End Emotional Eating and Stress Eating Today
span style=”font-size: 11pt; color: black;”>It is common to overeat from time to time. However, frequent bouts of overeating in response to emotions can be harmful to your physical and emotional wellbeing. Until recently, the medical community knew very little about the role of stress and anxiety and its effects on eating behavior.
An interesting connection has been established between emotional eating and dieting. New research highlights the effects of chronic dieting on the relationship among stress, anxiety, hunger, and eating. Researchers have discovered that ‘chronic dieters’ who are hungry will overeat when stressed; however, if they are not hungry, anxiety will have no effect on eating. The problem here of course, is the fact that chronic dieters spend much of their time in a state of hunger in an exhausting effort to lose weight. Non ‘chronic dieters’ on the other hand, don’t seem to turn to food when stressed or anxious. Again, the link to hunger is that non dieters tend to eat when they are hungry, so hunger may largely be removed from the equation. Although it may not be as simple as grouping people into categories of dieters and non-dieters, these findings demonstrate the long lasting effects of chronic fad or restrictive dieting.
So why do some turn to food when experiencing certain emotions or anxiety? Food can bring comfort and pleasure at least in the short-term. As a result, food can temporarily heal emotional problems. Eating might then become a habit that prevents us from learning skills that can effectively resolve our emotional distress.
Anxiety or depression, boredom, anger, loneliness, frustration, and stress are just some of the emotions or situations that can lead to overeating. Problems with interpersonal relationships and poor self-esteem can result in overeating and unwanted weight gain.
Before we look at the behavioral strategies of reducing the frequency of emotional eating, we should first deal with the physical component. If chronic dieting can exacerbate emotional eating then reducing hunger should dramatically improve our ability to cope with emotions in a manner other than eating. Thus dieters must introduce regular eating patterns such as eating three meals and two to three snacks per day. Although we can’t always predict when we’ll experience certain emotions, we can take measures to not be ravenously hungry when the emotions occur.
The first step in the behavioral component to stop emotional eating involves identifying triggers, or the series of events that lead to emotional eating. Once we recognize our triggers, the second step is to substitute more appropriate techniques to manage our emotional problems and take food and weight gain out of the equation.
Although you can guess which emotions and situations might lead to your overeating, it is far more effective to keep a food journal that includes the time, place and feelings that you experience when you eat. Professional lifestyle based programs can help you analyze your records and observe your behaviour rather than speculate about your habits.
Changing learned behaviors or ‘habits’ is never easy. It takes practice and a plan that lists alternatives to eating. It may be taking deep breaths, meditating, taking a bath, calling or writing a friend, or going for a walk. The best strategies involve activities that are incompatible to both the emotions you are feeling and eating.
Research shows that emotions, particularly stress and anxiety, influence our urges to eat comforting foods. You can improve your odds of choosing alternatives to eating if you can prevent ravenous hunger by eating regularly, identifying your eating triggers and learning alternative coping behaviors. Keep in mind that behaviour change is a process and the goal is to improve, not to be perfect. If you make a mistake, it’s an opportunity to improve and your confidence and health will grow with every success.
Andrew Harvey
Stress, Anxiety and Depression – What is the difference?
Looking after your feelings and emotions is as important as taking care of your body. Most of us take care of our physical health far better than our feelings.
Stress is a normal reaction to what is happening in your life, and it can be caused by good, as well as bad events. A little bit of stress isn’t always a bad thing; but being over-stressed may cause a range of health problems including headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure – even strokes and heart disease.
The changes that commonly follow a traumatic event can affect your emotional wellbeing and your ability to cope. If stress is disrupting your life in a bad way, it may be time to learn new coping skills or to get extra help.
Anxiety is a normal feeling that everyone experiences in day-to-day life. I can develop more strongly when faced with something uncertain, difficult, embarrassing or stressful. Anxiety feelings can range from being mild or moderate to severe, and can bring on extreme physical symptoms.
If your feelings of anxiety are causing disruption in your daily life, you may have a more severe form of anxiety called an anxiety disorder. If this is the case, you need to seek professional help.
Depression is a common illness like diabetes or arthritis. Many people suffer from depression at some stage of their life and it can occur at any age.
A lot of people use the word ‘depression’ to describe feelings of sadness and loss. These feelings often pass within a few hours or a few days. During this time, people are able to carry on much as usual. However, if you feel sad much more intensely and for longer and your feelings start to interfere with your work, social life and family life, you may need to seek professional advice.
There are a number of symptoms of depression and it’s very rare for all symptoms to occur in one person all at once. You might feel it come on slowly, from sometimes feeling blue to deeper feelings more often. It is hard to accept that symptoms like sleeping badly or feeling worthless are depression. After all, don’t we all feel that way sometimes? That’s the key – sometimes. It’s not normal to feel that way for a long time.
There are a variety of treatments for stress, anxiety and depression available to assist you in getting through the physical and emotional issues.
To live your life as you want, and be able to give to your family, friends and work – it’s important to look after yourself. Don’t be frightened to ask for help if you need it. We all need someone to talk to at some stage of our life.
Anne Wolski
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/stress-anxiety-and-depression-what-is-the-difference-4071.html
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