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Many people with the help of food seek to fill not only the stomach, but also the emotional (spiritual) emptiness. We are talking about those who eat because they feel lonely, who have no one to share their impressions and thoughts with, to talk about important events for them.
This phenomenon is known as emotional hunger (sometimes also called nervous hunger), and as its possible causes, researchers cite feelings of anxiety, dissatisfaction, loneliness, boredom, anger … Trying to find a way to drown out such emotions, a person may succumb to the impulse to simply “eat” them . Unconsciously, there is a feeling that a chocolate bar or a cheeseburger can, for example, replace someone whom the “emotional eater” lacks: a close friend, a group of friends, a loved one.
You can find solace in food, but not for long. To prolong it, you have to resort to food “antidepressant” quite often. And instead of seriously taking on the solution of emotional problems, a person simply makes it a habit to run away from them in search of salvation to the refrigerator. And ignore the fact that nothing good, except for delicious food and short-term consolation, awaits him there: in the freezer there can be a waffle cup, popsicle and anything, but not an effective remedy for irritation, frustration, problems in building relationships and low self-esteem.
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Among other things, the danger lies in the fact that by turning food into a regulator of emotions, creating a vicious circle of emotions-hunger-food-emotions, a person is unlikely to solve the problem of loneliness, but it can aggravate it. Sooner or later, uncontrolled eating behavior negatively affects the figure, which rarely adds self-confidence and the desire to make contact with others.
Researchers from Ohio University recently conducted a study to explore the relationship between loneliness, feelings of hunger, and ghrelin (hunger hormone) levels. After eating, it invariably falls – the question is when it starts to rise. The study involved 42 women. For those who consider themselves lonely, ghrelin appeared in the blood faster.
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To solve the problem of emotional hunger, first of all, you need to try to understand why you feel lonely. Perhaps this feeling arose in you not because of the absence of close people, but simply because you had not seen them for a long time. In this case, it’s enough just to get out somewhere, meet friends. The feeling of loneliness can also arise for another reason: the superficiality of the relationship. That is, you have someone to spend time with, but you are afraid to share your innermost thoughts, feelings or emotions (suddenly they will misunderstand or condemn?). In order to overcome this fear, it is worth choosing one or two people whom you can trust – and make sure that often the fear of negative evaluation arises from scratch. Both the feeling of loneliness and the emotional hunger generated by it may have other reasons. The main thing is to carefully analyze them and understand what they are, and try to solve them in a truly effective way, that is, in a non-gastronomic way.
See more at editions of Psicologi-Italia.