Binge eating disorder affects many thousands of Australians, and for most it got worse over the pandemic. But few seek help – or even know they have it
Since Sam Ikin was a child his urge to devour food was out of his control. He didn’t want to be fat. “I wanted to look good. But the more I deprived myself of something, the more I craved it,” he says.
In one go, he might end up eating a couple of packets of biscuits or a whole big bag of chips. “You’re not conscious of the quantity that you’re eating, you just want to keep eating. And then once you finish what’s in front of you, you start thinking about what else there is,” he says. He would “come out of it” when he had run out of food, get interrupted or because he had got to the point where he simply could not eat any more.
