How does Binge Eating Disorder affect someone’s personal life? How does it have a huge impact on daily performance? These questions and concepts are crucial to understand because B.E.D. can be a very serious disorder to go through. First, Binge Eating Disorders can affect relationships. “Relationships are the core of human existence” (Eating DIsorder Hope). People grow and thrive from the foundation of relationships. However, B.E.D. can gradually separate a relationship and it is common for friends and families of someone who is suffering from an eating disorder to feel at a loss. By nature, eating disorders are a mental illness characterized by isolation and separation and this proves that eating disorders naturally drive people away from relationships. It may seem as though a Binge Eating Disorder is defined by the obsession with food, but underneath that surface lies unconquerable pain and misery. The people who try to reach out to their loved one and tell to refrain bingeing might even push the sufferer away even more. B.E.D whips emotions around in its whirlwind and makes it easy to shut the door on even the people who they have strong relationships with. “Eating disorders become all-consuming, engulfing the individual struggling in negative thoughts and behaviors that harshly severe the most nourishing of relationships” (Eating Disorder Hope). Monica Seles, a nine-time Grand Slam events winning tennis player battled with Binge Eating Disorder and she bravely opened up about it. “For me, suffering from binge eating disorder was as tough as playing any opponent on the tennis court. It was very hard for me to understand how one part of it I’m able to do what my coaches are telling me and what I know I need to do but when it comes to my binge eating I’m out of control” (Yahoo Sports). Seles’s parents and coaches told her to “get a grip”, but that pushed her even more towards feeling guilt and shame. In group settings she ate little so that she could eat more by herself. “I didn’t want them to think that I was overeating or letting them down” (Yahoo Sports). This also shows that she felt the need to isolate herself from other people because she did not want to disappoint them, which reveals the effect that B.E.D. has on relationships.
Living With Binge Eating Disorder
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