okay, i've been heavy my whole entire life. i've also had anxiety attacks since i was 16 years old, however when i was at my highest weight, they seemed to just disappear. for several years i went without a panic attack. but in the last 4 weeks, i've had 3 big attacks.

i know it seems silly, but i think i've used my weight as a safety blanket. now i dont have as much of my blankie left, and i think it scares me a lot. does this even make any sense to anyone?

or maybe its because i am so overwhelmed with bills? but i've always been overwhelmed with bills. no i really think it is directly related to the WL.

its not like i'm going to try to put the weight back on, but i think i need to get to the bottom of this though. am i crazy or what

I totally understand. I thought I was about to have one today at work. I think that I am making myself more "out there" by losing weight. I will have more attention. That scares me.

It makes perfect sense.

On another thread a few weeks (months?) back, many of us were posting much the same thing. Many of us posted that we felt we've been using our weight to hide from whatever: intimacy, socializing, dating, etc. Many people turn to food for comfort in the face of trauma, such as sexual abuse.

Many people use food to push down negative feelings or memories. Stuffing food into your face is like self-medicating: it numbs you to the real problem you are trying to drown with food.

So, losing the weight will naturally bring all that back up to the surface because you are no longer "medicating" yourself. It's not easy to face these issues and find other ways to either resolve them or deal with them, but it can be done without food.

Good luck.

Been there -- I have a lot of OCD and whenever I take away the "binging parachutte" that I've used to comfort for so many years, my other little "issues" creap back up. When one security blanket is removed, something has to take it's place. Sorry, can't offer any solutions, just a "been there/done that" attitude -- you'll get there (I know I will someday!!).

Well if one turned to food for addiction, then replaced it with addiction to dieting then what? Instead of stressing how about massage, meditation, yoga etc to calm your mind? I ate for comfort, hid behind fat in a bad marriage, didn't care for a time - and strange because I'd been very skinny in my teens and 20s. I'm beginning to think I have an addictive personality, replacing food with addition to dieting/exercise, then other stuff. So for me now it's more of a spiritual aim, to accept me as I am, to like me, to believe in a Higher Power, that life is what it is... to continue to better myself yes but not to worry so much. And not to turn to food or other addictions for comfort or to temporarily not stress out.

I have a theory that as we lose weight, we have to deal with the emotions we were dealing with via food in the first place.

Just a theory, but it seems to line up with how my weightloss journey and emotions go.