Did drawing back on the comfort food make you depressed?

beautifulsparkles

@vespiquenn I didn't *reject* most of the comments, you must have misread what I said. Going outside for walks is uncomfortable for me when I'm upset, but we're getting a treadmill, so I'll walk and cry in the privacy of my own home.

I don't want to see a counselor because I've had issues with them in the past. Plus, who is planning on paying for that? I do have some online services I use online, and as I mentioned, theres life coaching available which I find quite useful.

I liked many of the suggestions given by pamolivia and thorsmom.

I didn't create this thread purely for suggestions, I just wanted to see if other people experienced the same thing, since a lot of people tend to be emotional eaters and comfort eaters.

JennieMaeK

lithezebra wrote: »

Exercise is a better coping strategy for me than eating. Listening to music, taking photos (while I'm out getting light exercise by walking), knitting, drawing, taking a class, dancing, and generally staying busy, are more strategies. Yes, I have emotions to face, but I have some control over when, how, and for how long at a stretch, I face them.

For me too. The last part of 2015 was especially stressful for me. My brother attempted suicide and was diagnosed with extreme anxiety. Years ago he had been diagnosed with depression but wasn't doing anything to manage it. Before, something like that would have caused me to seek food for comfort, but now I find exercising (running for me) works better. It helps keeps the stress at bay.

@beautifulsparkles like you, I don't have anyone that I can really turn too. My husband, occasionally, but he tries to hard to fix things and sometimes I don't need anything fixed, just need someone to talk to. He's working on that, but it frustrates me that he tries to fix everything (I'm working on that).

Overall, I've come to realize that I have to be able to rely on myself. And in order to do that I have to like myself.

beautifulsparkles

JennieMaeK wrote: »

lithezebra wrote: »

Exercise is a better coping strategy for me than eating. Listening to music, taking photos (while I'm out getting light exercise by walking), knitting, drawing, taking a class, dancing, and generally staying busy, are more strategies. Yes, I have emotions to face, but I have some control over when, how, and for how long at a stretch, I face them.

For me too. The last part of 2015 was especially stressful for me. My brother attempted suicide and was diagnosed with extreme anxiety. Years ago he had been diagnosed with depression but wasn't doing anything to manage it. Before, something like that would have caused me to seek food for comfort, but now I find exercising (running for me) works better. It helps keeps the stress at bay.

@beautifulsparkles like you, I don't have anyone that I can really turn too. My husband, occasionally, but he tries to hard to fix things and sometimes I don't need anything fixed, just need someone to talk to. He's working on that, but it frustrates me that he tries to fix everything (I'm working on that).

Overall, I've come to realize that I have to be able to rely on myself. And in order to do that I have to like myself.

No-one is probably an exaggeration for me, I have some supportive people around me, but they don't tend to be available when I need them.

I'm sorry 2015 was so tough for you *hug*. Hope this year is amazing.

vespiquenn

beautifulsparkles wrote: »

PamOliva wrote: »

Good question. I went thru this last year when I began to "attack" my emotional eating issues. It was a long slow process but I learned to eat only when I was truly physically hungry and only 3 times a day, no snacking and no more excuse to eat for emotional comfort. Food does not solve any emotional issue and in fact makes many worse. When you strip it away you do have to confront your demons. It's hard but it's possible. If I ever slip up -- and of course that happens on occasion -- I see whatever "thing" I'm avoiding is still there waiting for me to work thru.

So yes now I do "seem" to have more negative thoughts that I can't numb out and have to face. That's not fun but I ride the wave, journal, pray, talk it out, exercise, read, take a hot bath and maybe another the same day. Whatever it takes to avoid eating the emotion. The wave passes, maybe hours, maybe days, but it passes. And then there is no guilt, regret or self-loathing when it's over b/c I didn't binge. There is only freedom.

:-( Too many feelings, too many issues for my tissues. I feel like theres too much to work through, like I'll never get through them all, and if I can't fix them all, why bother with one?

Its that kind of thinking that probably got me so fat in the first place.

I guess this is the quote that warranted the blunt advice, in addition to crying on walks.

You go from claiming you have too many problems to claiming you can conquer them all with finding the right self-help book. Once again, I know this cycle all too well.

I also understand your aversion to therapy. I technically had a therapist "dump" me by never calling back to set up an appointment despite multiple calls, which is actually illegal. I was devastated, and could have sued if I truly wanted. But it's life. Therapists aren't a one size fits all. You need to search around for one just like you would anything else. And you would be surprised how many insurances now cover mental health (it actually surprised me in the past).

I don't mean for my blunt observations to sound rude, because I can see how you quickly becoming defensive makes them sound worse than I mean. But I wish someone would have pushed me when I was thinking/saying a lot of the things you are now. Depression is not an easy thing to go through, especially when you're trying to be more healthy about it. But finding the right professional help can allow you to not go through it alone, especially when it's with someone specially trained to help you go through those things.

With that being said, I wish you luck.

beautifulsparkles

vespiquenn wrote: »

beautifulsparkles wrote: »

PamOliva wrote: »

Good question. I went thru this last year when I began to "attack" my emotional eating issues. It was a long slow process but I learned to eat only when I was truly physically hungry and only 3 times a day, no snacking and no more excuse to eat for emotional comfort. Food does not solve any emotional issue and in fact makes many worse. When you strip it away you do have to confront your demons. It's hard but it's possible. If I ever slip up -- and of course that happens on occasion -- I see whatever "thing" I'm avoiding is still there waiting for me to work thru.

So yes now I do "seem" to have more negative thoughts that I can't numb out and have to face. That's not fun but I ride the wave, journal, pray, talk it out, exercise, read, take a hot bath and maybe another the same day. Whatever it takes to avoid eating the emotion. The wave passes, maybe hours, maybe days, but it passes. And then there is no guilt, regret or self-loathing when it's over b/c I didn't binge. There is only freedom.

:-( Too many feelings, too many issues for my tissues. I feel like theres too much to work through, like I'll never get through them all, and if I can't fix them all, why bother with one?

Its that kind of thinking that probably got me so fat in the first place.

I guess this is the quote that warranted the blunt advice, in addition to crying on walks.

You go from claiming you have too many problems to claiming you can conquer them all with finding the right self-help book. Once again, I know this cycle all too well.

I also understand your aversion to therapy. I technically had a therapist "dump" me by never calling back to set up an appointment despite multiple calls, which is actually illegal. I was devastated, and could have sued if I truly wanted. But it's life. Therapists aren't a one size fits all. You need to search around for one just like you would anything else. And you would be surprised how many insurances now cover mental health (it actually surprised me in the past).

I don't mean for my blunt observations to sound rude, because I can see how you quickly becoming defensive makes them sound worse than I mean. But I wish someone would have pushed me when I was thinking/saying a lot of the things you are now. Depression is not an easy thing to go through, especially when you're trying to be more healthy about it. But finding the right professional help can allow you to not go through it alone, especially when it's with someone specially trained to help you go through those things.

With that being said, I wish you luck.

Thank you

The self help thing was more like drop one issue per book. Sorry if that wasn't clearer. Also if it looks like I ask for help then act like I have all the answers... I was just stating what has worked for me in the past, but only worked to a degree.

I was looking for people in a similar boat to me.

OyGeeBiv

beautifulsparkles wrote: »

I find MFP feeds really frustrating because you have to manually scroll through them and they aren't particularly intuitive, so I often go days/weeks without checking on them.

I'm not clear exactly what you mean, but if you mean it's hard to follow threads you've commented on, there's an easy way (although I agree, it's far from intuitive). Here's how you do it. To the right of the thread title, there's a star. Click on that star, and it'll turn yellow. That means you're following the thread.

There's a bell shape at the top of the Message Board pages. Whenever there's a new post to any of the threads you're following, the bell shape will have a number next to it, indicating the number of new posts. Click on the bell, and you'll see a list of replies. Each reply has a link, which will take you to the reply.

I hope this helps.

beautifulsparkles

Thank you @64crayons. I actually mean the feed on our profile pages, or our home page, which shows our friends activity and status updates.

zoeysasha37

I think you should get more friends then just 8! You may find some people that you really like here ! (I have to admit that I'm one of the lazy ones who doesn't check in on friends at all anymore but not everyone is like me ! Lol)
And the groups might help you a lot , sometimes it's nice just to hear from people who are going through similar issues.

Once your move in complete you can work on finding a doctor in your new area . and online support services are good too !
Just get yourself a big support system going !