Compulsive overeating is often confused with binge eating, which is a similar, but more serious eating disorder. Binge eating is also characterized by uncontrollable acts of overeating. However, the main difference is that binge eating carries with it a more emotional and psychological impact in comparison.

For example, if you suffer from compulsive overeating, you generally feel joyful after a meal. You feel that your craving is satisfied although you may have exaggerated the amount that you ate.

On the other hand, if you suffer from binge eating, you do not feel joyful after the meal but a sense of guilt, depression and disgust that you have not been able to control yourself with regards to the portions that you ate. You become overly concerned that your last meal just caused you a few extra pounds and that the extra weight is going to have a severe impact on your body shape. You start to imagine the worst in how you look.

As depression is largely absent in the case of compulsive eating, it is considered less dangerous than binge eating, since it has a reduced chance of turning into bulimia. However, compulsive eating can gradually turn into a binge eating disorder if you become affected emotionally and psychologically about your body shape and weight.

The causes for both forms of eating disorders are similar, however. Both are emotional or psychological in nature. Just like smoking, it is not the body that craves the cigarette, but the mind. You may use food as a self-medication to get over your daily problems and this habit quickly turns into an addiction that you cannot get rid of. Or it may be the case that you have been emotionally abused. Or that you have just undergone a bad breakup with your partner.

The fact that compulsive overeating can hardly be separated from binge eating at times makes it difficult for doctors to accurately diagnose your condition. For whatever it is, both conditions need to be treated as soon as the first signs appear. Your eating disorder can escalate to the more serious bulimia if you ignore getting treatment.