emotional eating

aerynholly

I have had years of experience dealing with emotional eating. Frankly, I'm still dealing with it. I don't know if any of this will be helpful, but as someone who has been there for a long time, maybe you can relate.

When I was in college, I used to use food as a way to control my anxiety (before I was diagnosed with GAD.) It was not uncommon for me to go out and buy a pack of Nestle cookie dough and eat most of it alone and by myself. It would always happen, the minute I started eating it I would start feeling calmer, and then I'd just keep going and going because while I was eating it felt good. Of course, later I'd be consumed with guilt, not to mention uncomfortably full.

After I started dealing with my anxiety problems, my therapist at the time recommended that I try something - when I felt the urge to eat to make myself feel better, I should just go with it and not beat myself up about it. Maybe my brain was telling me to do this for a reason. So I did - I gave in to whatever I wanted, however insane, however ridiculous, and refused to feel bad about it.

Then something funny happened. When I went on eating sprees, I didn't eat nearly as MUCH as I did before. I satisfied my desires after maybe a quarter of a role of cookie dough instead of the entire package. When I took the self-loathing out of the equation, the extremes went away.

I still have problems equating food with emotional comfort. I've tried lots of ways to deal with it. Recently, I've been posting it here when I have a desire for food I'm not hungry for. Sometimes knowing that other people will hold me accountable helps - sometimes knowing that there are other people on this site who struggle and who have felt my pain helps.

Other times, I've promised myself that I can have the food I want if I will walk to get it (I live in the city.) Sometimes I'll take a walk around the block and feel better, just for getting out and moving, and choose a snack with fewer calories (frozen yogurt mmmm.)

Sometimes I think about whether there's something else self-indulgent that will make me feel happy, like watching my favorite crappy movies or going out for coffee or a book.

And sometimes I just give in. But when I give in, I'm working on forgiving myself and getting right back on the horse.

This is a real and difficult problem and I wish you the best of luck. We're all still working it out. There is room for us to learn different behaviors and different patterns of thought.

Didn't mean for this to sound so Hallmark-y, but guess that's how it turned out.

Lady_Tilika

Hi There

I am an emotional, bored and tired eater too ... I find that if I get depressed (which is often), bored, tired or stressed I eat .... Not too sure if I eat when I happy though... This is day 2 on MFP .... Last night I binged alot smaller normal though as i kept telling myself that I will need to put my blow out in my food diary so that helped somewhat.... I have set my food diary so that my friends can see as I am hoping this will also help with the binge eating ... I have been tring to stop binge eating for a while but mostly I find that if I don't binge, I reach for that stupid smoke instead ....

Hopefully your food Diary here on MFP will help you too .... I have sent you a friend request .... Anyone that wants to add me is quite welcome ....

By the way I also found a group on emotional eating on MFP... Here is the link:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1012-emotional-eating it has over 2000 members and some hints too

swimmommy12

Maybe I'll do some blogging, get my thoughts, feelings and fears out there for support rather than just a journal.

Thanks so much everyone for being so honest.

Cookie_Raider32

Hey,

Most of what I've learned about weight loss I learned watching my partner struggle with alcoholism...... he would use the upsets in his life to justify having that drink at the end of the day, the same way I would eat twix bars to ease the hurt and lonliness in my life.... I might blame it on the girl at work, or my kids being rotten or my house being a mess, but it was really just looking for an excuse to eat.....

Take control of your life....no one is stopping you from having that chocolate bar..... it's yours if you want it, but it's not good for you..... and in the long run it's taking more away from you than the little bit of comfort it's giving you in the moment....the feelings of guilt and shame and helplessness that come with being overweight becomes a vicious circle when we turn to food for comfort..... the same as an alcoholic feels when he sobers up after a night of binge drinking.....we feel worthless and defeated and less capable than all the NORMAL people out there.....

When you feel yourself reaching for that "bottle" stop and ask yourself why you're REALLY feeling like this......instead do a quick 5 minute work out, drink a nice hot cup of tea or go brush your hair in front of the mirror and tell yourself that YOU are beautiful and that YOU are worth this......Give yourself a break and if the rest of the world around you sucks then at least you know that YOU are doing what YOU can to make YOUR life better....

good luck and you CAN do it...... I promise :flowerforyou:

^^^^^^^^amazing!!!! Perfectly said!

Jbarbo01

Hey,

Most of what I've learned about weight loss I learned watching my partner struggle with alcoholism...... he would use the upsets in his life to justify having that drink at the end of the day, the same way I would eat twix bars to ease the hurt and lonliness in my life.... I might blame it on the girl at work, or my kids being rotten or my house being a mess, but it was really just looking for an excuse to eat.....

Take control of your life....no one is stopping you from having that chocolate bar..... it's yours if you want it, but it's not good for you..... and in the long run it's taking more away from you than the little bit of comfort it's giving you in the moment....the feelings of guilt and shame and helplessness that come with being overweight becomes a vicious circle when we turn to food for comfort..... the same as an alcoholic feels when he sobers up after a night of binge drinking.....we feel worthless and defeated and less capable than all the NORMAL people out there.....

When you feel yourself reaching for that "bottle" stop and ask yourself why you're REALLY feeling like this......instead do a quick 5 minute work out, drink a nice hot cup of tea or go brush your hair in front of the mirror and tell yourself that YOU are beautiful and that YOU are worth this......Give yourself a break and if the rest of the world around you sucks then at least you know that YOU are doing what YOU can to make YOUR life better....

good luck and you CAN do it...... I promise :flowerforyou:

Love this!