Monica Seles Endorses Binge-Eating Drug

As my (anonymous) commenters so thoughtfully said to me when I realized I had misophonia: "There's a name for everything these days."

Via PR Newswire Yahoo Sports:

Monica Seles won nine Grand Slam events during her professional tennis career. She remains the youngest person to win the French Open and the youngest to reach the world No. 1 ranking. Her list of accomplishments is long, yet when she thinks of her playing days, she often thinks first of something few people know about: Seles battled an eating disorder for the majority of her career. After matches and practices, the Yugoslavian star would go back to her hotel room and empty the mini bar snacks. Potato chips, pretzels, and cookies were her Achilles’s heel. She thought the binges were an emotional reaction to her stabbing (she was stabbed by a fan of rival Steffi Graf in 1993, forcing her to miss two years on tour) and her father's illness. 

She now knows that she was actually battling Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Officially named a medical condition in 2013 – but recognized by doctors for many years before that – it is the most common eating disorder among U.S. adults. More than 2.8 million Americans battle BED every year. People battling BED often eat much more than others in short periods of time, eat uncontrollably, and feel ashamed after their binges. They might eat incredibly rapidly, well beyond feeling full, or when they are not hungry. When these behaviors persist at least once a week for three months or longer, it is most likely a case of BED.

She suffered in silence for years, she said, especially because she never wanted to show her opponents any weakness. A few years after her 2008 retirement, she finally decided to see a doctor, where she was quickly diagnosed. “It was a big revelation, when the person said this is a medical condition, because I always thought I just wasn’t mentally strong,” she said. “It’s a huge weight lifted off your shoulder.”

No surprise this "story" comes just as Shire Pharmaceuticals got the Food and Drug Administration to expand the approved uses of the ADHD drug Vyvanse to treat "binge-eating disorder" in adults, and hired Seles as a spokeswoman.

Warning signs of BED include staying in a lot, or going out to the store alone and then bringing food into a private room, where no one will witness a binge. 

Um, my question is: Who DOESN'T sneak out in the middle of the night to buy a pint of ice cream and some cookies and eat it all in bed? #crickets.