What are the Top 10 signs you might be an emotional eater?

In my previous post, I talked about the definition of emotional eating. In this post, I outline how to identify the signs that you might be an emotional eater. You may recognize yourself in some, many or all of these. Read on to discover the top 10 signs you might be struggling with emotional eating.

Top 10 signs you’re an emotional eater:

1. Do you reach for certain comfort foods whenever you feel sad, depressed, lonely or bored? You may have certain foods that you know are sure to make you feel better, like sweets, pasta, chips, or chocolate. Whenever the slightest feeling of sadness or boredom sets in, you immediately feed it with these comfort foods.

2. Do you reward yourself with food for doing something hard or challenging? You’ve completed a major project, finished your last exam, made it through that terrible meeting with your boss, or spent half the day cleaning up your office. What better way to pat yourself on the back than with a special treat (sushi is one of my personal favourites!).

3. After a hard day, do you treat yourself to your favourite foods? You were late for work, you forgot some important papers at home, the microwave was broken at lunch, and you didn’t complete nearly half of the work you were supposed to. On your way home, you stop and pick up some pizza, because no way are you cooking and besides, you deserve it.

4. Do you eat in order to push away feelings of anxiety or stress? You’re nervous about that upcoming party for 12 you’ve planned, or there’s a major deadline looming over you. To cope, you find yourself snacking on food all day long.

5. Are you preoccupied with food? You often think about food throughout the day, sometimes planning your next meal before you’ve even finished eating your first. You imagine what you’ll be eating for lunch or dinner, and the anticipation keeps you going until mealtime. On your way to the grocery store, you make a mental list of all the tasty treats you’ll put into your shopping cart.

6. Do you find yourself craving certain foods, and can’t rest easy until you satisfy your craving? All of a sudden, you get a terrible craving for a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Not a regular doughnut, not Tim Horton’s doughnut, but a Krispy Kreme doughnut. No substitute will do, and it keeps popping into your head until you feel like you’re going to go crazy. To make it stop, you’ll go out of your way to get that doughnut (or a dozen).

7. Do you use food as a way to express your anger? You’ve gotten into yet another argument with your spouse (maybe over your weight!), and to blow off steam, you crunch on some chips. You might even be doing this as a way to get back at your spouse; rather than talk things out, it’s easier to just ignore each other and distract yourself with food.

8. Will you eat something just because it’s one of your favourites, even if you’re not hungry? You’re visiting your parents, and your mom has cooked up a big batch of your favourite lasagne. You’ve already eaten, but how can you say no? Besides, she’ll be insulted if you don’t at least try it.

9. Do you sometimes put food in your mouth without realizing it? You take out a bag of chips, and before you know it, you’ve already reached the bottom of the bag. This kind of mindless eating takes you away from your body’s true hunger signals, and can lead you down the path of a destructive pattern of emotional eating.

10. Do you feel stressed, angry or guilty after eating? You’ve done it again. You’ve polished off that whole box of cookies, and now you have a stomachache. Why can’t you just control yourself? You start to worry about what the scale will say tomorrow. You don’t understand why you do this to yourself, and the guilt just makes you want to eat more.

If you see yourself in many or all of these scenarios, you’re probably an emotional eater. You may see yourself in some of these sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that you have a problem. We all use food to comfort or reward ourselves sometimes. But the more often you engage in these behaviours, and the more they control your life, the more of a problem you have. Be sure to check out my emotional eating quiz in my resources section or by clicking here.

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating is a recurrent pattern of eating in response to your feelings, not physical hunger. It can take the form of reaching for a tub of ice cream when you’re sad, a bag of chips when you’re anxious, chocolate when you’re happy, surrounding yourself with your favourite foods when you’re lonely, or compulsively eating everything in sight when you’re bored. The key is that your eating habits are tied to your emotions, not to the signals your body is sending you. Somehow, the connection between eating and nourishing your body has become lost.

It’s no surprise that we connect food to emotional well-being. From the day we’re born, our first experiences of being loved and cared for come from the closeness we feel when we’re being fed. This connection is very strong, and is later reinforced by the messages we get from our loved ones. Food is intimately tied to celebration, from birthdays to weddings (think of that show, “I do, Let’s eat!"). We may have been comforted with food early on, from chicken soup when we had a cold to a chocolate bar when we felt down. We may have also been taught to eat everything on our plate, or witnessed a family member struggle with emotional eating. All of these sent us the message that food is somehow about more than just eating for survival.

Everyone uses food for emotional reasons sometimes, but emotional eating results from developing an unhealthy relationship with food. Almost everyone has a “go-to” food when they’re stressed out, or has a tendency to overeat around the holidays. But when turning to food to cope with unpleasant emotions or situations becomes a regular occurrence, it can be a problem. Food is used to comfort yourself, cope with stress, or relieve feelings of boredom and loneliness. Food is seen as the ultimate pick-me-up, but also as a source of angst, as overeating can lead to feelings of helplessness and guilt. All of these are signs that you have an unhealthy relationship with food.

It can be very hard to break away from this pattern of emotional eating because it’s so easy to turn to food. Turning to food gives you instant comfort, and this feeling can be very powerful. What’s more, there is probably a biological link between certain comfort foods (especially those high in carbohydrates, like sweets and chips) and the brain chemicals that are correlated with elevated moods (like serotonin). Finally, because eating shifts the focus away from feelings and situations that are too difficult to face, it prevents you from having to deal with them. As a result, emotional eating becomes powerfully reinforced, and over time you can come to rely on it as your primary coping mechanism.

So what can you do about it? First, you have to recognize what your triggers are. Are there any specific feelings or situations that send you running to the fridge? Is there a connection between the kinds of foods you turn to and your feelings? Keeping a diary can help. You also need to find other ways of coping, like finding a healthy outlet for your emotions, or using problem solving techniques for situations that keep coming up.  Talking to a friend, working out your problems, or learn stress management techniques can all help.  You can break free from this destructive pattern!

Why change?

“What I like most about change is that it’s a synonym for ‘hope.’ If you are taking a risk, what you are really saying is, ‘I believe in tomorrow and I will be part of it.’”

-Linda Ellerbee

Welcome to the Heal the Hunger Blog!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog! I’m a psychotherapist in Montreal (Canada) who specializes in helping people overcome emotional eating by helping them heal their emotional hunger.

On this blog, I’ll write about:

* Topics related to emotional eating and psychology/therapy in general
* Helpful resources
* Reviews of recent research
* Book reviews
* Various musings that occur to me about life and living

My hope is that you will not only learn more about emotional eating and how it can be managed, but to raise awareness about the psychology behind it.

To learn more about me and the services I provide, go to www.HealTheHunger.com.

N.B. The information provided in this blog is to be used for educational purposes only. It should NOT be used as a substitute for seeking professional care, diagnosis or treatment of any psychological disorders.