What is emotional hunger or emotional eating? If you say “I never get enough”, the reason may be due to psychological problems!
If you are one of those who think that food is only a tool used to satisfy physical hunger, you are wrong.
Especially foods with high carbohydrate, fat and sugar content can turn into addiction over time by giving pleasure because they activate the reward mechanism in the brain. In this way, eating can become a place of escape from being a physical need, especially for people who have difficulty in managing their emotions in a healthy way.
If you say “I never get enough”, the reason may be psychological!
Research shows that the reason for eating more than needed is 75% due to emotional state. While emotions manage eating, the weight gained with it can again cause psychological problems.
Psychologists said that the most important key to getting rid of psychological, that is, emotional hunger is awareness, and that disordered eating behaviors due to mood are diagnosed by a specialist. and underlines that a personalized treatment process must be determined.
The concepts of “emotional hunger” and “emotional eating”, which have been frequently heard recently, have been used to describe eating when a person is not physically hungry, especially when he has difficulty managing the emotions he is struggling with. It can be summarized as the tendency to eat.
Psychologist who says that eating is a tool used to escape from difficult emotions such as loneliness, tension, anxiety, sadness, boredom will lead to big problems. Psychologists state that emotional eating can result in health-threatening weight gain , depressive mood and even avoidance of socializing.
Your hunger may be psychological
“Turning to eating in moments of boredom, nervousness, feeling sad or lonely doesn’t just cause weight gain,” experts said. He underlines that when the underlying causes of the problems are not solved, it puts the person in a vicious circle and continues:
“Emotional eating causes a person’s focus to focus on food and the fullness in one’s belly, thus moving away from the distressing emotional state one is in. After that, the person often feels regret and guilt. Constantly having a snack when you are alone at home, not being able to go to bed and sleep before the stomach is well filled becomes a habit over time. Overeating, followed by guilt and regret, pushes the person to eat even more; thus, man finds himself in a cycle that is difficult to get out of.”
The causes of emotional eating, which vary from person to person, are many such as not being able to manage stress in a healthy way, lack of adequate social support, constant self-criticism of people. Experts said that it can also be caused by different psychological factors, and that disordered eating behavior can be a method of coping with other psychological problems of the person and therefore neglect It states that it should not be done.
“It should be diagnosed and treated by a specialist”
It is very important to evaluate the person’s health status by a physician and determine whether there is a health problem caused by impaired eating behavior or disordered eating behavior. Psychologists define starting the psychological support process as early as possible as the first step to overcome emotional eating . “Emotional eating, or disordered eating behavior due to mood, should be diagnosed by a specialist and a personalized treatment process should be determined.”