Identifying emotional eating and finding solutions to reduce your appetite

Hunger can be misinterpreted at times when we don't have a plan to get what we really want out of life. We may long for closer relationships with others and feel "hungry" for food instead. We might feel bored at times and feel that at least you are "doing something" by preparing and eating a meal. Emotional eating can manifest when there is turmoil in life, and yet no template for dealing with all of it. We might feel stuck and reach for high calorie foods to gain a feeling of calm and peace.

Many behaviors around food become addictive, and emotional eating can create additional problems, even more than we may have been avoiding in the first place. Emotional eating behaviors may increase to the point of diagnosable eating disorders, but more frequently they result in escalating weight gain and chronic obesity.

It's interesting for those who have a weight problem to understand that the emotional eating is a symptom of other things that are being avoided. Even shyness can be at the base of emotional eating, and the weight gain further increases the shyness by adding a poor body image to the reasons for isolating from other people.

Frequently emotional eating is connected to losses in our lives. Something may have been lost in childhood, or relationships may have not been "enough" to give a child the security he/she needed. As adults, food may become the "gift" to help make up for the losses, at least for the moment. Unfortunately emotional eating, and giving too much food, will invariably lead to other problems which compound the situation. It can lead to bulimia to keep weight down, or it can lead to obesity, and both lead to poor self esteem.

The solution may not be as hard as you think. People have a connection in sharing what we want and need in our lives. There are basic needs that you deserve to have filled. You can get what you really need and want, but you may first have to work on the addiction of emotional eating to know you can set a goal and achieve it, as you work on more future goals. By working with a psychotherapist it becomes easier to begin looking at the past and designing your future, so it will give you what you are really hungry for.

HealthyPsychologyCenter.com may become a great resource for finding out what your hunger is all about. Feel free to call on one of the therapists for individual, confidential and compassionate help.