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I have put a lot of thought and effort into distancing myself from my patterns of disordered eating, consciously reminding myself that food is just nutrition and not nurturing or a reward or something to feel guilty about. Just like a recovering alcoholic will always be an alcoholic, I know that I completely consider myself one of the women with a disordered eating problem. I definitely try to practice intuitive eating whenever possible, but after reading the signs of emotional eating, I'm stunned to see that despite all of this, I'm still struggling. Like Lesley, I can see myself in many of the warning signs, even after thinking about my food issues for well over a decade. For me, it all comes down to emotional eating (or in my case, it involves eating instead of having emotions). Here are my wake up calls as identified by psychiatrist Dr. Robert Gould:
Interestingly, Self also constructed this poll to see if you were at risk for disordered eating, so you can do a sanity check for yourself. Some of the questions are pointedly aiming at anorexic behavior so I didn't think I would score as highly as I did: let's face it, no one is worried about a fat girl being underweight. If anything, I was more surprised by the answers. Is thinking about food once an hour considered "a lot"? I had no idea that wasn't normal. No wonder I got a 39 when I took the poll (a score of 22 or higher indicates that you are at a high risk for disordered eating). Definitely gives me some things to think about. The comments are looking for your thoughts on your own relationship with food. Do you binge? Do you avoid certain food groups? How often do you think about food during the day? If you realized that you had gained ten pounds since the last time you weighed yourself, what's the first thought that would come into your head? 9 CommentsLeave a comment |
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I don't like that quiz because they don't tell you what questions indicate your behaviour is risky. How am I at moderate risk?
Yeah it does. At the bottom description of what your score means is says:
“To see how your answers impacted your score, click here.”
I didn't do the quiz, but I experience all but one of the signs you listed. But then I know I have strong emotional ties to food, that I'm trying to break, but with which I'm still struggling.
I still binge. I avoid my trigger foods, or only eat them in a place where my binge behaviour would be noticed (i.e. ice cream may never enter my house, but I'm learning to enjoy a scoop from an ince cream stand). Everything may still go to hell if I'm upset/anxious, up to and including sneaking food and having weird secret binges.
Saddest thing: I am so uncomfortable admitting my lack of control that I still haven't fully explained any of this to my boyfriend with whom I've lived for a year and a half.
I still struggle with binging. Even worse, I'm pregnant. I actually seem to be eating MORE because I'm making sure the baby gets the right stuff...but then I still stuff myself on top of it. It's really hard.
Those are really taken out of context.
If I'm working (or fencing or running or lifting) and I'm totally engrossed in it, I don't notice hunger creeping up. I usually work through it until my stomach is screaming at me to fill it with something. And it's not emotional eating. It's just how I am. I've been that way since I was eating solid food as an infant.
Same with the eating until the whole bag of chips is gone. When I'd study I'd want something to chew on. I realized it didn't matter if it was a bag of spinach or potato chips, so I switched to spinach. Oh man, "binge eating" a bag of raw spinach, get the food police after me.
Again, they're taken entirely out of context. It's a problem if it becomes a problem, but I hardly think that getting a whole bag of spinach worth of iron, fiber, and general green plant goodness qualifies as screwed up in the head about food.
I don't understand while sudden hunger would be included. I think that happens more to people who aren't disordered eaters because they are not thinking about food all the time they forget to eat and then their stomach reminds them suddenly. This happens to my husband all the time and he's definitely not disordered.. He works right through lunch because he's so focused on what he's doing and then 3 pm hits and bam he's so hungry he can't make it fast enough.
The rest of the points I agree with.
I struggle with eating more than anything else. I love food. I love to eat. But when the emotions are coming in fast and furious, I avoid food. I just want to disappear, and not eating is a part of that. I know it, and it freaks me out that I do it anyway.
I have serious problems with a lot of these issues. It drives me nuts that I realize the problem and still seem somehow unable (or unwilling) to stop.
I would say that 50% of my thoughts during the day revolve around what to eat or what I shouldn't be eating. It is so frustrating! Back in the Phen/Fen days my mom was on it and she told me it made her just not even think about food. While I don't want any magic drugs, I sometimes think about how liberating that would feel.
Recovering emotional eater here. I have the book that list comes from (Shrink Yourself by Roger Gould) and definitely recommend it. Really helped me understand what goes on in my heart and mind when I eat for emotional reasons, and gives some concrete help in changing the behavior (deeper than just "distract yourself" though that's part of it).
Also might want to check out How to Make Almost Any Diet Work by Anne Katherine. The title is misleading, because it's not a quick-fix weight loss thing at all. It's more about "appetite disorder" (author's term for habitual overating, instead of eating disorder) and figuring out your own food issues, both physical and mental.