Emotional Eating And Anxiety

Do you eat even when you are not hungry at all or even stuffed?                        Yes            No

Do you promise yourself a treat if you finish a hard or boring task?                     Yes            No

Does food feel like a friend?                                                                             Yes            No

Do you often feel out of control when around food?                                            Yes            No

Do you eat more when you are stressed?                                                          Yes            No

Do you eat to feel better (when depressed, angry, bored, or stressed)?               Yes            No

Does your mood influence how much you eat?                                                   Yes            No

If you answered “Yes” to three or more of the questions above, you might be engaging in emotional eating.

People who are emotional eaters use food to make themselves feel better. In other words, they eat to fill emotional needs, rather than to fill their stomachs. This doesn’t mean that anyone who occasionally has a piece of chocolate as a pick-me-up is an emotional eater. However, if eating is the major emotional coping mechanism, then you can get stuck in an unhealthy cycle that is difficult to emerge from. This cycle begins when the first impulse when tired, bored, or stressed is to open a bag of chips. The issue is that the food only temporarily satisfies the emotional hunger. After eating, the person usually feels shame and guilt and has not gotten to the root of the emotion to begin with. This can lead to weight gain and low self-esteem.

First, let’s discuss some of the reasons behind emotional eating.

            Stress and anxiety. Today, many people experience stress related to their families, jobs and heavily-scheduled lives. This stress can create anxiety, which many “feed” by sitting down to eat a pint of ice cream.

            Boredom. When people feel unfulfilled or discontented with their jobs or their lives, they might turn to food to suppress those feelings. Food becomes a focus instead of the boredom or the discontentment.

            Fatigue. When people are tired, their body produces a hormone, ghrelin, which tells them they are hungry. It also suppresses the hormone leptin, which signals to the brain that you are full. Therefore, when you are tired, you feel hungry even if you have just eaten and are physically full.

            Depression. If people are sad, they will often not be interested in getting out of the house or interacting with people. This can sometimes lead to emotional eating, as the food can temporarily numb the pain. However, after eating, the depressed person is still stuck in the same situation.

Again, I would like to emphasize that occasionally rewarding yourself with a treat or celebration of food is not emotional eating. Rather, emotional eating is a cycle that is not occasional at all. Let me explain the differences between emotional hunger and physical hunger.

Emotional hunger is sudden. When you are physically hungry, your body slowly lets you know that you need food. However, emotional hunger hits you all of a sudden. It is urgent and requires instant gratification.

Emotional hunger leads to mechanical eating. If you are eating to satisfy a need that is not physical, you won’t necessarily stop eating when full. Instead, you will mindlessly eat a whole bag of potato chips or a whole pint of ice cream without even realizing it.

Emotional hunger demands salty, sugary or fatty foods. When you are physically hungry, you will happily eat a bowl of lentil soup or a slice of broccoli quiche. But, when you are emotionally hungry, your brain craves snacks and junk because you need the emotional jolt.