Obsession, binge eating, and food addiction are intertwined, they overlap, but they are different things. Binge eating is mental, it is the act of eating beyond physical well-being, the person feels out of control and tries to satisfy a hunger that cannot be satisfied with food.
As for the obsession with food, it can be mental or physical and it is a fixation on food that could be related to the previous two. It can be mental, when you go off your diet because you think you shouldn’t eat certain foods that you desperately want, and it can be physical, when you are hungry and can’t think about anything other than food. In this PsychologyFor article, we explain how to overcome obsession for food and what are some of the reasons that this obsession is generated.
The obsession with food It is probably the culmination of several factors that interact giving rise to obsessive thoughts. A person may develop an obsession with food as a result of biological, psychological or social reasons. Biological causes that can influence the progression of a food addiction may include hormonal imbalances, abnormalities in various brain structures, side effects from the use of certain medications, or having family members with this type of addiction problems.
Obsession with food can also be the result of psychological factors. Factors included in this category would be emotional or sexual abuse, being a victim or survivor of a traumatic event, having an inability to deal in a healthy way with negative situations, chronic low self-esteem, or experiencing pain or loss.
Psychological factors like these can lead a person to use food as a defense mechanism to relieve painful emotions that are experienced in certain people. Finally, there are social implications that may be related to food obsession, including factors such as disruptions in the family unit, peer or societal pressure, social isolation, childhood abuse, lack of social support, and stressful life events.
Food addiction can also be associated with other co-occurring disorders such as eating disorders (binge eating disorder) or substance abuse.
Food obsession: symptoms
To know how to overcome food obsession, it is important to know if we are really suffering from this problem. This food addiction can be recognized by numerous signs and symptoms.
The following list is some of the possible symptoms of food obsession:
Eat to the point of Feeling sick
Desire for quantities of food that a person cannot physically tolerate
Continue eating certain foods even if you are not hungry
Eating in secret
Avoiding social interactions, relationships, or functions to spend time eating certain foods
Spending a significant amount of money on food
Decrease in energy, chronic fatigue
Difficult to focus
Sleep disorders, such as insomnia or excessive sleeping
Concern
Irritability
Headaches
Digestive disorders
Suicidal ideas
Food addiction: treatment
For some, food addiction may be a physical urge and may be related to binge eating, as we often eat highly processed foods that can produce changes in the brain and lead to cravings. But food addiction can also be mental, an addiction “process” derived from the way we have learned to deal with certain situations/feelings.
Break away from obsessive thoughts
When the obsession with food begins to exceed its limits, you should try to change its physical location. This may be very difficult for you. As soon as you find the strength to break the obsession, you will feel free (as long as cooking is not your preferred destination and you do not progress towards binge eating).
Sometimes when obsessive thoughts about food do not leave us, it is good to perform any body movement no matter how absurd it may seem, even getting up from a chair, to distract the mind and eliminate a negative obsessive thought.
Determine if you are hungry or obsessed
The next step is that Identify if you are really hungry Normally, there are people who start to obsess about food right after they have finished eating a meal, they get sad thinking that that moment is over and they want to prolong it.
So most of the time when food obsession starts to succeed there is no real hunger.
If you are indeed hungry, you can do a little self-assessment about what your body is asking of you and feed it.
If you’re not hungry, do a little self-assessment about what your brain is really asking for. If you feel very out of control, try to keep moving your body and try to refocus your thoughts before eating food again.
Talk about it
If the above doesn’t work, it may be helpful to talk about it. Sometimes, when we can’t break the obsession on our own, calling someone who knows our situation and telling them what’s going on in our head can help us. Sometimes getting our thoughts out prevents us from continuing in the vicious cycle of obsession.
If talking about your obsessive thoughts about food doesn’t make you feel comfortable, you can write them. The goal is to free ourselves from those thoughts.
Look for other sources of happiness
Throughout our lives we can become obsessed with all kinds of things. Most of these things can be avoided, but in this case that is not the case, because we cannot avoid food, we have to eat. But we must not forget that food does not have to be our only source of happiness. Really exchanging one obsession for another is not appropriate. But including new activities in your daily life can help you focus on something other than food, redirecting some of your energy and thoughts toward something else.
Split a giant obsession into various rewarding activities It will give your mind a chance to focus on other things. There are more things in life than food, but our job is to figure out what those things are.
This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to overcome food obsession we recommend that you enter our Clinical Psychology category.
