Re: Eating and Anxiety

[Guest guest]

Yes, I definately eat to numb in times of being tired, stressed,

anxcious, worried, lonely, bored etc. Some people have chosen

drinking or smoking marjuana or shopping or gambling or other drugs

to numb their feelings. Mine has just always been food - learned at

a young age when I would come home to an empty house and it was

scary and lonely. I think part of what we all are doing is first of

realizing that we do it.

I so admire Latoya as she seems to be a bit farther along in the

emotional journey. Thank you Latoya for sharing the tools that seem

to work for you in dealing with your emotions. I have found this

topic on emotional eating to be fascinating and extremely helpful.

If anything, it has made me so much more aware of what my emotions

are. So much of the time, I don't think I even acknowledge that I

am feeling any emotions at all. I'm just going along on auto pilot.

Alana

-- In IntuitiveEating_Support , " normaaaaaaaa "

wrote:

>

> Hi!

>

> Thanks to everyone who has been reading and responding to my

posts. I

> really appreciate it. In such a short period of time I have

learned so

> much about myself and what I am going through.

>

> Anyway I have been thinking a lot about my eating habits and my

> anxiety. It seems that anxiety runs in my family. For most of us

it is

> pretty manageable. It presents itself as excessive worrying.

>

> I finally realized that I do have anxiety and I have unknowingly

> managed it through the years. An example of this would be

emotional

> eating. In times of stress I definitely eat to minimize my

anxiety. But

>

> I am still trying to figure it all out... But I think that a part

of my

> every - day eating " habits " (ex. night time eating)help me with my

> anxiety day to day. Many times I have found myself not craving any

food

> item but the motion instead. Sometimes I crave the motion of

chewing

> and munching on something, like chips. Since I also find myself

> grinding my teeth out of stress, I have wondered if this is a

similar

> thing.

>

> Does anyone have any advice for how to manage anxiety without

using

> food?

>

> Thanks!

> - K

>