I’m beginning to understand my relationship with food a lot more these days. I know when I’m craving sugar but not actually hungry, I know when I want to binge to help sooth and emotion and I know that giving in to my urges will only satisfy my urges to binge, not cure the underlying problem.
But no matter how much I learn, there is one type of emotion that I can’t seem to avoid turning to food with comfort with.
Stress.
I don’t have a very challenging job, I have very few bills to pay, I’m fairly responsibility free thanks to living at home, and I don’t go hungry, cold, or in need of anything. I should be grateful for the things I do have in my life. But I get stressed VERY easily over the simplest of things.
My mum yells at me for the tenth time that day to do some form of cleaning, a particularly annoying dog pulls me through the park for an hour solid, something throws my day of course and I have to alter plans. All these things can provoke an episode of stress eating.
Stress builds up in me like a volcano.
I start to feel a little irritated at first, then I get a little itchy, my clothes start to feel uncomfortable, their mere presence frustrating me, and eventually I just want to explode, unleashing a world of pain on the world.
I don’t know how to handle stress. How do you bring yourself down from that boiling point without using the soothing milky chocolate to put out the fire?
I’ve noticed that PMT has a similar reaction from me. I just want to shovel down food at every opportunity, and I’m not even hungry.
Is there some sort of chemical link between stress and chocolate? And if so, how do I break it?
When my eating goes off course it lowers my whole mood. My energy levels drop, my skin breaks out, I feel lethargic and grumpy and easily irritated. The whole world annoys me.
PMT passes in the course of a week, but stress is a constant battle, especially when I live with my mother.
So how do you deal with stress when seeing comfort in food isn’t an option?
Any ideas welcome…
Until then… I’m off to enjoy some chocolate whilst snuggled up in my duvet.
