Tag Archive | Fear

Self-Medicating With Food

Feb17

Stress is everywhere in our lives today. The digital age has us moving at the speed of light with our bodies trying desperately to keep up.

Growing up, I hardly remember hearing about stress. In fact, women were thought to have it so easy that for decades we were not even considered to be at risk for things like heart attack. What did we have to be stressed about? What, indeed?

The cost of going to a doctor has risen to the point that many will not seek medical help unless they believe they are dying. Fear is a big motivator.

And why should they go to the doctor when they can go to a local drugstore and get pills for just about anything? They take the pills and if the symptoms subside, they’re happy.

Food addicts self-medicate too. When you are lonely or feeling depressed, the stress of that loneliness or depression might send you off frantically in the direction of the refrigerator or a nearby store.

While food addicts sometimes have a stash, it’s not like the person who hides the bottle of Scotch in the clothes hamper.

Sometimes we have only healthy food in the house. When stress strikes, we might have to go out and buy something less healthy.

The stress of the moment and the use of food as a coping mechanism are joined but not in a planned way.

Like other addictions, no one wakes up in the morning and says, “I think I’ll be an addict today”. Stress makes it happen.

Unbridled, uncontrollable stress–even if it’s just for a short time–is the driving force behind self-medicating with food. You self-medicate long enough and you become an addict.

You break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you stress, you eat. The experience causes you to recall similar emotional predicaments and you feel like a real loser. You eat some more.

“Why does this always happen to me”? More crying, more stress, more eating. Sometimes you have to eat a lot before the feelings of loss, anger, failure, worthlessness, depression, and so on, disappear. They do eventually disappear and you stop eating.

That’s how it is for the person with a food addiction. It’s better than some things, or so we tell ourselves, but it isn’t really.

Eventually, it would be nice if our hearts would heal and the symptoms would go away.

“Self-medicating” is a label that somehow makes stuffing down our feelings with food okay because it has a name and therefore a legitimacy.

Unfortunately, it’s just a mental stopover on the journey to uncovering the source of the problem that put you on the path to food addiction in the first place.

Once you can identify that starting point, you can embrace self-discovery and learn to let things be what they are.

You will be able to release yourself from the stress of the past and there will be no further reason to self-medicate with food.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great!

Forget About Your Food Addiction for a Moment

Jan31

When we are troubled about something, especially something like a food addiction or an emotional eating problem like binge eating, it’s hard not to focus our attention on it.

However, since we attract to ourselves that which we place the most attention on, it’s a good idea to forget about our food addictions for as many moments as possible throughout the day.

The best way I’ve found to do this is to focus your thoughts and attention on the good things in your life and the things you like about yourself.

Let those things you like about yourself and your life overshadow the dread of measuring up to what society or your friends think you should look like. That only makes the food addiction worse.

We are who we are. And when we can become whatever we want to be, we will still be who we are. The best parts of ourselves are always with us, even when we forget about them.

We can’t change the past, so let it go and concentrate on the present. Forget about your food addictions and use food to change your life and your body to the way you want it to be.

We can have a simple win every day by focusing our attention on those things that will bring us what we desire. It’s hard at first, but it gets easier with practice.

Speak kindly to yourself, with respect and honor, and most of all, with love. The love energy of the heart will help to alleviate the emotional pain the fear energy of the mind can cause.

Create your own life anew each and every moment and you will have enough good memories to make you forget about your food addiction and enjoy your own beautiful self in your own new beautiful life.

Fear and Food Addiction

Jan5

Fear has a way of getting in your head and drawing you to the things you want most to avoid. When you focus too strongly on your fears,  what you fear comes to control you.

If you’re a food addict, you might fear food because of the power it can wield over you at moments of emotional vulnerability. If you do fear food, you’re in a rough spot.

We have to eat in order to live so this is one time when you have no choice but to overcome your fear of food. The more you fear something, the more you draw it to you. It’s the Law of Attraction in the worst way.

There’s a lot you can say about fear, but I just want to say this: You either come from your heart or your mind. If you’re heart-centered, you’re in the love and trust zone. If you’re letting your mind rule the roost, you will be saddled with fear and doubt.

Since food addictions are linked to unresolved emotional trauma, there is usually an injured heart involved. Where there is not enough love, fear steps in and fills the void.

The rescue remedy for today is to fill your heart with love whenever you feel afraid. Let the mind be, and feel the love. Capture a happy moment, a memory, a sunset, a time when you felt free and alive.

Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and feel the moment. Fully experience that moment of happiness when fear was nowhere to be found.

Use this simple exercise to fill your heart with love. Go within where there is no fear. Trust your inner being, which is the source of true power.

Food addiction cannot stand against love because it is powered by fear. Fear and love do not co-exist.

Corny as it may sound, if  you practice choosing love, the habit of doing so will help you overcome your food cravings and bring you the greater gift of peace of mind.

Food Addiction and Pain

Nov29

Emotional pain isn’t the only kind of pain that can send you on a food binge. You also have to watch out for the physical variety because it has a way of sneaking up on a food addict.

Back pain is one of the worst because it can be very subtle. You start to feel uncomfortable and you don’t even know why. Then you start snacking.

The mild discomfort is the beginning of it. There isn’t the high anxiety of a food addiction trigger, or the blatant feelings from an obvious emotional upset. You aren’t focused on eating and there is no real hunger involved.

It’s just a slight discomfort that gnaws at you and turns into anxiety. You go to the refrigerator and stand in front of it, opening and closing the door, waiting for some magic wand to coax you into a decision.

After you eat a little of this and a little of that, just enough to throw your blood sugar off, you default to whatever you dislike the least and start nibbling.

Eventually, you recognize that it’s pain you’re feeling. By then you’ve done a lot of nibbling  . So if you do have a food addiction, the real anxiety is starting to set in, and there you go, back on the treadmill.

Best remedy for that is to recognize when you are feeling uncomfortable,. Take a moment to identify the feeling.  Discomfort can be caused by many things. Give it a name. Naming it takes the fear away, or in this case, the anxiety.

No one likes to feel uncomfortable but nowadays it is a common feeling so it’s harder to recognize than it used to be. All the more reason to get tuned in to your body and in touch your feelings.

Food addiction and pain can be terrible adversaries when they join forces. Recognizing that physical pain is the cause for your discomfort can head off a food binge.

Know thyself. It works every time.