My morning starts with sandwiches, I chew apples all day, and in the evening I can quite chew a couple of bags of sunflower seeds. It’s a disease?
The columnist for Wday.ru tells how she became addicted to food and how to deal with it.
– The most affordable pleasure right now is food. Therefore, if you had a fight with a guy, you buy yourself a chocolate bar, if your friend offended you – a hamburger, if problems at work – a bottle of wine and cheese. Unfortunately, all these are momentary joys that do not solve the problem. And even after a box of marshmallows, an unpleasant aftertaste remains. After all, these “bonuses” can easily become a big problem.
“As far back as I can remember, I have never suffered from an addiction to food. Hungry – refreshed. That’s all relationships, – Anya shares her story. – But lately I began to notice a certain pattern behind myself: I had successful negotiations – I rewarded myself with dinner in a restaurant, got into a stressful situation – I calmed myself with an evening “harmful” snack in front of the TV. Everything would be fine, but this behavior began to affect my well-being, appearance, mood: my jeans became small, my skin was covered with rashes, I suffer from insomnia, I want to sleep all the time during the day, there are always some sounds in my stomach, and in the evening my legs themselves carry to the store to buy completely unnecessary products. I began to cancel meetings with friends, going to the gym, cinema, theater, dreaming only to come home as soon as possible, put my feet on the sofa and put my hand in a bag of chips.
What has become of me? I fell into some kind of food slavery! After all, if you think about it, in most cases, when I throw something in my mouth, I’m not hungry at all. Rather, I do it by inertia, because the habit of constantly chewing has already formed. And it only took me a couple of weeks.
Have I tried to resist her? Sure. I skipped shopping, removed from sight anything that could provoke the desire to eat, and even went on a diet. But after a while everything comes back. I feel weak-willed because I have lost control of my appetite. “
Clinical psychology, normalization of eating behavior, weight loss, psychology of relationships
A psychologist does not change a person, but helps to improve the quality of life
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– The story with Anya is a very common case these days, with which I often meet in my practice. Many will call this food addiction, but this is not entirely true. Calling it addiction is a simple way of avoiding responsibility for your behavior in relation to your own emotions. It is better to say that the girl has formed a habit of running away from her negative emotional state for food.
Everyone has difficult periods and difficult emotional experiences. What can we say, during the day we experience a range of feelings. Anya began to eat more often when she felt bad. This is fraught with the fact that she will completely forget how to hear herself. The important thing here is to understand: how am I feeling now? What would I like? Listening to your emotion, being with it, then the state changes.
For example, you feel hurt. What do you want at the moment? Tell the offender what you think. Take a piece of paper and write on it all the claims to the person, all the grievances and all your anger. Believe me, if you do it sincerely and truly, the resentment will decrease. And then ask yourself: what makes me resent? And then it is important to deal with your resentment. Or if it’s lonely. What do you want? Any communication, even with an unfamiliar person, will reduce this painful feeling. The main thing is not to close and not sit within four walls.
But it is often difficult to cope with this on your own, so in such cases it is best to consult a specialist, otherwise the addiction will develop into a way of life.
As soon as you realize that you have such a problem, start observation diary, where you should prescribe what, when, in what quantities and for what reason you ate. This practice of tracking your meals will help you be more objective about your eating behavior.
Important! It is not the body’s need for food that makes us overeat, but something completely different.
Stress… During times of intense stress, the body raises levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that feeds on salty, sugary, and high-fat foods. As a result, they ate a lot, and the effect was short-lived.
What to do? If stress is chronic, it is best to see a doctor.
Negative emotions… In the process of eating, we are distracted from the troubles that gnaw at us: anger subsides, irritation calms down, resentment becomes less acute.
What to do? There are many other ways to relieve nervous tension: dance, turn on karaoke, go to the pool, box, or just shout into the void.
Loneliness, boredom… Not sure what to do with yourself? Need to pass the time? There is a solution – you can have a snack. In fact, at this moment we fill the void not in the stomach, but inside ourselves, our life.
What to do? Call a friend, go for a walk in the park, read your favorite book, look at an album with photos, play with your pet, with your child, find a new interesting activity for yourself.