Karen had had a lousy day. Her boss told her off for something that was out of her control, when she wanted to discuss the matter with her best friend, she couldn’t get hold of her, her period was about to start and when she waited for the bus home she got splashed by a car and her new coat was ready for the dry cleaner. Coming home, Karen couldn’t wait to throw off her coat and clothes, jumped into a onesie and dived into the cupboard and the fridge. Out came the chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, cheese and a bottle of wine. All there to bury the feelings of anger, frustration, stress and restlessness.
This type of eating is called emotional eating: using food as a way to move away from the difficult emotions and trying to replace it with the food that we are programmed to see as rewarding and a treat.
Is it helpful behaviour?
Most likely, Karen won’t jump into bed feeling satisfied with the day. She will feel bloated, nauseous and ‘fat’ (read more about ‘feeling fat’), but also guilty and unhappy. Her emotions are still there, as she has not spend any energy on processing or dealing with those.
Emotional eating is a handy escape for not facing difficult feelings, and an effort to re-create positive emotions.
As babies and children, for most of us food was a very positive and happy experience: as a baby, feeding time brought you close to another human being (often the mother), offered warm and sweet sensations in your mouth (as baby milk is sweet) and a physical satisfaction. All about feeling warm, safe and looked after. As a child, we would be rewarded for good behaviour with sweets and biscuits. Celebrations were accompanied by cakes and great deserts…
When we eat food that reminds us of these times, we try to get in touch with those feelings…..
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work……
If you want to know what you can do when you feel that urge to eat your feelings away, read my blog with 7 steps to beat emotional eating
Want to check your status as an emotional eater? Click here for a test by Psychology today.
If you want to talk about your situation, you can book a FREE Clarity Session with me. For FREE!
