What is emotional hunger?
Many people experience emotional eating at one time or another. However, when emotional eating happens frequently or becomes the main way a person deals with their emotions, then their life, health, happiness, and weight can be negatively affected.
According to psychologists emotional eating is a pattern of eating where people use food to help them deal with stressful situations. You may eat out of boredom after a hard day at work - in a word, you get food, but you are not hungry.
Emotions, such as stress, are not the only triggers for emotional eating. Other common triggers that people report include:
- Stress
- Boredom: Being bored or having nothing to do is a common emotional eating trigger. Many people live very stimulating and active lives, and when they have nothing to do will turn to food to fill that vacuum.
- Habits: These are often driven by nostalgia or things that happened in a person’s childhood. An example might be, having ice cream after a good report card or baking cookies with a grandparent.
- Fatigue.
- Social influences: Everyone has that friend who encourages them to get a pizza after a night out, go out for dinner or drinks after a difficult day, or as a reward for a good day. It can be easy to overeat when with friends or family.
To satisfy emotional hunger, people consume excessive amounts of food and usually the ration is unhealthy.
If you are often bothered by the symptoms characteristic of emotional hunger, it is recommended to consult an appropriate specialist.
Physical vs. emotional hunger - How do we know if we are hungry or just bored?
It is very easy to mistake emotional hunger for physical hunger. But there are characteristics that distinguish them.
Does the hunger come on quickly or gradually?
Emotional hunger tends to hit quickly and suddenly and feels urgent.
Is a food craving for a specific food?
Emotional hunger is usually associated with cravings for junk food or something unhealthy. Someone who is physically hungry will often eat anything, while someone who is emotionally hungry will want something specific, such as fries or a pizza.
Is there such a thing as mindless eating?
Mindless eating is when someone eats without paying attention to or enjoying what they are consuming.
An example is eating an entire container of ice cream while watching television, having not intended to eat that much. This behavior usually happens with emotional eating, not eating through hunger.
Does the hunger come from the stomach or the head?
Emotional hunger does not originate from the stomach, such as with a rumbling or growling stomach. Emotional hunger tends to start when a person thinks about a craving or wants something specific to eat.
Are there feelings of regret or guilt after emotional eating?
Giving in to a craving, or eating because of stress can cause feelings of regret, shame, or guilt. These responses tend to be associated with emotional hunger.
On the other hand, satisfying a physical hunger is giving the body the nutrients or calories it needs to function and is not associated with negative feelings.
Source:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320935#coping-strategies
