Delurking with a request for help

[Guest guest]

Hello

I've been lurking for a number of months, learning and loving the

wisdom here. I'm from the UK, in my early 40s and I discovered

IE over the past 6 - 9 months. I've been doing pretty well with it

but have hit a rather large stumbling block and need some help.

I was working as an accountant for a charity but have recently been

laid off. With the economy as it is, I'm finding it hard to get

another job that fits with family and pays anything near what I was

earning (I'm looking at a pay cut of at least £5,000 here). I'm

feeling very insecure and frightened with the world in front of me

and this is translating itself into my eating. Rather than eating

for comfort, I am so full of these fears that I can't eat. I am

losing weight and that in itself is good, but apart from the fact

that my clothes are all now hanging from me and I will have to use

savings to buy more, I'm concerned that I will slip back into a mode

of not eating under stress which I followed as a teenager.

How do I keep my nerve in this horrible situation? I know I need to

be kind to myself but I'm afraid to spend money unless I have to. I

have a wonderful supportive husband who luckily is in work, but we

have two preteens and I am scared that this is affecting them too.

Help!