Emotional eating is when you use food as a coping mechanism for those not-so-great feelings. You may not actually be hungry, but you’ve got an urge to munch on something—usually comfort foods that are high in calories, sugar, or fat.

But when emotional eating becomes your go-to coping mechanism, it can be problematic. You might turn to food when you’re stressed, bored, or feeling down. For some folks, this pattern can lead to a cycle of guilt and shame. Remember, food can’t fix feelings—it’s just a temporary distraction.

If you find yourself constantly eating to cope, it might be time to explore other ways to manage your emotions. Understanding this behavior is the first step in addressing it and finding healthier ways to cope with your feelings.

Common Causes of Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is often triggered by various factors in your daily life.

Emotional Triggers:

• Negative emotions: Stress, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, boredom, frustration, anger, and guilt can all lead people to turn to food for comfort or distraction.
• Positive emotions: Food can be associated with positive emotions too, like celebrating with dessert, enjoying a comforting meal, or rewarding yourself.

Internal Factors:

• Diet: Restrictive diets or a history of dieting can create feelings of deprivation and lead to emotional eating as a form of rebellion or binging.
• Lack of awareness: Not being attuned to your emotions can make it difficult to distinguish between emotional hunger (a craving for comfort) and physical hunger (your body’s need for fuel).
• Emotional processing difficulties: People who struggle with understanding or expressing their emotions (alexithymia) or managing emotions effectively (emotion dysregulation) may be more prone to emotional eating as a coping mechanism.

External Factors:

• Stressful life events: Major life changes, work pressures, financial problems, relationship issues, or even negative experiences in childhood can all trigger emotional eating.
• Habits: Emotional eating patterns can become ingrained habits. For instance, someone who grew up using food as a reward or comfort might continue this pattern in adulthood.
• Social cues: Food is often a central part of social gatherings and celebrations. Social pressures to eat, even when not physically hungry, can contribute to emotional eating.

For Every Diet, there is an Equal and Opposite Binge

This is the law of experiencing normalized eating. Regular eating. You might not realize it, but there are other things that can push you towards emotional eating, such as being too hungry. Ever been on a super strict diet? That can backfire big time. When you’re constantly depriving yourself, and putting yourself into states of hunger, you can end up rebelling against those food rules and diving headfirst into emotional or binge eating. Antidote? Regular eating, no skipping meals!

Another sneaky culprit? Not being in tune with your emotions. If you can’t tell the difference between actual hunger and just feeling down, you might find yourself reaching for snacks when what you really need is a good cry or a chat with a friend. 

• Boredom eating: Mindless snacking while bored can be a form of emotional eating.
• Fatigue: Feeling tired can lead to cravings for sugary or high-carb foods for a quick energy boost, even if not truly hungry.

Managing and Overcoming Emotional Eating

Tackling emotional eating isn’t easy, but it’s totally doable. Start by keeping a food diary to spot your triggers. When you feel the urge to stress-eat, try some deep breathing or go for a quick walk instead. It’s all about finding healthier ways to cope with your feelings.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up—it happens to everyone. The key is to learn from it and move on. Reach out to friends or a therapist for support when you need it. Remember, food isn’t the enemy here, and it cannot control you. It’s about feeling empowered and building a better relationship with both food and your emotions.

Speak to an Emotional Eating Therapist for support. At Resilience DBT & Eating Recovery. we are here to help you determine whether it’s stress, boredom, or deeper psychological issues triggering you to emotionally eat.  Through targeted and effective methods such as CBT-E and DBT, your Resilience therapist will teach you way to help you start to build healthier coping mechanisms and find true freedom from emotional eating. For our eating disorder therapy services for children, adolescents, and adults, visit us at ResilienceTherapy.com

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