Emotional (lack of) eating

rebeccamorgan58152

Hi everyone,
I’m not sure exactly why I’m posting, but here goes. I’m going through a super crappy time right now and I just don’t want to eat. I’ve been on and off MFP for a few years now and I’ve lost about 10kg from my highest weight, which is great. Maybe another 5kg to goal, I’ll reassess when I get there.
I’m unmotivated at work/school (I’m a PhD candidate), probably getting divorced after a lengthy separation, on my own with 2 little kids, recently diagnosed with an auto immune illness. I’m in therapy.
I am literally forcing myself to eat and it’s like choking down ashes. Normally I’m a comfort eater.
I’m trying to eat back exercise calories since I’m quite active; I walk and lift weights for stress relief. I’m losing weight much too fast. I know I should be looking after myself. I’m worried that I’ll go back to eating all my feelings instead and regain the weight I’ve worked so hard to lose.
I guess I’d like to know if anyone else has felt this way and if they found any coping strategies which worked for them. Thanks.

remoore23

Wow, that is a lot to deal with at one time. I too am usually a comfort eater but if things get REALLY bad I stop wanting to eat. For me, this usually only lasts at most a few days, so it isn't too detrimental to my health. I've dealt with it by eating unhealthy, calorie dense foods (i.e. cookies) that are small and easier for me to make myself eat. Another thing that may help is eating soup or smoothies which might just be physically easier to get down.

Is the therapy helpful? Are you and your therapist able to come up with strategies to avoid stress eating once you're able to eat again? Is he/she able to help you with not eating now? If not, perhaps consider finding a different therapist. All therapists are different and it's ok to shop around.

Are you on any medication? I ask because I now take two different antidepressants and it has improved my life immeasurably. It sounds like your stress is environmental but are you prone to depression? Another thing is, when I was going through a particularly difficult time and I couldn't sleep and I was self medicating with alcohol, my doctor was able to prescribe me medication that would just help me to quickly relax and go to sleep when things were WAAAAAY more stressful than normal. I only used them a few times but I'm glad to know they are there. She gave me some lorazapam (Atavan) and something else that helps me fall asleep when I can't sleep. Sometimes just being able to use medication to kind of arrest the stress and the looping thoughts and give you a little break from them can be extremely helpful.

I like your method of relieving stress by exercising. That can be effective too and probably helps avoid weight gain when you are over-eating from stress. I've also found that meditation can be helpful in calming down and accepting things - it doesn't fix everything but it can help.

Anyway, I hope some of this is helpful. I know you can make it through this and I wish you nothing but peace and healing.

rebeccamorgan58152

Thanks so much for your response. I’m going to talk to my GP about short term medication for the anxiety, things are in full crisis mode so hopefully that should help. I haven’t been able to address my fears about stress eating with my therapist yet. I’m deliberately taking a break from logging for a few days to take some of the mental load off.
Thanks again for posting, your reply was a big help :-)

remoore23

I'm so glad to hear that I know you'll get through this, good luck