In previous articles, we examined in detail the causes of and, as well as by establishing nutrition and creating an interesting, multifaceted life. Today we will talk about how to beat food addiction by working on your own with psychological problems.
How to beat food addiction
How to solve psychological problems
You need to work on self-esteem. Stop being insecure about your uniqueness. Do what you do best. Improve yourself, develop yourself. For example, create an album on social networks with photos of your achievements - your friends will appreciate them, increasing your self-esteem.
Stop reproaching yourself for weaknesses, stop self-flagellation. Constant digging in yourself brings only negative emotions that you want to quickly seize. The circle closes...
Don't hold back your emotions, let them find a way out. If you're upset about something, let yourself be with it for a while. Cry, grieve, and then smoothly switch to something that requires your attention and direct participation - this is the main part of the secret of how to solve a psychological problem on your own.
Keep your brain busy - solve logic puzzles, crossword puzzles, read interesting book. You will immediately notice how much better you feel, and you will understand that you can cope with negative emotions without overeating. The main thing is to get the first experience. Each time, experiences will take less and less time, and you will learn how to solve your psychological problems without the help of food.
Ways to solve psychological problems
- Love yourself. To do this, of course, is not easy ... But know that it is love for yourself that will help you overcome any difficulties. Loving yourself, fighting food addiction is much easier.
- Set short-term goals, they are achieved faster and easier.
- Start praising yourself. Think of some kind of reward for achieving your goals. Of course, the prize cannot be food. Treat yourself to a trip to the spa or sauna. Buy a cute bauble to remind you of your accomplishments.
- Find motivation and. Start, he not only disciplines, but also helps to find mistakes, and correcting them.
If you feel the desire to eat something and quickly, drink water first. Then try to occupy yourself interesting business, which will distract you from experiences and thoughts about food. If this trick worked out, then you are on the right track, and you, it turns out, will defeat food addiction.
And what are we eating?
If you have the urge to quickly take your mouth and stuff your belly, you should analyze what exactly caused you such a reaction. It can be some minor problem that does not even require attention, or a real nuisance that requires systems approach. One thing can be said unequivocally - knowing the enemy in person, it is easier to deal with him. From everyday experiences and chronic stress, sedatives and meditation techniques are great help.
Big problems need to be approached more carefully. To get started, you need to create step by step plan actions, seek help and support from loved ones. A clear plan of upcoming events will give you some self-confidence and relieve unnecessary anxiety and nervousness, thereby alleviating your condition. Well, in this case, sedatives will help you perfectly.
Breaking the vicious circle
Remember, it's best not to push yourself to the point where the symptoms of the disorder appear. eating behavior. This is where food addiction prevention comes in handy.
A few years ago, the words "food addiction" would have made us laugh. Food addiction is not just a craving for some product; processes similar to a drug or drug occur in the brain of an addicted person. Such people need both prevention and psychological help.
Food Addiction - Psychology
When food enters the body, the level of serotonin rises - the hormone of happiness, mood improves, stress seems to disappear. But the substitution of the problem is not its solution, and again fear - food - temporary calm - is formed vicious circle which is very difficult to get out of. So there is a psychological dependence on food. You can get pleasure from many things - playing sports, listening to music, but we always have no time, because food is quick and easy.
Food addiction - causes
The most common causes of food addiction are:
- Some come from childhood, remember, for academic success or good behavior, the child has always bought sweets?
- Dependent people are often notorious, dissatisfied with themselves and their careers.
- Experiencing deep emotional experiences.
- A spoiled figure is the result of uncontrolled absorption of food, hence the negative attitude towards appearance, indifference to oneself.
- Constant guilt. A person understands that he eats too much, blames himself for a weak will, gets nervous, and the vicious scheme turns on again.
You can list for a long time, but there is only one source - dissatisfaction with yourself and your life. There are also social causes of food addiction. These are numerous holidays, family feasts, traditions of “going out into nature” with huge baskets of food. From childhood, we form improper eating behavior, and numerous stresses only increase it.
Food addiction - signs
According to certain signs, you can understand that a person is addicted to food:
- A deep food addict may “invent” a problem for himself, eagerly anticipating its solution.
- A person is very concerned about food supplies - is everything in the refrigerator.
- In food addicts, along with the feeling of hunger, panic and anxiety increase.
- A sick person, having forgotten to buy a product, is ready to run after it anywhere at any time.
- Waking up at night to eat.
- Even realizing that he is sick (obesity, diabetes) - a person cannot stop eating his favorite foods.
- Reluctance to share food with anyone.
Eating with a non-food purpose is the main concept. Deep food addiction leads to the fact that the usual volumes of food do not satisfy, you need to constantly increase portions. Joy brings the process of eating, and what you put in your mouth is all the same. Rare attempts to switch to healthy food or dietary nutrition end in failure, and as a result, another breakdown.
How to beat food addiction?
The first and most important thing to do in order to understand how not to depend on food is to admit it to yourself. Without awareness of the disease, getting rid of food addiction is useless. Realizing that the addiction has led to serious complications, you can try to get rid of the addiction yourself. To be honest, very few people can do it, but why not try. Calculate how much money you could save on food and start saving for a world cruise!
- Motivate yourself! Come up with a reason why you need to get rid of a bad habit - do you have children? Your example can be infectious for them.
- Take a break from food. Go in for sports, dance, walk, go to theaters, grow flowers. Anything, just don't eat!
- Don't stock up on food, keep an apple, carrot or a glass of kefir at the ready.
- Remove all irritants from the house- buns, chips, something that you cannot look at calmly.
Psychotherapy for food addiction
Since the causes of food addiction are mainly psychological, psychologists can also help in this difficult struggle, offering effective means of how to overcome food addiction.
- Keep a "food diary" where you describe all meals and be sure to specify your emotional background. This will help you understand the connection between overeating and mood.
- Forget grievances, forgive yourself and others, understand that you and they ordinary people, and people can be wrong;
- Raise your self-esteem. It is very difficult. To do this, start a diary of achievements and write down your little “exploits” there.
- The most important and motivating factor in recovery is your ardent desire to recover, tune in to the positive, and specialists will help you in this difficult matter.
Try to find like-minded people, together it will be easier to solve the problem and you won’t have to “jam” loneliness again. Most importantly, you need to deal with your feelings, learn how to deal with anxiety in other ways, find new ways to have fun. Together with specialists, you can get out of the vicious circle and start living a full life again.
Some people successfully use food addiction coding. Unfortunately, like many others, this problem starts in the head, and the head should be treated. The recipe for how to stop depending on food is the correction of eating behavior, the elimination of psychological problems, so the help of a specialist in this case is necessary, especially when the point of no return has been reached.
Pills for food addiction
Together with psychotherapy, dietary supplements can be used and medications. These funds, as a rule, and accelerate metabolism. This may give results, but the risk of such treatment is not small. In addition, after the drug is discontinued, the weight begins to grow again, if the psychological root of the problem is not removed.
Appetite suppressants include:
- Sibutramine. An anorectic, which is still available in many countries, but is not safe because it has many side effects.
- fluoxetine. An antidepressant (psychotropic drug) that reduces appetite.
- Mazindol. Acts on the center of saturation, suppressing hunger. The disadvantage of the drug is a quick addiction.
Everyone knows that increased appetite is one of the main causes of weight gain. The more a person eats, the fuller it becomes - this is a fact. Everyone knows this, but, nevertheless, many cannot overcome the desire to eat something delicious. And not because of that that are hungry, but from the fact that they do not have control over their own appetite.
As a result, a person consumes much more food than the body needs, and extra calories are deposited on the waist and hips. Of course, no one likes it, but we again “seize” negative emotions with some yummy. As a result, we get a persistent food addiction, from which it is not so easy to get rid of.
About why we eat more than necessary and how to overcome food addiction on our own and our conversation will go today:
Causes of food addiction
There are many reasons for this phenomenon, including some diseases and pathological conditions. If we are talking about a physically healthy person, then the main reason for increased appetite is a deep, strong dissatisfaction with oneself and with one's whole life. That is, the reason food addiction occurs is usually purely psychological.
A lot of people who don't have careers personal life who are notorious, suffer from dissatisfaction with themselves, or experience stress and strong emotional experiences, often seek solace in food, as they say, "jam" their own problems.
Indeed, your favorite food acts as a highly effective sedative. In the blood, the level of glucose rises, which contributes to the production of serotonin, which acts relaxing, calms, makes you want to relax, sleep. Thus, food consumption becomes a "tasty medicine" for any problems.
But, unfortunately, the problems do not disappear from this, but on the contrary, they are even more aggravated by the appearance of extra pounds due to uncontrolled food consumption.
Weight gain is especially difficult for women who receive additional stress. From this, an already unstable emotional state is even more aggravated. This is how it turns out vicious circle from which there seems to be no way out.
However, this is not the case, there is a way out and we will definitely talk about it. But first, let's get acquainted with the main signs of psychological dependence on food.
Signs of Addiction
This serious problem, which is expressed in the fact that a person cannot overcome the desire to eat something, refuse a snack, even if he does not feel hungry. There are some signs that make it possible to determine the presence of a psychological dependence on food.
Let's list them briefly:
With the help of favorite foods, such as chocolate, a person tries to get rid of the consequences of stress, worries, resentment, sadness, as well as feelings of guilt, loneliness, etc. From negative emotions the addict sees the only way out: to eat something.
After eating delicious food, a person feels satisfaction, his mood improves. It is not always desirable to look for other ways to experience positive emotions. This one is the simplest one. Therefore, many people choose a hearty, delicious dinner to have fun and improve their emotional state.
An addicted person experiences real pleasure from the process of absorbing their favorite products. Therefore, if you eat not because you are hungry, but to get at least such pleasure from life, you should think about it.
If the listed signs take place, it is necessary to get rid of addiction, since it will not bring anything good, but will only complicate your life even more.
How to deal with food addiction on your own?
It is necessary to approach the solution of this problem in a complex manner. This means that you should not only establish a diet and strictly adhere to it, but also take measures to solve your psychological problems. Let's talk about everything in more detail:
Set the correct power mode:
Check the refrigerator. Replace foods that promote weight gain with low-calorie ones: vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc.
Be sure to have a full breakfast. At lunch, reduce the amount of food, and for dinner, leave a portion of salad or a cup of kefir with bread. Stop snacking. If unbearable, eat a fresh fruit or vegetable (without salt).
Drink a cup of cool water before dinner. It will fill part of the stomach, which will allow you to eat less food.
Remember that large portions of low-calorie vegetable products also increase weight, as well as high-calorie ones. Therefore, stick to a balanced diet, but reduce portions by half. At first, hunger will overcome, but after a few days you will get used to it and feel that you have eaten a small amount of food.
Avoid bread altogether. Or eat one piece a day. And, of course, don't eat before bed.
It is very important to learn how to relax in a different way than with the help of a refrigerator. In particular, yoga, meditation and physical education will help. If you really want to eat, go for a walk. If you really want to eat in the evening, The best way cope with hunger - go to bed.
If you habitually solve psychological problems with the help of food and cannot refuse it, instead of a chocolate bar, nibble on a carrot, cucumber, or eat an apple. And get the candy bowls and cookie baskets out of sight.
Sleep more. A person who suffers from insomnia or sleeps less than six hours has an increased appetite and is more prone to obesity.
An active lifestyle, the presence of hobbies and hobbies will help to cope with emotional, psychological problems. At severe stress, dissatisfaction with yourself and your life, with which you cannot cope on your own, a visit to a psychologist will help. Believe in yourself and everything will work out!
For what reasons they struggle with addiction to smoking, the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs is understandable. These substances, getting into the body, destroy it, disrupt its normal functioning, shorten life.
What is food addiction- difficult to understand. There are no food independents. It is impossible to exist without food entering the body. There are units that feed on energy sunlight, but even those sometimes bother eating.
Psychological dependence on food - when a person absorbs food not because he is hungry, but with any factor that irritates him nervous system. After eating, he feels happy, relaxes.
With the intake of calories in the body, the level of glucose in the blood rises, and, therefore, serotonin - the hormone of happiness. Then the insulin produced by the pancreas "suppresses" the sugar, the euphoria disappears. The mood falls, and they try to raise it in the usual way.
Comes from childhood
In many cases, parents themselves do not realize that they are instilling in the child a habit that will then be difficult for him to get rid of. First, the baby is shoved at the breast or bottle at the first attempts to voice - the baby does not scream when it is full. Then, when the baby fell down, give him something sweet to calm him down.
The child is older:
- relationships do not develop in the team;
- got a deuce;
- not popular with the opposite sex...
"Eat something sweet, and it will be easier!"– advise caring parents. And indeed, it becomes easier, and now, at the first troubles, a person himself runs to the refrigerator or sweeps sweets from the shelves in stores.
And the result is reflected - at best - on appearance, at worst - on health. Due to obesity, the appearance becomes far from the model - and this again leads to a nervous breakdown, accompanied by continuous absorption of food. There is a metabolic syndrome, problems with the cardiovascular system and the musculoskeletal system - it is very difficult for the body to cope with increased stress.
Constant work on the "wear and tear" of the pancreas causes diabetes.
How to overcome food addiction and break the vicious circle: excitement - food intake - temporary peace - excitement, etc.?
Awareness of the problem
Until a person realizes that he is sick, treatment of food addiction cannot begin. In this case, he repeats like an alcoholic or drug addict: "I want to, and I will not eat".
It takes him a while.
It is not easy to overcome such a state on your own; in most cases, a psychoanalyst or psychotherapist helps to restore psychological health.
food addiction- this is in most cases a sign of dissatisfaction.
Going to see a nutritionist is possible only when the root of the problem has been identified and there are already initial prerequisites for refusing food in "difficult situation".
If you strive to become independent of your own stomach, and it is impossible to contact a specialist for any reason, then the following technique will help solve the problem of how to get rid of the addiction of constant food.
help yourself
First you need to understand, is it really impossible to overcome difficulties without food, or are you just trying to mask the real root of the problem?
Signs of food addiction:
- As soon as it becomes hard on the soul, the mood deteriorates, you want to eat something tasty - to please yourself. At the same time, they prefer to eat alone, the meal lasts a long time, the dishes are chosen with pleasure;
- During the day, thoughts of what to eat constantly visit, I want to quickly be near the food counters or in a restaurant, the dishes that will be ordered are carefully planned;
- Completely lacking self-control. All food that is in sight is eaten, regardless of whether it is full or not. There is no feeling of fullness;
- Even in a full state, passing by a stall or counter with edibles, you buy yourself a chocolate bar or a banana, and immediately eat it;
- After eating, you feel ashamed that you ate a lot, you curse yourself last words, you promise that this was the last time, and that from next Monday, for sure ... Is it worth it to continue that nothing will change from Monday?
If you observe at least one of the above factors, it's time to start treatment.
It is possible to cope with food addiction on your own:
- You need to calculate how much food is eaten during the day. To do this, it is worth putting in a notebook all food intake, all snacks and so on. In the future, this will help to gradually get rid of excess food.
- Gradually organize your meals. First, 3 main meals are prescribed and 2 snacks between them, then the number of snacks is reduced. It is impossible at the first stage of treatment to force the body to suffer from hunger. He will begin to resist intensely, his health will deteriorate sharply.
- Self-restraint must be rewarded. For example: did not eat for 3 hours, you can use a piece of chocolate. And this chocolate bar will bring more pleasure than a whole bar that was eaten "out of habit".
There should not be any extreme in the treatment of food addiction! Exhausting diets, extreme physical and sports activities - all this will lead to a nervous breakdown, and recovery will be delayed for a long time.
Psychologist's recommendations - help recovering from addiction to food
Know thyself - that sounds too lofty. But you still have to be aware of your problems. To change eating habits, you need to determine whether these unsolvable life difficulties really exist, or, if you look, you can "unload yourself"?
Here's what you can do:
- You need to try to find an activity that will entertain. Boring - you need to go not to the grocery store, but to the cinema, museum, take a walk. Sometimes it is very useful to be in the crowd, it energizes and makes you forget about your own problems. Mass festivities, crowded concerts - all this makes you distract from thoughts about food;
- Change your attitude. Do not constantly criticize yourself, scold for weaknesses. Self-blame spoils life, why drive yourself into depression? Analyze your strengths positive traits, you should concentrate on them;
- Do not drastically limit yourself, set a strict daily routine. Recovery should be gradual. Yesterday I eat - today I don’t - a sure way to drive the body into a stressful state;
- While eating, you should not be distracted by anything. Food should be chewed thoroughly, enjoying the taste of each piece. Then it will be noticed with surprise that much less has been eaten, and the desired satiety has come;
- During meals, portions should be limited, and the number of dishes should be increased. If you want to try everything, then you can not afford not to enjoy. Those who eat an appetizer, soup, main course, compote and dessert for lunch eat less than those who pour themselves a huge bowl of borscht. You may not believe it, but it is so;
- If you take your free time as much as possible, after work, strive not for the refrigerator, but for a team of like-minded people, then you can distract yourself from food.
Only when thoughts about food cease to be present in the head all the time - it's time to think about unloading and switch to proper rational nutrition. Only at this stage can one realize: we do not live in order to eat, but we eat in order to live.
