What's up with Binge Eating Disorder Week?!

We’ve been talking about this event on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest – everywhere we can! So now we’re going to let you in on what exactly Binge Eating Disorder Week is, and what you can expect during it! In recognition of the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM5) including Binge Eating Disorder (BED) as a diagnosis, Beutiful Magazine along with Binge Behavior, Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA) and Kari Adams of Killer Confidence has coordinated an education and awareness campaign from May 27 – 31, 2013! Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder, afflicting 3.5% of women and 2.0% of men in the U.S. This translates to 4.2 million women and 2.3 million men in the U.S with BED. Binge Eating Disorder Week is an online campaign to educate people about binge eating disorder, who it affects, where to get help and what resources for help are available. This event will focus on:

Education (what is BED),
Preventing weight bias and stigma (including identifying bias, cultivating positive body image and legislative activism)
Support (what types of help are available and where to find those resources).

Two of our many goals this week are to dispel the myriad of myths about Binge Eating Disorder and to raise awareness about BED in order to create more understanding about the difficult realities of this specific type of eating disorder. Chevese Turner, Founder, President and CEO of the Binge Eating Disorders Association (BEDA) said, “This is going to be an exciting campaign, filled with educational information. The content being hosted on the sponsor websites is being written by some of the leading minds, activists and practitioners in the field of BED.” Here are some of the experts that you will be hearing from during BED Week:

Marsha Hudnall, MS, RD, CD; President & Co-Owner, Green Mountain at Fox Run
Amy Pershing LMSW, ACSW; Executive Director, Pershing Turner Center LLC, Annapolis, MD;
Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., FAED, Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Golda Poretsky, HHC, Founder of Body Love Wellness

Lizabeth Wesely-Casella, Founder of BingeBehavior.com expressed her reasons for participating in BED Week this way, “This is an opportunity to help people understand just how prevalent BED is and that there is help. This is a disorder, it’s about mental health and as such, getting people the information and resources that they need is vital to improving how they live. Finding the happiness and self acceptance in my own life came only after I found out that I was dealing with something real, something that affects millions of other people and that (BED) is treatable.” We will be hosting a Live Tweetchat May 29 from 12:00 – 1:00 using the hashtag #BEDCHAT as well as posting informative articles, newsletters, blogs and Tweets using the hashtags #BEDWEEK, #DSM5, #BEDAWARENESS, #EATINGDISORDER and #ED. And remember, you can join and keep updated by joining the Binge Eating Disorder (BED) Week Event Page on Facebook!

About The Author

Patricia Colli, Editor of Beutiful Magazine, is a human rights activist, equality advocate, and promoter of health, acceptance and wellbeing. Having experienced disordered eating, unhealthy exercise patterns and poor body image, she is especially passionate about shedding light on eating disorders and the power of body acceptance.