Guilt In Eating Disorders And Literature

Eating disorder literature clearly demonstrates that guilt plays an important role in the maintenance of the disordered eating cycle (McFarland & Baker-Baumann, 1990; Tribole & Resch, 2012). There is less of a focus on the role shame plays in the perpetuation of eating 13 disorder behaviors, though it is arguably equally as important to consider. Current treatments for BED seem to address, to varying degrees, depressive symptomology, emotional avoidance, and interpersonal difficulties. Yet, few treatments, if any, focus on the shame associated with binge episodes and negative body image. Additionally, shame can interfere in the cognitive behavioral therapeutic process (Tone, 2011), which is currently the treatment of choice for BED (Fairburn, 2008). More specifically, clients who experience shame may have difficulty accessing treatment, describing their

Because binge eaters typically experience a great deal of shame about their eating behaviors, they may be less likely to report accurately about the frequency and severity of their bingeing (Agras & Apple, 2008; Fairburn, 2008; Tangney & Salovey, 2010). In fact, decreasing feelings of shame associated with eating and binge eating may be a crucial component of obtaining more reliable self-report data and a key ingredient of a targeted treatment plan. Summary In summary, researching BED is important for a number of reasons. BED is more prevalent than many people think and it has significant diagnostic overlap with other disorders, making it an important area of study for being able to make accurate differential diagnoses. Because of high comorbidity with other disorders, it is likely that many clinicians will encounter patients who engage in binge eating behaviors at some point in their practice. We also do not understand how DSM-5 changes to BED will impact diagnosis and treatment of the