Compulsive Overeating

"Compulsive Overeating" is the use
of food to manage mood

Do you have a problem with Compulsive Overeating?

• Serious compulsive overeaters obsess about food

• Compulsive overeaters rely on food as their primary means of self-comfort

• For a compulsive overeater, somewhere along the way, food becomes their No. 1 means of entertainment and fun

• Compulsive overeaters feel distress over their relationship with food. They often describe their eating as compulsive eating

You want to stop overeating. You feel trapped. When you're not obsessing about diets, you're back into the compulsive eating. Despite all efforts, diets and self-help books about overeating, your compulsive eating, your emotional eating continues. Being a compulsive overeater leaves you feeling like a failure. Compulsive overeaters feel out-of-control with food. Then, of course, you eat even more to "stuff down" your "out-of-control" feelings!!!

I was stuck in a self-defeating cycle!
I felt out-of-control with food! I was either overeating or dieting. In either mode, I felt I was never good enough. I had willpower and stick-to-itiveness in many other areas in my life. So why couldn't I apply that same resolve to my eating habits?

I wasted so much time, energy, and money
I was obsessed with my weight. Living like that was miserable. Today, I understand that weight was not the problem. It was actually a symptom. The real problem was that I was an "emotional eater" or "compulsive overeater" .

Compulsive Overeaters use food to manage feelings
We use food to self-soothe. People who have struggled with it,
and the professionals who treat it, call it by many different
names; compulsive overeating, emotional eating, and
food addiction. No matter what it's called, people USE food because food works!

1. Food works as a tension reliever
   Both eating food and thinking about food work as
   distractions from uncomfortable feelings. Being food-
   focused takes the edge off any feeling that a person
   would rather not feel or tolerate (boredom, stress,
   anxiety, anger, loneliness, etc.).

2. For example...You're feeling bored. Suddenly you find
   yourself thinking about the ice cream in the freezer. As
   soon as you start to think about the ice cream, you are
   no longer focused on feeling bored.

3. Food and food thoughts can be used in reaction to and
   as a defense against any intense feeling or stressful life
   situation. The use of food to manage mood becomes a
   self-reinforcing habit. (Today, scientists are also focused on the biology & brain chemistry of overeating. There may also be many physiological reason why we keep turning to food even when it feels self-defeating to do so.)

4. Compulsive Overeating and Emotional Eating happens on a continuum
   Emotional eating is normal. We all celebrate with food.
   When something sad occurs, friends and neighbors
   arrive with cakes and casseroles. It's only when
   emotional eating begins to have impact on one's
   emotional and/or physical well-being, and it's used as
   a person's primary strategy for mood regulation, that it
   becomes a problem. When eating becomes a primary
   coping strategy, it greatly impacts a person's quality of
   life. At the most extreme point on the compulsive overeating continuum, there may be a diagnosable eating disorder present-such as bulimia or binge eating disorder-and often, clinical depression as well.
   
   

5. Here's how food works as a mood regulator:

   • First, a compulsive eater experiences an
     uncomfortable feeling. For example...You just had
     a fight with a family member and you're feeling
     really angry!

   • Next, you have a FOOD THOUGHT and you find
     yourself reaching for a bag of chips. (You may or
     may not be conscious of when or why you are having a food thought.) Once you are focused on
     the chips, you are no longer focused on how angry
     you feel. The use of food as a distraction works...

   • You eat the chips, warding off the anger, for a little
     while. Then, the anger comes back. Now, in
     addition to the anger, a compulsive overeater has
     to deal with the guilt and shame he/she feels every
     time he or she eats chips (or any other food that
     he or she has labeled as "forbidden").

6. This is the self-defeating cycle--the trap for a compulsive eater
   Until you develop healthier coping strategies, and you
   overcome the "good food vs. bad food" beliefs, the only
   way to avoid the guilt and the shame that results from
   compulsive overeating--is more compulsive overeating!
   Every time we swear we'll be "good" on a diet today,
   and then turn back to food for comfort, we feel like we
   have "failed". Then, to "stuff down" our frustration, or
   shame, or desperation, we turn back to food.
   
   

7. So, what can you do if Compulsive Overeating is a problem?
   Make a conscious effort to become more aware of how
   and why you may be using food. Develop new skills for
   mood regulation. If you need support to do so, find
   appropriate professional help (find a class, hire a Coach or a Licensed Psychotherapist). The focus should be on self-care and improved emotional and physical well-being--eating well and being fit--not on dieting and weight loss. Remember, dieting is a trap for a compulsive eater. Dieting just leads to more compulsive eating.