Eating Disorder Treatment in NYC

What is Stress or Emotional Eating?

What causes eating disorders

Body image issues

Stress and Difficult Life Events

Stress eating is hard to deal with, and you may wonder why you do it. Many people stress eat when they feel upset or stressed. Stress can come from so many things! Stress can come from daily activities like work or school. Certain life events can also make us feel these emotions. For example, if someone has a death of a loved one, this can cause the person to feel a lot of stress and sadness. When dealing with these emotions, eating can become a habit that is hard to stop.

A recent event that the world has been going through is COVID-19. A recent study found that during lockdown more than 50% of people turned to stress eating. People were in their homes, worried about all this pandemic brought to this world and how it could affect them. 

Obesity and Depression

Studies have shown that overweight people have a harder time coping with stressors and negative feelings in their lives. This can cause them to turn to stress eating more often. Obesity in adolescence and stress eating are linked. When children are growing up, they struggle with their body image and confidence. These struggles along with emotional regulation difficulties can cause an adolescent to turn to food as a comfort.

Obesity and depression have been associated with each other. Some research shows that emotional eating links these two ideas together. Notably, depression and emotional eating are found to be more common in women.

Sleep Problems and Boredom

Research has found that sleep duration affects emotional eating. Sleeping fewer hours can cause people who emotionally eat to eat more.

People also say that they turn to eating when they feel bored. These people may feel like they have nothing interesting to do and eating will fill the time.

Disordered Eating

Emotional Eating can be looked at as a type of disordered eating. When someone is stress eating, they may consume a lot of food and find it hard to stop doing so. This is similar to Binge Eating. Binge Eating causes people to lose control of their eating and consume large amounts of food in one sitting. 

What is eating disorder treatment?

A therapist can help you deal with your anxiety and depression.  Emotional eating therapy can help you manage stress eating and assist you to deal with your emotions more healthily. Speaking with a professional can also help if you are someone who struggles with any type of eating disorder. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be helpful for someone with emotional eating. CBT helps people rewire their thoughts and find new ways of looking at things. This can help someone find better ways to deal with their emotions and stop them from using eating as a tool. 

Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT ) can also be helpful for people who struggle with stress eating. DBT can help someone regulate emotions better. DBT promotes both acceptance and change in people’s journeys to recovery. When you can manage your emotions better, you will live a happier and calmer life.