Therapy for Emotional Eating in Edmonton
Do you find yourself eating when you're not hungry or frequently eating more than you would like or more than you need? If so you may be engaging in emotional eating.
What is emotional eating? If you are engaging in emotional eating you might find yourself doing or feeling some or all of the following things:
Emotional eating can take a toll, not only on our bodies but also on our emotions. People who engage in emotional eating can often feel shame, guilt, or anxiety about their eating behaviour or about their bodies. People often attribute their ability to control what they eat to discipline, so you might also psychologically “beat yourself up” for not being more disciplined, which not surprisingly can further fuel emotional eating. What causes emotional eating? In reality, stopping emotional eating has little to do with discipline. Emotional eating may often be caused in part, by the presence of uncomfortable emotions and difficulty managing these emotions using means other than food. In a way it makes perfect sense: If you feel sad or anxious, you find that eating quickly relieves these emotions, and you don’t have other strategies for relieving these emotions it’s no surprise you might overeat despite possible negative effects on your health and well being in the longer term. The causes of emotional eating are complex but a lack of pleasure in other areas of your life; a lack of awareness and maladaptive habit patterns; the way you think about food; or your body being out of balance can also contribute. How do I stop emotional eating? Consulting with a psychologist can be really helpful for understanding the particular causes of your emotional eating; increasing your awareness of the emotional, thought, and behaviour patterns that lead up to it and feed it; disrupting these patterns; and learning new ways of thinking and acting and new skills and habits to allow you to learn ways to deal with your feelings without food and reduce your susceptibility to emotional eating. It can also be helpful for reducing negative thoughts and feelings about one’s body that can also contribute. Emotional eating is treatable. If you are having difficulty dealing with emotional eating please get in touch for a free 15 min phone consultation as a first step. I am a supportive, easy to talk to, and experienced registered psychologist who can help you understand your emotional eating and provide supportive counseling and concrete, practical, science-based tools, strategies, and skills that you can use in the long term to stop change your emotions and behaviour. |
If you know that you are dealing with emotional eating or binge eating and want help please get in touch for a free 15 min phone consultation as a first step. I am a skilled registered psychologist who provides assessment and treatment for these difficulties.
|