If you suffer from emotional overeating you know how negatively it affects your life – eating in secret, feeling ashamed and embarrassed but most of all feeling like you’re stuck in a prison with no way out. There is a way out and you can (and probably should) seek professional help. Here are some treatment plans that are available for emotional overeating disorder.
Common Treatments
First, you need to recognize and admit that you have a problem. You can’t resolve a problem you don’t know you have. So the very first thing you need to do is be 100% honest with yourself and access how serious the problem is. Remember, there’s nothing to feel ashamed about. You are not alone – there are a significant number of people out there suffering from emotional overeating disorder! Ok, so let’s take a look at some of the treatments available.
*Surgery – This is usually the last resort and other treatment options should be sought first. There is a lot of controversy behind weight loss surgery and emotional overeating. While the surgery addresses the physical part of the disorder (excessive weight because of the out of control eating) it doesn’t address the inner (emotional) part of the disorder. If you do go this route, look for a surgeon or clinic that does it as a ‘whole well being’ process. Meaning, they require you do go through extensive counseling to get down to the root of the emotional overeating.
*Counseling – Some people need the one-on-one counseling whereas others would prefer to be a part of a group counseling program (or family counseling). You will probably find that your therapist recommend you seek out nutritional counseling as well to help deal with the emotional overeating disorder.
*Medication – Because of the recent links to depression and emotional overeating, many physicians are now prescribing anti-depressants to those suffering from emotional overeating. This option, as with all treatment options, is a personal one. Some people are opposed to being put on medicine, where others are all for it.
Here are two tips you can follow to help with the emotional overeating.
*Eat well – it may seem ironic that eating is mentioned considering emotional overeaters do way too much of it and usually gorge themselves beyond a point of being full. But you would be surprised how eating well can really help balance things out. When you are feeding your body ‘good fuel’ (whole foods, fresh fruit, lean meats, etc) your hormones and blood sugar levels tend to have a better balance meaning you will have more energy, a better self-image and your moods won’t fluctuate so much.
*Exercise – This is pretty common knowledge. Even if you aren’t an emotional overeater, regular exercise needs to be a part of your routine. Exercise releases endorphins which make you feel happy. And if you’re feeling happy you are less likely to suffer from an emotional overeating episode. Even if you can only fit 15 minutes of exercise in every other day it’s better than nothing!
And here are two tips of things you should not do to help with emotional overeating.
*Fad/Crash diets – Sure these may work great and you lose a ton of weight initially. The problem with a fad diet is that as soon as you start eating normal again you will gain all that weight back and probably more!
*Junk/bad food – Most emotional overeaters gorge themselves on specific foods (potato chips, candy bars, chocolate, ice cream, etc) so you should not keep this stuff in the house. Instead keep healthier versions of your comfort foods around. For example, try frozen yogurt instead of ice cream.
