Emotional Eating
Do you turn to food for reasons other than hunger? Are you obsessed with thoughts of food – whether you plan to eat it or restrict it?
Do you regularly try diets and fail – leading to guilt and further over eating? Do you think about or attempt to purge excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively when you think you’ve eaten too much?Emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from dealing with feelings. However, eating these foods leads to feelings of guilt which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.
Seeing food as more than just a source of energy and enjoying it simply for the satisfaction it gives is not wrong. In fact science shows that food can promote good feelings by chemical reactions caused in our brains. What IS a problem is when an individual cannot experience pain, anxiety, joy or even boredom without turning to food as means of dealing with those feelings, or they are obsessed with food, weight and dieting.
Emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from dealing with feelings. However, eating these foods leads to feelings of guilt which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.
Emotional eaters tend to value themselves based on their weight and how closely they’ve stuck to their ‘ideal’ diet. Because of this distorted relationship with food, foods are labeled “GOOD” and “BAD”. Emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders and depression.
Overcoming Emotional Eating
Since emotional eating is caused by looking to food as a coping strategy for emotional distress dieting can actually create more problems. When the emotional eater fails to stick to a diet they suffer feelings of guilt that can only be soothed with more food and in turn, more guilt or punishment.
Instead of trying to focus on what they are eating, the emotional eater needs to learn new skills for coping with stressful emotions. Often this requires the help of a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist who deals with emotional eating. It is only by finding replacements for the comfort food provided that the individual can put food into its rightful place and learn healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.
If you are unable to go to a Coach or Therapist for help with emotional eating you could be helped by a self hypnosis CD or MP3 download. There are lots around online and I haven’t tried them all by any means. Steve Jones has a hypnosis for weight loss series, including one specifically for ending binge eating.
There is also the Beck Diet Solution, which I have mentioned before. This book is based on cognitive therapy and can help you with emotional eating. I am using that myself right now and can recommend it. She does expect you to get adiet coach to help with her program but it doesn’t have to be a professional, a friend is fine.
