Food addiction is a form of overeating and is characterized by out of control eating or binge eating. Overeaters often consume food to the point where they’re uncomfortably full. Such binge eating and overeating episodes are often followed by very strong feelings of guilt and shame. A food addict often tries to keep his or her food addiction a secret and overeats in private. Food addicts generally eat normal in public or in the presence of friends and family in order to hide their strange eating habits.

A symptom of food addiction is consuming a huge number of calories in a small period of time. This kind of overeating often leads to weight gain. While most overeaters try to lose weight they generally don’t succeed. Instead they go through cycles of dieting followed by overeating. Many food addicts are diagnosed by therapists as having binge eating disorder.

Overeating has additional serious consequences including diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, and depression. There are also long term consequences such as stroke, arthritis, bone deterioration and kidney failure.

Eating large amounts of food very quickly, constant feeling of hunger, preoccupation with body weight, mood swings, depression a history of unsuccessful dieting, a history of weight fluctuation and eating little in public while being clearly overweight are all signs shared by sufferers of food addiction.

Often food addicts consume a huge amount of calories in a day resulting in an addictive "high" and feelings of release from emotional or psychological stress. Most of their overeating is often a form of emotional eating or eating to comfort tough emotions.

Counseling and therapy are common forms of recovery methods for food addicts. A critical part of counseling is working with the patient on creating healthier habits to deal with emotional and psychological stress instead of resorting to food for comfort. Another important part of recovery is helping the food addict become more aware of why and how much he or she eats. This is usually done through journaling and working on being more present minded.

While food addiction shares some commonalities with bulimia they are both different eating disorder. Food addiction is characterized by overeating or binge eating. Bulimia is characterized by overeating or binge eating followed by purging. For bulimics common forms of purging include vomiting, fasting, excessively exercising, or using laxatives.

Food addictions, bulimia and other eating disorders are most common among younger women in their teens or twenties. It sometimes takes years of therapy to treat an eating disorder however therapy does seem to be a very effective treatment. There are even therapists who specialize only in eating disorders.

There are also many support groups for eating disorder recovery. Such support groups include ANAD and overeaters anonymous. Many support groups follow a rigid 12 step recovery program. Others follow very flexible recovery plans providing advice and letting the food addict make progress at his or her own pace. In either case support groups are a great way to build accountability and peer support. Attending a support groups is great first step to recovering from an eating disorder.