Childhood trauma and trauma I dealt with as an older teenager that really broke my soul for a while. I was able to pinpoint that through counseling when I was dealing with my eating disorders. It is no longer an excuse, it was an answer. A few years ago I found the solution and lost the weight. The weight piled back on in 2013 due to lack of exercise then a wonderful, healthy pregnancy! However I amnow healthily losing the weight and exercising.

I have no idea. I just love junk and can not stop until it's gone. I've been hoping that maybe it's emotional eating, or there was some big reason... I just think I'm greedy, lol.

I binge because the cravings I get are so bad I can't resist them. I identify with Kathryn Hansen in her book 'Brain Over Binge' when she explains that her cravings come from periods of severe food restriction earlier in her life, which is what I did too, plus a strong habit formed in the brain. I know that if I can resist giving in to my cravings for just a couple of weeks then they will fade and I can be binge free. I have done this on about four occasions in the past for months on end, with very successful results. But I started eating my trigger foods again and now my cravings are back with a vengeance. I know that I need to just sit and resist them each evening when they strike, but at present I'm finding that just too hard. But for me it's the only way. Which is why I've joined this Forum, for support.

I spent quite a few years thinking there was something wrong with me. Why couldn't I control myself ? Everything pointed to the "fact" that I had no will power....that I was weak....lacking in moderation and broken. Then one day, I tried the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. At first I couldn't believe it. What happened to the nightly after dinner cravings ? Why was I suddenly able to control my eating ? Slowly, I started to understand that although there were psychological components at play, most of the problem was physiological....I mean there were certain behaviors that had become hard wired ...and needed to change, but I wasn so "broken" anymore.

I believe food addiction is linked to childhood trauma which is any childhood where a child did not receive the love needed because parent(s) were not able to love or not available. I do not speak for everyone but for myself and for many I know. Personally my father was an alchoholic and thus not available to father in the way he should have so the love was not there and he was abusive to my sibling, one sibling viewing abuse is abuse itself. In my personal life every very overweight person I have known well enough to know anything of their lives had parent(s) who could not love. Some of my friends I would never say this to but it was so clear that their parent(s) was so wrapped up in themselves they just were not available to them. I believe these wounds caused by childhood resulted in ptsd for myself and thus I am dealing with my addiction day by day. I can only speak for my experiences though.
I do have great therapist who happens to be a psychiatrist and I am finding this work really helpful and healing.

I had wonderful parents and a great childhood. It wasn't without challenges but my parents were very loving. Then again I don't consider myself an addict of any sort.

I think it has a lot to do with culture. We usually have too much food everywhere, we socialize while eating, we shower our guests with delicious meals and what is a celebration without a feast? It's only natural that we link eating with happiness! Of course a lot of people eat when they're stressed and the issue can be much much deeper sometimes, but I believe it can also only get down to (bad) habits.

I don't like when people assume that I'm fat because I'm "solving my problems with food".

I think there are just too many contributing causes, and too many plausible, but untestable theories to answer the question with any degree of accuracy.

I suspected deep-seated social and psychological problems most of my life, because that's where I was taught/led to look - because that was a common theory of health care professionals of the time (of course "back then" homosexuality and schizophrenia were both thought to be caused by the amount and quality of maternal attention and affection).

Currently I suspect a genetic component because I was adopted an am the only person in my adoptive family to have ever been overweight, much less morbidly obese as a child (as I was) or before middle-age, for that matter. At my heighest weight, I outweighed the next heaviest person in my family by about 125 lbs.

I know very little about my biological family, so I'm just guessing, but I don't think it really matters why or how I got fat. Theories can help design treatments, but I think that's actually part of the problem.

When I assumed a psychological cause, I looked for psychological solutions. When they didn't work, I saw it as an indication of how mentally screwed up I had to be, rather than as an indication that there might be physiological issues.

I think overeating has too many contributing causes for cause-identification to be very practical or effective. Also, obesity becomes self-perpetuating and multi-causal. You may begin overeating for one reason, but staying fat can involve many others. I don't think anyone is fat for only one reason, and even stress-induced obesity causes physiological changes that reinforce the obesity, even when the stress is no longer present.

Even stress-induced eating may be genetic. Some people overeat when stresses, others lose their appetite. Genetics, family history, cultural norms... and a gazillion other factors may determine how your appetite responds to stress...

I do think obesity tends to be more physiological than psychological, which is sadly a somewhat radical view. It's more common to assume that obesity HAS to be a matter of mental instability - lazy, crazy, or stupid.... To the point that if you DO believe in physiological factors, you're accused of being in denial or shirking personal responsibility.

Great thread! So, after reading what everyone says, it confirms what I think. There are many things that can be attributed to overeating. I am not sure I know all of the reasons for me. Then again, I am not sure I know the real reason. I was abused for many years. That may well have caused me to want to self comfort in the only way I knew how. And it may have been one of the few ways I felt control over how I felt. I also ate to calm the pain. Gratification. But I do not think that's the only reason. I eat very quickly. And I am voracious. Much like what we think of the classic alcoholic with alcohol. Its almost like it's never enough.

My eating was somewhat controlled by my abusive mother when I was young. So it may have exacerbated the problem. And still there could be more reasons. I am in maintenance now. But my entire life has been up and down in weight. I have lost more than a hundred pounds from my heaviest. But I have lost perhaps three times that amount with yoyoing over the years. Up and down. The happiest times were when I was heavy. Creating amazing baked goods. Creating with food and then eating it. Serving it. Sheer bliss. But I was quite heavy. I think there may be another reason why I eat as I do. Maybe in a past life I was starved

Overating is sometimes a big problem for me mainly when I have lots of work to be done. I am a full time translator in order to earn money for my medical studies and I frequently translate at night and under pressure. I eat a lot, mainly sweets, such as cookies, honey, chocolate and other similar stuff. So probably I eat too much when I am in stress, which is no good but I really cannot help it sometimes.

I think my overeating stems from a few things. I grew up in a poorer family and eating out became a luxury. I feel like now in my adult life I want to go out and eat pretty much everything because I can afford to more often. The feelings I get from over eating also attribute to my problems. To me food equaled happiness and was a quick fix for problems I had. When I was eating the foods I loved, I could escape the bad feelings I felt towards my self and my weight. Sometimes I even felt like I couldn't have a good time with friends without eating something unhealthy.

Now I'm realizing that eating doesn't equal happiness and food can't solve any problems long term. I have to face my problems without food. Sadly as they say, habits die hard. I still struggle not to overeat and fixate on food.

I don't know where my overeating comes from! My mom cooked very nutritious meals for us, we drank low fat milk before it was cool very seldom had dessert and even then it was Jello, had soda only on special occasions. Then again I grew up without a dad..issues there. My super skinny sister never had a weight problem til later in life, However she is a recovering/battling alcoholic. Which I don't have a problem with, I could give up alcohol this second and not care but to swear off cookies for life?? NOOOO

tldr; no idea

I'm extremely blessed when it comes to my family. They've always been loving and supportive. But along with that comes family celebrations (birthdays, holidays, etc) that were and still are always filled with tons of food. Growing up with that I associated food with happiness and love. So I've always been an emotional eater. If I'm sad or upset I eat. The taste of food cheers me up and I feel happier. My Dad once called it instant gratification and he was right. At least in my case. It was the worst after my Husband passed away. I spent the next 3 years eating mostly candy or sugary foods. Hence my ballooning to 400 lbs. Now that I've realized why I eat like that I'm in much better control of what types of food I eat and eating healthier.

This is an interesting blog post about emotional eating that pretty much sums up how I feel about it. http://www.thegreatfitnessexperiment...ou-should.html

There is nothing wrong with emotional eating, it gets a bad rap. Seeking comfort in food is a very natural and human thing to do. When we do it we intend to take care of ourselves in the only way we know how to. We can't continue to beat ourselves up for something we are naturally inclined to do. That said, eating for comfort can only comfort us but so much. It shouldn't be our only tool for getting through uncomfortable emotions, but it's easy to fall into the trap of emotional eating and not being able to find our way out of it. That's because it becomes a physiological habit that's hard to break.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I have three reason why I over eat. Family, growing up food was always a huge part of our family get togethers and still is. Family bbqs and christmas diners and even in my home We sit and talk about our day around the diner table . Its when we all spend time together . Boredom, I have been a stay at home mom for 5 years now and sometimes doing the dishes isn't that exciting haha. I find myself grabbing snacks and munching and then look down and go why I'm eating this? Finally emotional eating . I have had the days where clothes don't fit or just having a bad day and you say well I'm already fat what's a pint of ice cream going to hurt .