doctor replied:

The criteria require a clearly unusually large amount of food to be consumed in a relatively short period of time. And typically it is over 1,000 calories.

To meet criteria for the disorder, the episodes are recurrent. They happen at least once a week. They're persistent. The criteria call for at least three months of duration.

The smallest standard adult meal at Burger King is 1,040 calories, so: if you work downtown and you eat at Burger King once a week, you are certifiably mentally ill.

And not because you like Burger King.

Comments

The proposed definition

[blaisepascal]

From the dsm5 website:

DSM-5 Proposed Diagnostic Criteria for Binge Eating Disorder



A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:

1. eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances

2. a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating)

B. The binge-eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:

1. eating much more rapidly than normal

2. eating until feeling uncomfortably full

3. eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry

4. eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating

5. feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating

C. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.

D. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for three months.

E. The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behavior (i.e., purging) and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.

I don't think weekly lunch at BK comes anywhere near qualifying for criterion A(1).