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emotional eating

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  • #270883
    laura
    Participant

    Hey everyone,
    So, this is the first time I’m on any kind of forum. I don’t even know if you could help me, but feel stuck in the horrible habit of overeating when I’m sad.
    I know I’m doing the wrong thing when it happens, I know I have to watch out, and try to avoid the things that make me eat (I used to stuff myself everyday when I spend an hour on the train to school, I realized that and now I never eat on the train anymore) but it feels like every bad eating habit that I get rid off, is replaced by three different ones.
    I’m 23 now, and the last 8 years have been quite trying. I grew up with an alcoholic, narcissistic mother, which led to me being extremely insecure, which made me eat, which made me gain weight, which made me even more insecure.
    I’m not really overweight, but I just realized that I blame my mother for not owning up to the fact she has an addiction, when I’ve been doing the exact same thing. I’m addicted to eating. And when I’m sad, the more fat or sugars I can eat, the better, so it seems.
    As I said, I’ve been trying to get a handle on things, but it seems I can’t do it. I broke up with my boyfriend three weeks ago. He was a good guy, but we were heading different directions, and since then I gained about 2kg’s! I don’t even know how it happend. I started working out about once or twice a week with a bunch of friends, but I know that as long as I can’t have a normal relationship with food, it won’t make a difference.
    It’s just so hard, because when you talk about it with people, most of the time, they get angry at me, saying I don’t have a problem, I’m not overweight and shouldn’t start dieting to become like those skinny models you see all around. The thing is, I don’t wànt to become skinny, I want to become healthy. I don’t want to live a life where I never eat a biscuit again, I just want to be able to eat one biscuit without eating the whole tin. I don’t want to feel like food or binging Netflix is the only way to deal with life on the days that I feel sad, or lonely or unworthy of living.
    I know the tricks of beating addiction is replacing the bad habits with healthy ones, but sadly, on bad days, trying to replace chocolate with a carrot just doesn’t really give me the same “fix”
    Is there anyone out there who’s going through a similar problem, or who got over emotional eating that could help me out?

    Anyway, merry Christmas everyone,  sorry for my rambling, I wish you all the best,

    and love, always love

    Laura

    • This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by laura.
    #270887
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Laura:

    Yes, I am familiar with overeating, with reaching out to food so to feel better, very much so.

    Here are a few suggestions based on my personal experience:

    1. Select your current relationships, eliminate the relationships that have been distressing you for a long time, and that includes relationships with parents. I finally ended any and all contact with my mother in 2013. I regret not having done so a few decades earlier.

    2. See to it that in your interactions with people you are assertive, not aggressive and not passive. Assertiveness is a skill that needs to be learned, practiced and improved. It will serve you very well.

    3. Practice relaxation best you can, slow breathing, guided meditations (theme: mindfulness), responsible aerobic and other exercise (avoid over exercising), practice  Mindfulness and Moderation in (almost) all things. Slow yoga and tai chi are excellent in moving from the overthinking/ abstract existence, to here-and-now, body existence.

    4. Practice gentleness with yourself as  you eat and as you overeat, watch for that inner critic who beats you up for mistakes, for departing from (impossible) perfect performance. Be patient, this is a long term goal.

    I will be glad to communicate with you further on the matter, if you want. Will be back to the computer n about fifteen hours.

    Have a Merry Christmas!

    anita

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