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 Coping
with Emotional Eating
By Susan Head, Ph.D.
Do you ever feel obsessed with the desire to eat, even when you've eaten just
a few hours previously? Do you ever feel a of loss of control while eating, or
ask yourself "Why am I eating? I'm not even hungry!" Some people experience
a sense of restlessness or anxiety that seems to be satisfied by eating. Others
find themselves wanting to eat more when they are alone. This type of eating
usually causes guilt and embarrassment as well as weight gain. If these descriptions
remind you of yourself, you may be an emotional eater. If so, you are not alone;
emotional eating is a common phenomenon in our culture.
Eating in response to emotions starts early. As infants and young children, we
form a strong, positive attachment to food as nourishment, and symbolically,
as an indication of our parents' love. As we mature food normally is replaced
by other symbolic indications of love, so the importance of food diminishes.
However, some families continue to use food excessively to show love. People
from such families may retain a strong attachment to food and turn to it when
they need to feel loved.
Love is only one of many emotions that can become associated with food. It is
not uncommon for children to be offered a special "treat" when they
are upset. If this is done to excess, such children may never learn to identify
the source of their problems. They simply learn that food helps to relieve pain,
emotional or otherwise. Thus, you may eat when angry, to calm yourself down rather
than confront the person with whom you are angry. Or you may resort to food to
relieve stress just as some people take a drink or smoke a cigarette to relax.
There are things you can do to overcome emotional
eating.
Here are a few suggestions:
| 1. |
When you feel the urge to eat,
ask yourself "Am I really hungry?" To help you determine whether
what you are feeling is "physical" or "emotional hunger,
tune in to how your stomach feels, recall how long it has been since your
last meal, and how much was eaten at that time. Asking yourself these questions
will help you.
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| 2. |
Identify the situations in which
you eat out of control or when not hungry. You may find a predictable pattern.
For example, you may find that emotional eating always occurs late at night,
or when you are alone, or just after work or school.
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| 3. |
Reflect on your emotional state
during these situations by mentally reviewing the situations leading up
to your emotional eating or by journaling. If you find, for example, that
you always eat when paying the bills, alone, in front of the computer at
night, it may be that you are anxious, lonely, or both. Or if you had an
argument during the day, perhaps you are still feeling angry and upset.
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| 4. |
Describe the positive power of
food in each situation. It may be that food calms you down, or gives you
something to do when bored, or helps relieve stress.
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| 5. |
List other solutions that will
give you what you are looking for from food. If lonely, call a friend.
If bored, take a walk, work a puzzle, or listen to music. If angry, figure
out what's making you angry then come up with away to resolve the situation
in a constructive way.
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Emotional eating is sometimes a complex phenomenon that may require counselling
with an eating disorder professional. With perseverence, you will find that most
emotional eating problems can be resolved. When you replace food with other,
more constructive ways of dealing with your emotions, the result will be a happier,
more fulfilling life without the downside of weight gain.
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