Emotional Eating and Controlling Your Addiction to Food

a prezi by Debbie Martin, LPC, LMFTA, therapist at Hope & Harmony Therapy

Let's be realistic for a minute....

Food is an unavoidable necessity of life. We need it to provide the nutrients that allow our bodies to help us survive as human beings. Without food, we wouldn't exist long enough to enjoy the many pleasures that life as to offer; such as love, sex, joy, and success that also provide comfort.  It does sound natural to seek comfort from a basic life necessity, such as food. Doesn’t? Physical comfort is not quite the same as emotional comfort, is it? I wonder why some of us seek emotional comfort from the very life necessity designed to meet our nutritional comfort and needs? Is it because feeling comfortable is the same, no matter the type? Can it be that any type of comfort is better than feeling emotional pain?

Whatever the root cause, many of us have developed an addiction to seeking emotional comfort with food, eating our way to feeling more positive and avoiding the negative emotions that we prefer not to feel. We have developed a culture of avoiding negative emotions with food. Think about your favorite "comfort food". When do you eat it? What does mainstream media portray?

Below is a link to a prezi explaining emotional eating that I used to present to a group of people considering or having all ready been through a bariatric procedure.

Take a look and don't be afraid to email me your comments!

Prezi Link: Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backwards

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