Self-Help techniques for Binge Eating Disorders

Sufferers of binge eating disorder (BED) experience recurring binge eating episodes, recurrent comorbid obesity with related health issues [1], increased rates of associated psychiatric disorders [2] and impairment of the psyche.[3] A lot of psychological treatments have been discovered as great remedies and treatments for BED [4]. These include cognitive-behavioral therapy [5], interpersonal therapy [5], dialectical behavior therapy [6], and behavioral weight loss therapy [7].

Although medications reduce binge eating episodes in a number of studies [8, 9], pharmacological treatment of binge eating disorders is less successful than evidence-based psychotherapy. Medications have also not improved binge episodes reduction rates when merged with cognitive behavioral therapy [10].

In a bid to discover a more cost effective and efficacious treatment for BED, a lot of scientific studies were carried out. The results showed that cognitive-behavioral and psycho-educational therapy managed through self-help procedures [11] or guided self-help procedures have helped to reduce binge eating in individuals with binge eating disorder. [12] These self help cognitive therapies were managed individually in all the studies except one which was conducted as a group. [12]



Nevertheless, some psychotherapy studies for people with binge eating disorder were carried out through the use of group method. The management of self-help therapy in a group situation is beneficial in a lot of ways.



Benefits of group self help BED treatment



Some of the benefits of group self-help treatment strategy are: cost reduction, the possibility of helping many people at a time and support from members of the group.



A study found that group self-help remedy for binge eating disorder produced similar effect [13] to therapist-led and therapist-assisted group cognitive-behavior psychotherapy during after-treatments [14] and follow-up treatments(15).



Why self-Help remedies?

Due to the fact that comprehensive treatment of BED is quite costly and because there are only few special programs and available experts to take care of the needs of people with BED, a few experts created self-help remedy for binge eating disorders.

These self-help remedies are commonly structured to provide people suffering from binge eating disorders with management tools and resources that will help them to deal with binge eating on their own. These self help remedies are usually structured from proven psychological treatments.

What is involved in self help remedy?

Self-help remedies for BED involve the following:

· Provision of useful resources or manual to guide the individual on what to do and what not to do [16]

· Provision of professional support by an expert

· The need for binge sufferers to strictly follow the advice provided in the program.

· Ability of binge sufferers to complete exercises and tasks offered in the program with the intention of developing fresh skills to help them conquer the binge eating episodes.


Cognitive behavioral self-help

The majority of the self-help remedies provided by experts for eating disorders are structured on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The majority of health care professionals prefer individual CBT. [16]

During the primary stage of CBT, the sufferers of binge episodes receive training on how to manage their binge eating. They also learn behavioral strategies to help them return to normal eating habit and avoid abnormal eating behaviors. At this stage, they also learn how to discover abnormal eating thoughts and things that may trigger the symptom.[16]

The second stage

The second stage still centers on developing normal eating habits. Participants also learn problem solving skills, and how to discover and change tricky thinking or ideas.

Third stage

At this stage, the participants learn how to maintain the principle that they are thought and avoid returning back to the disordered thinking and binge eating habit. [16]

The problem with cognitive behavioral treatment for binge eating is that it is very costly and takes a lot of time. There is also no extensive availability of therapists. Nevertheless, due to the fact that CBT is a prearranged therapy that focuses on instructional, behavioral, and cognitive theories, it is easily converted into a self-help arrangement. Thus, in CBT self-help remedies, binge sufferers on their own learn how to use the behavioral and cognitive strategies that have proved to be effective through research to conquer their eating disorders. [16]


Guided self-help and unguided self help treatments



In unguided self help, binge sufferers make use of resources and manuals presented in the form of books, videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs and so on to learn how to manage their binge eating episode by themselves. [17]

An individual can as well make use of self help materials and book some sessions with a healthcare professional. This is referred to as guided self help. The aim of this would be to reduce the number of sessions the individual will have with a therapist, the treatment period and the cost of treatment. The individual would normally learn a lot from the manual outside the standard treatment session.

The health care professional doesn’t have to be specialist in the area to help the individual. This is so, because, any professionally formulated self-help manual basically come with enough expert information required to assist people to conquer their binge eating habits. The non-professional thus, only acts provide the individual with support and act as a guide to ensure that the binge sufferers efficiently complete the program. [17]

One great benefit of guided self help program is that it ensures that the participants to remain on track while in an unguided self help, the individual may lose track except the individuals are highly motivated and determine and have enough self will to propel them to finish the entire task provided in the program. [17]

Studies that compared guided and unguided self-help programs like Carter and Fairburn (1998) [18] found that both guided self self-help and unguided self help treatments led to huge reductions of binge eating episode and none is better than the other.



Ghaderi and Scott (2003) [19]also found that both guided and unguided self-help treatment resulted in reduction of binge eating and as well helped participants to lose weight. They also found that neither of the two is better than the other.

Online self-help treatment

There is also option of online self-help treatment programs. A research conducted on this, showed that online self help treatment program is equally as beneficial as guided and unguided self help treatment. [20]



When is self help treatment recomended?



Self-help treatments can be used as the first treatment for [21] binge eating disorder. If it is not yielding the required result, you may then seek specialist attention.

You can as well use it while on the waiting list of starting off treatment with professional therapists. It can help the individuals to live a better quality of life while waiting for their appointment dates.

Some people do very well on their own while others need group support from the group setting to be more successful. [21]