Isabel Foxen Duke thinks emotional eating is saving your ass … or at least, it might:
Emotional eating is an attempt to deal with a tough problem, feeling, or situation we don’t otherwise know how to deal with, and often don’t even know that we have without some kind of symptom to remind us.
That twitchy feeling that makes us want to go shove brownies down our throats, is like a genius alarm bell, that if responded to appropriately, reminds us to clue into what’s bothering us, before it becomes a more serious problem.
When we strip away the judgement of our emotional eating, and stop calling it a disease, a defect, a problem in and of itself;
we can finally see it for what it is:
An alert that something in our life needs our attention. Something completely unrelated to food or our weight. …
Emotional Eating is a reminder to love yourself harder, show up for yourself, and give yourself what you really need.
Be grateful for the reminder. It might be saving your ass.
Interesting perspective. That said, I think emotional eating can easily be related to food or our weight … but mostly when we’re swinging back and forth between overeating or binge eating and very restrictive eating. Then I think it’s easy for emotional eating to get to a point where it’s nearly self-sustaining.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health, & food policy. And cats! 
…OK, but what if you’ve identified the problem that’s causing the emotional eating, and the problem has no solution? That’s where my life is stuck right now and it’s so frustrating to constantly read all this advice as if somehow identifying the problem is the answer to all your prayers! I know exactly what the problem is but that doesn’t mean I can fix it. All I can do is shift the alarm bell from food to something else, so goodie for me, I get to choose which area of my life to wreck instead of having one picked at random.
(sorry if this sounds bitter; I’m not really angry at you, more at myself).
Not to worry. Some problems either have no solution or are PROBLEMS (bad marriage, death of parent/spouse/child, imminent foreclosure, bad/no job etc), rather than problems (got yelled at, need some time off, etc).
So far, I’ve not really solved this for myself. But I suspect the solution is a kind of “emotions training.” Maybe one like Laurel Mellin’s EBT (which has an iPhone app that may be helpful) or Steven Hayes’ ACT. There are probably others (like relaxation response perhaps) that would work if consistently applied.
Of course, there’s the rub. Hard to do these things when in the throes of emotional distress. This is when support is so essential. Some groups do this via online forums. Others do it via group meetings (Weight Watchers, 12-steps).
I’ve been thinking that emotional eaters need something along the lines of “The Artists Way” … a book & program that women could use together inexpensively (I saw an online tool today that charged $34/month … yee gads!).
Anyways, it’d definitely hard to unwire what’s now a learned behavior … especially when it’s been wired for decades (like for some of us). Best of luck!
Hmmm…I actually tried ACT with a therapist and it only made me crazier (new and exciting heights of panic attacks, whee) but I’ve never heard of EBT or relaxation response so thanks for the link! I love all the ACT/CBT stuff in theory, and I totally agree with it in principle, but it’s hard for me to consider trying it again after such a negative response last time. Maybe EBT would be different, though.
Anyway, thanks for making me think about this stuff again - and I totally agree with you that some kind of ACT/EBT/CBT program like that would be great, if just for the community/social support.
Neuro-linguistic programming is also supposed to be good, but I didn’t have much success with it after trying it twice with two different therapists. I’m going to give the online ACT stuff a try (I’m an hour away from any decent therapy) to see if I can get past my post-move hump!
I need a solution for the food addiction. Why do I need to eat out so much? Why do I feel so guilty when I don’t give in and end up standing strong. Why doesn’t it feel better?
I wish my brain could be rewired in just that category - i’d be much happier!
You and me both!