Emotional eating is something that impacts so many people. You might feel you are all alone in this, and you are the only one that has these struggles but it’s simply not true. Often times when people struggle with emotional eating, they try to tighten up their food rules and maybe turn to dieting to help them feel in control again. Dieting and disordered eating rules tend to make not only emotional eating worse but it leads to binge eating too. The cycle of emotional eating continues.
You don’t have to stay stuck in this cycle of emotional eating. I know you might feel hopeless right now but understanding what’s triggering emotional eating is important in being able to make changes and be more of an intuitive eater instead. My goal is to help you start to become a little bit more aware of what situations, people, places, or feelings might be related to your emotional eating.
What is emotional eating?
Emotional eating is a behavior in which a person uses food as a way of coping with negative emotions or feelings, rather than eating to satisfy physical hunger. It involves using food to comfort or distract in response to feeling stressed, bored, lonely, anxious, overwhelmed, or other emotional triggers. Emotional eating may involve consuming specific types of food that are perceived as comforting or pleasurable. Emotional eating can lead to low self-esteem, guilt, shame, and negative body image.
Common emotional eating triggers
Emotional eating triggers will vary from person to person. Everyone’s experience is unique. These are some examples of triggers that some people experience that lead to emotional eating.
Stress: When faced with stressors such as work pressure, financial worries, or relationship issues, you might turn to food as a way to cope.
Boredom: When you are feeling unstimulated or unoccupied, you may turn to food as a source of entertainment or pleasure.
Sadness: You may use food as a way of comforting yourself when feeling down or experiencing a sense of loss.
Anxiety: When dealing with anxiousness or feeling overwhelmed, you may turn to food as a way to distract yourself or numb your feelings.
Loneliness: When you feel lonely or disconnected, you may turn to food as a way to fill an emotional void or seek comfort.
Fatigue: When you are tired or run down, you may turn to food as a way of boosting your energy levels.
Celebrations: You may turn to food as a way of celebrating special occasions or milestones, even if you are not physically hungry.
Trauma: Trauma can trigger emotional eating by creating a sense of emotional distress or discomfort that you seek to alleviate through food.
Painful experiences: can lead to emotional eating by triggering negative emotions, such as stress, sadness, or anxiety, which you might try to manage or numb through food.
How do deal with emotional eating triggers?
It’s important to find your own way of dealing with emotional eating triggers that work for you. Here are some examples of ways of dealing with emotional eating. Dealing with emotional eating triggers involves identifying the triggers and developing healthy coping strategies to manage them. Here are some tips for dealing with emotional eating triggers:
Identify your own triggers:
Take note of the situations or emotions that tend to trigger emotional eating for you. Withhold judgment toward yourself as you go through this process. Just try to notice common themes that lead to emotional eating.
Use other coping skills:
Find other ways of coping with difficult emotions. Examples include deep breathing, meditation, exercise, journaling, or talking to a friend or therapist.
Use your support:
Surround yourself with supportive people who understand your goals and can help you stay on track.
Practice self-compassion:
Be kind to yourself and practice self-compassion. Remember that emotional eating is a common struggle, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you as a person.
Therapy for emotional eating:
If emotional eating is a persistent concern, consider seeking professional help from a therapist specializing in emotional eating.
How Therapy for Emotional Eating in Utah Can Help
It can be scary to think about using a professional for help with your emotional eating. Some people are afraid that they’ll be encouraged to diet or restrict themselves more. Other people hope that going to a therapist will help them lose weight. However, therapy for emotional eating is neither of those things. You can expect that therapy will focus on helping address the way you feel about yourself, the negative beliefs you struggle with, and finding other ways to cope with your emotions that don’t involve always turning to food. Therapy will also normalize that we all emotionally eat and it doesn’t mean that you will always require some sort of intervention. It’s normal to emotionally eat from time to time but if you feel like it’s your primary way of coping and it’s leading to negative feelings about yourself, therapy can be a good option for you. Therapy can help address the underlying issues that might be contributing to you engaging in emotional eating.
Begin Therapy for Emotional Eating in Utah
You don’t have to keep feeling stuck in this cycle of emotional eating. You can find other ways to cope with how you feel and therapy for emotional eating can help. This Utah Counseling Practice has a disordered eating therapist specializing in treating emotional eating. To begin therapy follow the steps below:
Meet with a caring therapist
Start healing from emotional eating
Online Therapy in Utah
It can be difficult to have access to a therapist who specializes in emotional eating that doesn’t encourage dieting or restriction as a form of intervention. This is why I offer online therapy in Utah. If you don’t have a therapist specializing in what you need in your town, you can still have access to online counseling. Online therapy is just as effective as in-person therapy but much more convenient.
Online Therapy also means I work with clients all over the state of Utah including St. George, Cedar City, Provo, Logan, Salt Lake City, Heber City, and more.
Other mental health Services Provided by Maple Canyon Therapy
Therapy for emotional eating isn’t the only counseling service provided at this Utah Counseling Center. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include eating disorder therapy, binge eating disorder treatment, EMDR therapy, anxiety therapy, counseling for college students, birth trauma therapy, and body image therapy.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt LCSW is a licensed therapist and founder of Maple Canyon Therapy near Provo, Utah. Ashlee has a bachelor's degree in family life and human development and a bachelor's degree in psychology both from Southern Utah University. She received her master's degree in social work from Utah State University. Ashlee has been working with women to help improve their relationship with food and their bodies since 2013. She works with women who have eating disorders, disordered eating, and emotional eating.