i know that mine started out that way.

For me, when I think "comfort eating" I think "eating an extra scoop of icecream after fighting with your boyfriend". This is healthy and perfectly fine. Food addiction is more extreme.

I will go through days where I literally have to leave the appartment just so that I stop binging. Which doesn't always work, because I usually end up at a DQ or something.

So I guess you can say that food addiction is the extreme version of comfort eating, involving 10x more food and 10x more emotion.

I agree with ldrake. Its passed that. Its like alcoholism. You might take that first drink to forget a bad day but then it becomes so much worse. To the point it takes over your life.

I agree. It is a matter of degree. And I suppose that a food addiction could begin with comfort eating.

I know that mine started out as comfort eating but now it's different. I eat when I'm sad, happy, depressed--oh hell--it doesn't matter what mood I'm in, I just give myself an excuse to eat whenever. And it's way past being comforting now.

I believe that when I use food to help me deal with my emotions, I am comforting myself with food. I am using food as a remedy & "this" can become an addictive behavior.

Hmm some of the cures for comfort eating might help temporarily. But I agree w/ everyone else who has posted...binge eating runs deeper. It is an actual disorder that I'm told can't be cured by willpower alone. Stopping a little extra comfort eating means having the willpower to not eat the extra food. Often I know I have absolutely no willpower and I can't stop myself from eating again and again.

I agree too, I think comfort eating might be overeating if you feel sad or something bad happened that day. Food addiction is just in any mood, no matter what, not being able to stop. Mostly I do it when I am happy or bored. It's actually easier for me to stay away from food when depressed. When I go on a binge I actually start to panic if I am away from food for a 1/2 hour. like for instance, if I wake up and eat cookies, pizza, cake, cheetos, chocolate and ice cream for breakfast (because this is what I would do) and then I decide to go in the car and get more food. If we decide to stop at the video store for 10 minutes, I start to panic that I am wasting precious time not eating, and can't wait to get to my next snack. i might even buy something I don't like at the video store just so I don't have a moment without food in my mouth. I feel like i a trapped if i go to work and I didn't bring enough to eat nonstop for 8 hours, I start plotting ways I can get more food.

I agree.. comfort eating is not binging. But I also know that mine started that way. Feeling rejected as a child, well more as a young teen and I could go to food and it wouldn't reject me... so look at me now. It is an addiction. As far as willpower goes, its futile. For me it is anyway so I don't even bother. More extreme things need to be done to break this than willpower.

god it is so nice to hear so many other people suffering with eating like i do...i don't call it binge eating ....i call it obssesive and comfort eating....but i can see how it could also be referred to as binge eating even if i just graze all day and don't eat a whole half gallon of ice cream in a day now it takes four days...but i eat something most of the time....i can't stop on my own willpower the urge is overwhelmeing....i will do other things for comfort like take a nice long bath and shave my legs and put lotion all over and wear a sexy nightie for no one but me....i will do my nails and when i am done i will sit down to whatever is appealing and eat....like a date with just myself.....sad and lonely.....i use to be so addicted to chocolate that at three in the morning i would wake with obessive thoughts of brownies and could not go to sleep becase of the obsessive brownie thoughts...i had to stumble out of bed to make them and doze off while they cooked....then i'd eat three or four and go back to bed only to wake up and eat more ...a little slice at a time till they were gone and then a few days later the same thing would happen...i was desperate and nothing stopped it...drs. weren't interested ...told me to eat right ...shit if i could eat right i wouldn't be there for the humiliation of weighing and presenting my fat body for exposure....well when i took effexor i lost my chocolate craving by 90 percent...i still eat some chocolate but not to the extent i was eating it and it doesn't give me that rush anymore...what now?......i will be reading to find what any of you find to do that works except the bad /good food theory..can't hang with that....its all food and i dont want to start obessing about good food and bad food...it just makes it harder on me ....thanks for all your honesty ...it helps me so much

I agree with everyone here, it really is an addiction, but a hard one because we can't just not eat. We have to eat some, so it goes farther than comfort eating in that comfort eaters just eat once in a while, food addicts obsess most of the time about food in one way or another.

I know for sure and for me that food is an addiction. On a sad note a dear friend ( he caklled me Mom) passed away last night of being a food addict I am soooo sad.

I binge eat. For me it's more to numb out and not feel. It always happens at night usually around the same time. I think for me mine is more to not feel and deal and is a coping mechanism for whatever is going on in my life...past and present. But it definitely is an addiction.