Tag Archive | Emotions

Depression and Food Addiction

Nov19

Here we are closing in on the holidays which should be a happy time. Unfortunately, the holiday season can be one of the most depressing times of year, and is for many people.

Why? Loneliness. Isolation. Overindulgence in under-appreciation. Just plain sadness. I know there shouldn’t be periods after these words and phrases. They are not, after all, actual sentences.

And yet they feel like sentences, the kind a judge imposes on you for doing something wrong. Would there be depression without judgment?

For all our technological advances, we are more isolated than ever. And no matter what people say, virtual relationships are virtually impossible. People need to interact, not interface.

No wonder so many people turn to food when they need comforting. Food addicts are born every day out of isolation and neglect. Depression is so common today that many people accept it as a natural part of everyday life.

But depression is the result of long denied feelings, unaddressed emotions, and a chemical imbalance in the body that is often a result of deeply rooted emotional trauma. Once it moves in, depression is hard to evict.

Emotional eating when you are depressed is fuel on the fire. Eating and overeating can become an absent-minded activity. Before you know it, you’re 20, 30, or 40 pounds overweight.

Add panic to emotional eating and you are heading into the food addiction arena. You stuff down the feelings without evening thinking, because depression makes you numb.

What can you do to break the cycle? During the holidays, there are plenty of things to get you out of the house. First, think of someone other than yourself. Doing something for someone else gets your mind off you and your troubles.

As for activities, there’s ice skating, snowboarding, skiing, and football, hiking, visiting friends and family, football, going to Christmas and New Year’s parties, and football.

There are holiday celebrations, church services, Midnight Mass, caroling, winter festivals, and even the beach if you live here in Florida.

Don’t forget all the volunteering positions available, like feeding the homeless, or helping a community service organization deliver meals to people who otherwise would have a Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner.

Don’t be absent from the joyful activities the holidays have to offer. Just worry about which ones you’re going to take advantage of, and make healthy eating part of the holiday.

You Define Your Food Addiction

Nov12

You will hear experts talk about food addiction defining it in ways that usually relate to the treatment these experts provide.

The common thread in food addiction is that it is triggered by emotional stress, usually something buried deep inside. Regardless of what the experts say, unless they themselves have struggled with food addiction, trust yourself first.

In the case of women, the compulsive eating or overeating is often associated with issues of sexuality, including abuse.

This is not the only reason for the driving force behind a food addiction. Trauma of many varieties can trigger this kind of irresistible urge to stuff down feelings.

Releasing the emotions and feelings associated with the trauma is imperative if one is to overcome the addiction and return to a healthy emotional state, not threatened by food.

When evaluating the advice of an expert, consider these three things:

  1. Does it ring true to you? In other words, does the treatment “feel” right and make sense to you?
  2. Do they listen to you without interrupting and answer your questions without discounting or invalidating them?
  3. Do you feel comfortable?

Just those three questions. If you feel comfortable with your answers, then you’ve chosen the right person to help you.

Trust is essential in any relationship, so make sure that when you define your food addiction, it matches the definition of the person or persons you have enlisted to help and support you.

Fatigue Can Intensify Emotional Eating

Nov10

One surefire way to sabotage your position in the battle with food addiction is to not get enough sleep. Everyone performs better when they have had a good night’s sleep.

Sleep is something most people take for granted. It is a time for the body to renew and rejuvenate after the stress of everyday living.

Emotions are high when stress builds up. Resting the body helps to return the harmony and balance that stress takes away.

Unfortunately, there is not always enough time for sleep. Sometimes the stress keeps us from feeling tired or relaxed enough to fall asleep. And that presents a problem.

Going without enough sleep night after night creates an environment of fatigue that can spell disaster for someone with a food addiction or any problem with emotional eating.

Being a confirmed insomniac, I know what it feels like to go for days without sleep. Sleep deprivation places a stress on the body that cannot be relieved with a drug or a nap.

The kind of fatigue that is caused by sleepless nights is enduring, and sometimes it takes everything you have just to get through the day.

When the body is awake for long periods it craves energy and it will take whatever source is available. If sleep isn’t on the menu, then food will do just fine.

When fatigue is added to an already stressful day, emotions undermine the best of plans. The body will do what it has to do to survive.

While fatigue may not be a trigger for a food addiction, emotional eating is another story. People who eat when they are upset or even happy may eat even more when they are exhausted.

Get a good night’s sleep. Don’t stay up long enough to get your second wind. Go to bed when you are tired, unless you’re at work, and your chances for a good night’s sleep will increase greatly.

Think about what your body wants. If it wants food, feed it. If it wants rest, then give it sleep. The more in tune we are with our bodies, the less likely we are to have food addictions and problems with emotional eating.

Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.

New Book for Food Addicts and Overeaters

Nov8

A new book by David Kessler, M.D. is being touted as one that will change forever the way we look at food.

Rodale Books publishes some of the finest books you will read in the field of health and well-being. I should know; I’ve read most of them.

Dr. Kessler’s new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite is certainly worth taking the time to read.

Besides having some great information for emotional eaters, overeaters, people with food addictions, and those whose eating has led to obesity, there are insights in Dr. Kessler’s book that you may not have found elsewhere.

Being heavy, overweight, or obese is very uncomfortable at a number of levels. It isn’t the goal of people with food addictions or problems with emotional eating to be as skinny as a stick, nor should it be.

Learning to manage the discomfort or just making peace with your size at the present moment can make life more livable.  The information in this book can help.

One chapter in the book, Chapter 11  in Part One, particularly caught my attention. It is titled “Emotions Make Food Memorable”.  The title alone speaks volumes.

I got a kick out of its being Chapter 11, a concept and term most often associated with bankruptcy and reorganization. How appropriate to think of a food addiction as bankrupting your health and reorganization as a rescue remedy.

I encourage you to buy the book or get it at the Library. It’s just under $14 on Amazon and only about 250 pages without the acknowledgments, index, etc.

Like food, don’t try to digest it all at once. Read a little each day, or at night before you go to bed. Then write about what you learned in your journal.

As with any other resource, keep an open mind. Don’t accept or reject the ideas. Just use what you can and let the rest go, no judgments.  Maybe it will be meaningful to you later, maybe not. Who cares?

Find something–a phrase, a line, a paragraph–that will inspire you to action today. One action each day to take you in the direction of your goal. That’s 365 actions a year. One day at a time.

Let me know how it goes.