Emotional Eating and Binge Eating Disorder Therapy
Emotional Eating and Binge Eating Disorder Therapy
Compassionate Help for Stress Eating and Food Addiction
You try to stick to the plan. You told yourself you are going to learn to healthy ways to mange your stress. You are going to stop turning to food to check out and feel better, but life feels too hard today. The deadlines keep coming and your children are in particularly demanding stage. You wonder if you’re too hard on them, or maybe you’re too soft? You’ve held it together all week, but can’t resit anymore. The house is finally quiet and the cake brought you relief last time…
What Are The Signs of Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is something most people do periodically. We eat to celebrate happy occasions and many people use food to cope when they’re feeling down.
Emotional eating is not the same as eating for true physical hunger, as the consumption of food serves a different purpose, often one of helping us alter how we feel psychologically. We are looking for a boost in positive feelings and/or looking to avoid negative feelings. For many people, food has a very predictable and highly rewarding quality that reinforces using it as coping tool.
When we eat to alter our emotional state we often do so without full awareness. We may seek out food after a stressful day at work or with the kids without knowing that we aren’t actually physically hungry. When we stress eat we are attempting to feed an emotional hunger or trying to block out uncomfortable feelings like sadness, anxiety, boredom, shame, rejection, mental exhaustion, and general overwhelm from our busy lives.
When Should I Get Help for Emotional Eating?
Occasional emotional eating is not inherently a problem. It’s pretty common in most cultures for food to be central when celebrating and as a comfort during times of grief. Emotional is a problem if it feels out of control and compromises important areas of your life, like your physical health. If you found your way to this website, that may be an indication that you have some conflict about a pattern of stress eating and it’s great you are considering help.
It’s wise to consider the expertise of a licensed therapist if you are having trouble stopping problem eating behavior on your own. If you know the risks and feel ready to change yet previous attempts have been unsuccessful, it may be a good idea to get professional help. A therapist with training in binge eating conditions can help you with underlying issues that influence you to use food as a coping skill. It can be easier to maintain a commitment to change with the compassionate and skilled support of a licensed therapist.
Strategies for Managing Emotional Eating and Stress Eating
Practice Self-Compassion: Acknowledge that you are vulnerable to experiencing challenges with strong emotions. For a variety of reasons, you may have learned to use food as a coping strategy and that doesn’t make you a failure, it makes you human. Be kind to yourself and recognize that it’s possible to learn healthier ways of managing intense emotions. It’s a sign of strength and resilience that you are considering healthy behavioral changes with the help of therapy.
Identify Triggers: It’s not possible to avoid all stress that may trigger you to use food in unhealthy ways, but by building awareness around your particular areas of difficulty, you can be prepared with a plan for managing stress without turning to emotional eating. The more you build self-awareness around your particular triggers, the better you can prepare and make empowered choices.
Establish a Support Network: Surround yourself with a supportive network of friends, family, a faith community, or healthy peer support groups. When we have a dedicated place or people to share experiences, our shame and isolation decrease and we can draw from the power of community to stick to our goals.
Prioritize Physical Activity: Make time for physical activities that restore a healthy connection to your body and help to regulate stress. Gentle yoga, dance, walking, resistance training, and outdoor hobbies are great ways to help you feel more present in your body while regulating difficult emotions.
Implement Mindfulness Techniques: Mindfulness practices, such as deep breathing, prayer, or walking meditation, can help bring you back into the present moment when you feel yourself beginning to spiral into anxious rumination or avoidance. Attempting to run away from feelings can lead to numbing ourselves with binge eating. Slowing down when we are eating and paying attention with full awareness may help change eating habits that feel out-of-control.
Set Boundaries: Consider putting limits on work hours and social media consumption to prioritize restorative sleep help reduce anxiety and stress that may lead to emotional eating. Protect your goals by being intentional with your time and energy.
Challenge Black & White Thinking: All-or-nothing thinking and rigid perfectionism can fuel emotional eating. When our standards are unrealistic and unsustainable, we are more likely to go in the extreme other direction and binge. Flexible thinking cultivates a healthier mindset around our relationship with food.
Eat Nourishing Food: Whole foods with a balance of nutrients are less likely to trigger out-of-control eating than ultra-processed foods because they satisfy the body’s physical hunger. Work with a nutritionist or metabolic physician if you need help deciding what foods to eat to feel satiated, reducing the likelihood of binge eating.
Seek Professional Help: If your emotions and stress eating feel like too much to carry on your own, consider therapy with a professional who understands and reach out for help today.
“I have a serious love for and problem with sugar: If I start eating it, I sometimes can't stop. I don't have an off switch, any more than I do with alcohol.”
— Anne Lamott
Therapy for Food Addiction in Ventura and Online in California
Some people can effectively moderate their consumption of sugary, starchy, and ultra-processed foods while others cannot. This phenomenon is similar to substances like alcohol. Many people can enjoy one glass of wine and put the rest of the bottle away for the rest of the week, the rest of the year, no problem. They can have full bottles of wine in the cupboard with zero temptation to open them except for once a year when they host a New Year’s party. People with alcoholism are not able to do this. They would be unable to resist alcohol in the house. For people with food addiction, pie may be the drug of choice. Or chips. Or fries. Maybe it’s pizza. The actual food will vary but it’s usually a food the body finds highly rewarding due to its texture and high sugar or high fat content. People with food addiction aren't able to moderate their consumption of particular foods. They don’t have an off switch around their trigger foods, leading to a cycle of binge and shame.
What Are Some Signs of Food Addiction?
Loss of Control: Feeling the inability to stop eating particular foods.
Harm & Impaired Functioning: Behavior causes harm or risks of harm to your health, relationships, or other important areas of functioning.
Trying to Stop Unsuccessfully: Repeated failed attempts to stop consuming the trigger foods.
Secret Behavior: Eating addictive foods in secret or isolation due to feelings of shame.
Using Food to Escape: Enduring pattern of turning to food as a substance to numb or avoid uncomfortable feelings.