I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place so I apologize in advance if this isn't the place.

My biggest issue with food is that I'm an emotional eater. I eat when I'm happy, I eat when I'm sad, I'm eat when I'm bored, I eat when I'm depressed....you get my point. I get frustrated with myself because I know that I shouldnt be I know I should be using food as a substitute but this is a habit I've had for at least 30 yrs. It's a proper vicious cycle and I can't figure out how to break it.

Does anyone else go thru this? I feel like I'm the only one in the world who does this. And i do want to stop - just need something to 'click'.

Thanks

Lordy, you read my mind. My words exactly. They say walk away, wait 20 minutes, yada yada yada. I still eat.

My opinion, you and I are in for a long haul and a lot of false starts, trial and error. Good luck, and if you find something that "clicks" for you please let me know!

I have the same problem as you guys. I eat when I feel any emotion and also when I'm feeling empty and numb!
The diet I'm following uses CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) and TA (Transitional Analysis) to look at why we eat when we do. It's been really helpful for me - I didn't always recognise it before but once you know that you want to eat because you're stressed it's easier to resist.
I don't think anyone who has a real eating problem/addiction can successfully diet without having some sort of therapy too.
Hope this helped a little bit

Emma

Emma

Hope you dont mind me asking but what diet are you following? I'm doing (my best to follow) a low fat, low GI plan.

The CBT and TA approach sounds interesting.

Thanks!
Theresa

Yes, please do share. I suffer the same disorder and would love to get some help!

Hi Honey & Theresa

I'm following Lighterlife - which isn't the cheapest solution I'll admit (£66/wk), but it does include the food and the counselling and I worked out you could easily spend the same amount of money if you did it separately. And it works which is the main thing. I've lost nearly 3 stone in 10 weeks.

You can get books on CBT and TA though - some of the TA stuff is amazing - not just from a food point of view. You start to realise why you behave in certain ways with certain people. I had a strained relationship with my mum (she wasn't happy at me going on this diet for a start) and I realised that I spent far too much time wanting her approval for everything I did.

Anyway - good luck and keep up all your good work. I think I'm going to be trying low GI when I finally start eating again

Emma

Hi,

I"m right here with the rest of you-I do the same thing!

I've read about a book on Amazon called "The Beck Diet Solution" which is based on cognitive behavioral therapy. The author is Judith Beck. I've seen the book in Barnes and Noble, but it's ten dollars cheaper on Amazon. I may order it.

Emma, Lighterlife sounds interesting-I don't know if it's available in the United States, though. Thanks for posting about it.

Take care,
sherry

I'm with you ladies on this one. I tend to eat when I'm bored, which is almost all the time. I'm one of those people that almost constantly needs to be doing something I enjoy, though not much appeals to me lately.

Anyway, I got this book on healing your life by changing the way you think about things. It's rather interesting, though I haven't read it all the way through yet. I'm also studying reiki. Couldn't hurt, right? Once I get a job I might seen about some type of therapy. That sounds rather interesting.

I know what you mean!

One of the things I've been doing to help myself is bring along someone when I do my grocery shopping. This helps keep me more honest. I don't put those big bags of peanut butter M&Ms in my cart when someone else is with me.

If I don't buy it, I can't eat it!

Good luck to you.

being bored has to be the main reason i gained weight...in this past year i found myself gaining weight like never before...i got up to 190....when i finally weighed myself i was shocked.....i eat a lot more when im happy than when im sad.....and since im a student with finals two times a year, each a month long....its 60 days each year when i sit all day long and study eat study eat and repeat....what am i supposed to do....heeelllppp...

Iam in the same boat. Right after I get done eating, I start thinking about my next meal and how much of it i can eat. I feel so stupid letting food control my life. It is all I think about. I hate it too. You're not alone!

i've been a member of this club for a LOOOng time. i have an addictive personality and my drug of choice is either food or starvation. i started my eating disorder in grade 4 and have vacillated between my having it and it having me. The doc says i have an ED uncharacterized, and also have BDD ( body dysmorphic disorder ). The purging ended years ago...simply got tired of it, but i have restricted for weeks on end and then eaten myself out of house and home. Trust me, you are not alone in this. Finally gotten the " ED voice " in my head to shut up. i'm thankful for that at least.

I'll tell you what annoys me about our "addiction:" we can't ever fully stop. Drug addicts and alcoholics can give up their substance after good rehab and therapy. They can fully live without it. But us.. we have to eat to live and somehow have to find the fine line of eating enough but not too much.

Yuck.

Yes! Yes! I know what you ALL are talking about! How are you handling it? If the outside of us represents what we think about the inside of us, what does it mean when we hide behind food? Also, does anyone else "substitute" addictions? Like, for me, when I smoked, I could control weight by always smoking, never eating. Now that I'm eating better and focusing on being healthy....I've started spending too much! How do I break this cycle?

i thought i was doing good. Yesterday was my 3rd day with no cheats, and then about 5pm i started feeling...anxious...pissy. And it wouldn't go away. Went to a restaurant to pick up a salad and walked away with a cheeseburger and chili cheese fries. No salad. On the way home i thought " it's ok; i can just throw it up ". Did my best to talk myself into purging this meal that i should not be eating in the first place. Got home, ate 1/2 the burger, 1/2 the fries, then dumped hotsauce on them and threw them away. After 8 years purge-free, in the end i decided to keep the food down. And then followed it up with 1/2 a pb&j, and 2 icecream sandwiches.

Was afraid of what the scale would read this morning, but the weight stayed the same as yesterday. As long as there was no visible gain, i can live with it. Not going to beat myself up over this binge. It could have been alot worse than it was. So i continue with my diet plan today.