Overeating in a stressful situation
People often eat when they are unhappy, depressed, alarmed. After all, food - a reliable, affordable source of pleasure. ..
The habit of overeating in a stressful situation is formed in early childhood. American psychologist Stanley Schechter describes the mother's communication with the baby as follows: a child cries when he is uncomfortable or painful, or he is frightened, or he wants to eat. An experienced mother will change diapers when the baby is wet, feed when he is hungry, calm down when he is frightened, etc. And the inexperienced and troubled mother behaves absolutely wrong, inadequate, that is, not in accordance with the state of the child: wanting to reassure him, trying to feed, almost he will scream. This behavior of the mother is the basis of chronic obesity, which will later develop in the child.
In such a situation, the child has a mixture of strong emotional states and feelings of hunger. In such circumstances, in childhood, the ability to distinguish between feelings of hunger and fear( anxiety, anger) is often not formed. And then a person can unconsciously perceive any state of emotional arousal as a feeling of hunger.
Thus, if a fat person thinks that he is hungry, it can be something other than people with normal weight: it is possible that he is just something upset. In a stressful situation, a person usually more easily reproduces those behaviors that arose in early childhood. And if his mother taught him, he eats from fear. Those seeking to lose weight usually complain of increased appetite and a constant feeling of hunger. Some of them themselves guess that their hunger is caused by psychological reasons, that this is an artificial feeling. Such hunger increases during a period of bad mood, with a feeling of longing, loneliness. Unsettled in his personal life, troubles are also trying to compensate for food by finding "comfort" in it. In moments of failure and chagrin, food seems to be the only available means of obtaining pleasure and positive emotions. However, in this way, people do not solve the emerging problems, but only drown out their feelings of dissatisfaction.
To get rid of obesity, you need to understand the psychological causes of your emotional overexertion and obsessive overeating. First of all, you need to learn to deal with stress.
It is extremely important to master the skills of conflict-free communication in the family and at work, to learn to relieve the emerging nervous tension. Reduction of emotional stress without the help of medication is helped by sessions of autogenic training, relaxation breathing exercises, physical education, bath, point self-massage and other wellness facilities.