We go out to eat to have a good time, anniversary, promotion, etc. Or we entertain around dinner parties and holidays. At church functions, there are socials and potluck meals. You name it and somehow it all revolves around food. Yes it has a role in our lives of comfort and entertainment. The point is that culturally and automatically we cook and serve foods to comfort those who have experienced loss, to celebrate joy or to show friendship and love. Food is extremely critical in our lives. With no food we would not be able to perform our daily activities. Our muscles would wither, our nervous system would fail. We all need to eat.
WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING?
But are you also eating whenever you are lonely or miserable? Seeing food as more than just a source of energy and enjoying it simply for the satisfaction it gives is not wrong. In actual fact science shows that food can promote good feelings by chemical reactions caused in our brains. What IS a trouble is when the 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.
You should also know that emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from dealing with feelings. Though, eating these foods leads to feelings of fault which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, extreme training or purging.
Emotional eaters tend to value themselves based on their weight and how closely they’ve stuck to their ‘ideal’ diet. As a result of this distorted relationship with food, foods are labeled “GOOD” and “BAD”. Emotional eating can lead to significant eating disorders and misery.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M AN EMOTIONAL EATER?
Do you turn to food for reasons other than hunger? Are you obsessed with thoughts of food – whether you plan to eat it or are concentrating on restricting yourself from eating it?
Do you regularly try diets and do not succeed – leading to guilt and further over eating? Do you consider or attempt to purge excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively when you suppose you’ve eaten too much?
HOW DO I OVERCOME EMOTIONAL EATING?
Since emotional eating is caused by looking to food as a coping strategy for emotional distress dieting can in fact create more troubles. When the emotional eater fails to follow 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 assistance of the specialist 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.
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