If you’re concerned that you or someone you love may be stuck in emotional eating patterns, you have to make treatment choices.
Why "treatment?" The word may sound extreme given that emotional eating is not a diagnosable eating disorder. But there is no reason to deal with this difficult problem alone.
Emotional Eating Treatment With a Dietitian
A dietitian will be help you identify your eating patterns. When you match these patterns with your emotional conditions throughout each day, you may be able to find consistent ways in which emotions lead you to eat when you aren't really hungry. Also, dietitians can help you learn ways to eat that minimize the emotional highs and lows of some diets, which can reduce your need to soothe yourself with food (or with anything else, for that matter).
Emotional Eating Treatment With a Counselor
It's no secret that counselors (therapists) work in the area of emotions all the time. A good counselor (someone with whom you can connect and make progress) will be fluent in language that will help you identify emotions that may lead to emotional eating. Often, negative emotions are somewhat hidden. Finding ways to express these feelings constructively can help clear unwanted eating patterns.
Emotional Eating Treatment With a Doctor or Psychiatrist
In general, doctors and psychiatrists will approach eating disorders with a focus on biological issues. These physicians may prescribe medications to bring the brain's chemistry back into balance.
We would all like to be able to function well without medication, but our bodies sometimes need help to get back on track. Medication is not designed to be a "crutch," and those who take medications are not failures. If you don't make or absorb certain neurotransmitters well, you simply won't feel good emotionally. However, if you're concerned about drugs, make sure your prescribing clinician understands and addresses your questions to your satisfaction.
Emotional Eating Treatment With...Yourself
While treatment providers are often involved when lasting change occurs, there are things you can do for yourself. You'll need to care for yourself well no matter what treatment course you may choose. Self-care includes a number of strategies:
- Exercise: Using your body feeds your brain good chemicals, so you don't have to soothe it with food.
- Investing in healthy relationships: This is the direct way to deal with loneliness.
- Actively pursuing things you enjoy: It might be a manicure, a bubble bath, or a drive to a favorite scenic area. Not all of life will be enjoyable, but where have you hurt yourself through deprivation?
- Stop dieting: Dieting (deprivation) leads to eating rebounds far more often than it works--far more often.
- Get good sleep: Tiredness can look a lot like hunger.
- Read Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch: It's a powerful book that offers realistic and concrete ways to move into a more healthy kind of eating pattern.
Back to Understanding Emotional Eating
Sources:
Shuman, Ellen. "How to Overcome Emotional Eating." SelfGrowth.com. 18 Apr 2007.
Bauer, Joy. "Strategies to Avoid Emotional Eating." Yahoo! Inc. 18 Apr 2007.
