Emotional Eating
We can all have a day when we've just had enough and we reach for our favourite food that gives us a feeling of comfort - chocolate, ice cream, crisps. Whatever your food of choice, you have set up a cognitive, emotional and behavioural habit.
Your trigger will come from the way you interpret something that is happening in your life. It may be a situation at work, something a loved one has said to you, or a negative thought you have about yourself.
This causes you to have an emotion, which swells and grows inside of you. Depending on the way you have learnt to feel, express and deal with emotions will determine what you do next. If you bottle up the emotion inside, you may have learnt that eating food has the effect of cutting off the emotion you are feeling.
However, the period of calm you feel after eating is soon replaced with different thoughts and feelings where you tell yourself that you are weak and you feel fat. This can in itself be another trigger for you to eat again.
Everyone has the capacity to indulge in emotional eating. You may feel that it is happening too often, and you may be aware that you are putting on weight and feel that your eating is getting out of control.
Emotional Eating Treatment
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I will help you recognise the triggers in your life that cause you to feel emotions that are difficult for you
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We will explore the beliefs, thoughts and assumptions you have about yourself that determine the way you interpret things in your life
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I will help you create new coping skills and ways of thinking about life events, so that you deal with things in new ways, that do not involve food.
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I will help you recognise the sensations and feelings you are experiencing, so that you can name them
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I will teach you new ways to feel and express your emotions in a safe way, so that you feel in control
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I will develop your communication skills so that you can tell people how you feel, and be able to handle the emotions expressed by other people
