I eat my emotions!

I recently invited our Am I Hungry? enews readers to email me about their challenges with emotional eating. We’ve received over a hundred emails along the lines of “I eat my emotions” – and they’re still coming in!

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the topic of emotional eating hit such a nerve. One thing I know is that you can feel pretty isolated when you are dealing with these issues by yourself, so I wanted to share just a few of the stories others have shared so you’ll know that you are NOT alone! (Some are slightly edited for clarity or brevity.)

I find I need to eat something intensely sweet when I am upset. At the time of anger/resentment/a feeling of unfairness, I just rush into sweet tasting food. I need to find a way of taking a moment before I dig into something to soothe myself.

I often feel hopeless when I think about coming to terms with my emotional eating. I have difficulty in even identifying my emotions. I’ve trained myself to push down, disregard, discount, and ignore my emotions and needs. I often just figuratively (and sometimes literally) throw my hands up and say, “Screw it!” It’s so easy to just eat to self-soothe – but of course, that comes with the associated feelings of worthlessness, guilt, and self-disgust. And I don’t want to feel that way anymore. So, to answer your question about thoughts and feelings: It’s scary. I’m afraid I’ll fail… once again. – Jana

I realized most of my life has been around emotional eating. If I was hurt or sick I was given a treat. My overeating is tied to emotions, including a fear of not having enough. – Rosemary

Emotional eating to me is using high sugar foods to, in the moment, address feelings of anxiety and stress. I feel unable to handle those momentarily intense bouts of anxiety without the short lived rush of happy chemicals those high sugar foods release. – Anne

My biggest eating time takes place when I am bored and my biggest issue is that I crave sweets and bread.

My entire life revolves around food. When I am going to eat, how much and what I am going to eat. That is why I am coming to the retreat in October. I just don’t want to live my life like this anymore. – AR

I have a difficult time trusting myself to do the “right thing” with food… I eat a lot for comfort and distraction. I am realizing I have repressed many needs to the point that I don’t really know myself anymore. – Sam

The comfort food brings during times of high stress – hello carbs! Food reminds me of time with friends and family. I love good food and taking anything out of my diet feels sad. I would love to learn more about being able to eat what I want and enjoy food, while doing so in a balanced way with a healthy mindset. – Lesleyann

I would love to tell you a great story about emotional eating but too many flood in. I feel like I do it almost on a daily basis. I eat cause I am bored, I eat cause I am stressed. I eat because I get upset about not being to just eat what I want when I want. Everyday I just hate it. – Peggy

I immediately thought of every diet I have ever gone on, and the cycle of hope, sadness, disappointment, and ultimate failure that surrounded it… and the glimmer of hope that next year I could eat normally. – Jeannette

My first thought was “I believe I am an emotional eater, using food as comfort, to alleviate stress, or out of boredom, but I’m not sure why/when/how.” I would love to get help decoding that. – Debbi

I struggle with emotionally snacking when I feel as though my life is too full. – LB

Please share your struggles in the comments section below because you just never know who YOU might help feel not so alone!