Detecting the Presence of Emotional Eating
Many people resort to emotional eating and some are not even aware that they are doing it. A person may participate in emotional eating when they have a relationship breakup or when they suffer the loss of a loved one or encounter a tremendous upheaval such as a move, or loss of a job.
Emotional eating is anytime an individual eats not because they are hungry but because of an emotion they are experiencing such as anxiety, anger, extreme sadness even happiness. Some people eat when they are overly anxious or depressed. Overeating can also occur when feeling bored. Many people instead of fixing the cause of the boredom, they will tend to try to “fix” the problem by reaching for a snack bag
Are you an emotional eater?
You may be an emotional eater if you tend to eat when you are scared, worried, sad, or when you are in need of a pick-me-up spirit-wise. You may be an emotional eater if you find yourself spending more time eating then participating in other physical activities. Do you ever binge eat? It is very important that if you notice any of these eating habits in yourself, that you get the advice of a doctor who can diagnose your eating problem and help you to deal with it.
If you are an emotional eater, you will have to take action in order to correct your bad eating habits. One effective step that can be taken to treat emotional eating is called, “diversion”. Diversion is a technique in which you use an action to divert you from doing the action required to overeat. This step requires a great deal of motivation and dedication to quit.
It is helpful if you can identify the “triggers” that cause you to overeat or that encourages you to overeat such as watching TV, or being on the computer, when you play cards, or perhaps it is a time of day that causes you to overeat such as after school time when school children are eating snacks and it is tempting for adults to join them.
Sometimes it is easier to notice emotional eating in others that noticing it in ourselves.
In order to successfully change a bad-eating habit such as emotional eating it is not only important to recognize a bad eating habit, it is important to identify the triggers for emotional eating, and to seek support from friends, relatives, and especially direct family
Your doctor, and nutritionist can help you to detect the signs and symptoms of emotionally eating. Detecting the presence of emotional eating is only half the battle. . The other half of the battle is to change the eating habits that you have been doing for a while.
