EMOTIONAL EATING DISORDER
Emotional eating, which is a situation that everyone can feel from time to time in general, is a situation when you are a new mother, when you have a job change, or when you are going to take an exam, etc. period can be a trigger. Emotional eating, as the name can describe, is the increase in eating behavior with our emotions and certain emotions. Certain emotions vary from person to person, but they usually manifest themselves in situations such as difficult to cope with, sometimes negative and negative emotions, an increase in the desire to eat after anger, an increase in eating behavior after disappointment and sadness.
In order to cope with more negative emotions, the individual resorts to this action. In addition, we see that eating behavior increases in positive emotions and when the person is happy. The main connection here is that there is a certain emotion and the method that the individual uses to cope with this emotion is food.
eating behavior. There are many reasons for emotional eating. In this process, we look more at emotions. When the individual cannot develop healthy methods to cope with negative emotions, they may turn to eating. From the first moment we are born into the world, we are programmed to receive affection or love with a mother’s breast. Since we are given food and milk when we cry, when we don’t want something, we learn this behavior when we are very young and we tend to repeat it. However, there are many reasons such as psychological resilience and low ability to express emotions.
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HOW DO I KNOW I HAVE AN EMOTIONAL EATING PROBLEM?
First of all, you can understand the emotional eating problem when your relationship with food deteriorates. So how does our relationship with food deteriorate? Without any real feeling of hunger, any stomach cramps, stomach rumbling etc. If we suddenly find ourselves eating without hearing, and this act of eating occurs mostly when we experience negative emotions or after negative thoughts have passed through our minds, we may be experiencing emotional hunger. This is usually an action that an individual takes to cope with stress. The point to be considered here is “Does the person experience normal hunger, emotional
Is he experiencing hunger? If the person feels hungry, “when was the last time he ate, has it been two or three hours since the meal, is there any cramp in the stomach, is there a rumbling?” If you answer yes, you may be experiencing real hunger, and if there are no symptoms, you may be experiencing emotional hunger. Again, when the person asks, answers and analyzes questions such as “Is it a problem I have had in the past, do I feel lonely, am I bored or have a problem I am experiencing right now, what are my concerns about the future”, that moment stops and realizes his emotional hunger. is happening. If you are repeating this situation several times a week then you have an emotional eating problem.
HOW CAN WE COPE WITH EMOTIONAL EATING ATTACKS?
First of all, “Is this an attack or did you want to eat that thing at that moment, how much do you eat?” you need to pay attention to these. For this, you can evaluate the hunger signals we mentioned above. When the individual makes this evaluation, he will have given himself time and the attack will begin to disappear.
The second most important step is emotion regulation. Can it regulate one’s emotions? He needs to be aware of and accept negative emotions and change the sentences that will put him in the forbidden psychology, such as “I need to deal with these emotions, I must do something to get rid of this emotion”. You may have to experience that anger and sadness at that moment, allow it. When the individual reaches this mindset and accepts his feelings, he does not turn to other things to suppress those feelings. Remember that the “restrictive eating pattern” triggers more emotional eating attacks.
Afterwards, you can drink a glass of water and wait for a while. If you’re still craving it, think a little more and try to find other activities that will make you happy. It’s like “talking to someone you love, going for a walk”.
You can learn methods of coping with stress. Social support, communicating with your environment and increasing your communication will be effective in reducing stress.
Breathing exercises, doing sports, going for a walk are a useful factor in providing serotonin hormone and will reduce your stress level to the optimal level.
If you do all these things and it still didn’t happen, then “Which emotions are we trying to cope with, what emotions are we trying to suppress with food, which emotions are causing us discomfort, which emotions and thoughts are leading us to this situation?” We recommend that you seek professional support to examine questions such as:
