What is Emotional Hunger and How to Overcome it

Emotional hunger leads the affected person to eat food to satisfy a false internal feeling of hunger. In reality, this binge eating is caused by a feeling of inner restlessness that, due to different factors, pushes the person to automatically eat food with the intention of calming this strange sensation. This maladjusted behavior, since it does not respond to real needs of the body and does respond to unconscious emotions, can cause physical and emotional problems.

In this PsychologyFor article we will talk about what is emotional hunger and how to overcome it We will explain what this disorder consists of, what its causes are, how to differentiate it from real hunger and we will detail different ways to confront this maladjusted behavior and improve the personal situation of the affected people.

What is emotional hunger

Emotional hunger is a eating disorder that leads the person to eating food impulsively and uncontrolled with the intention of satisfying a “false” feeling of hunger. Emotional hunger does not respond to real physiological hunger needs, but to affective, emotional or psychological needs of which the person suffering from it is not clearly aware.

As can occur with any other addictive psychological disorder, such as drug addiction, smoking, alcoholism, vigorexia or emotional dependence, emotional hunger uses a non-random mode of a “useless” (not useful) means to calm inner restlessness. In this case, food becomes the instrument used to silence emotions.

What causes emotional hunger

Emotional hunger responds to deep and intense negative emotions that remain in the unconscious. Precisely, it is this lack of awareness of its presence that generates a feeling of inner restlessness that, for different and varied reasons, can be alleviated by excessive and uncontrolled food intake.

Inner emotional discomfort, which gives rise to emotional hunger, is usually the result of emotional deficiencies, unmet needs or unresolved conflicts, among others. Whatever the specific origin, it is activated by certain life situations and, as occurs with other addictive behaviors, the person resorts to uncontrolled food intake as a means to calm this inner anxiety.

Nowadays, it could be said that this is a much more common problem than we might believe. In different degrees and intensities, emotional hunger occurs in the face of emotional deficiencies that, today, are present to a greater or lesser extent in the majority of the population. In this article we delve into the question of why I can’t stop eating.

Consequences of emotional hunger

It could be said that emotional hunger as a problem-solving mechanism, as is usually the case with all reactive responses to unconscious psychological conflicts, has a first intention of helping us, by attempting to reduce or remove the internal discomfort experienced. However, given the negative consequences that it generates in the long term, it is an inadequate means that must be replaced by a more satisfactory and healthy resolution.

Next, we will mention what the consequences of emotional hunger are:

• Immediate discomfort after eating food.
• Possible referral to larger problems, such as anorexia and bulimia.
• Decrease in self-esteem.
• Disrupts inner calm.

Furthermore, food industries are dedicated to producing foods with certain substances, the consumption of which produces “instant” but short-lasting relief from inner anxiety. For this reason, emotional hunger often causes addictive and uncontrolled food consumption which, due to their composition, are not healthy at all.

How to know if it is hunger or emotional hunger

One way to know if I have emotional hunger is to try to differentiate it from real hunger. In this way, once emotional hunger is located, you will be able to implement strategies different from those applied so far to combat it, free yourself from it and adequately resolve your latent internal conflict.

According to the psychologist specializing in eating disorders, Manuel Antolín⁽¹⁾emotional hunger differs from physical hunger in the following five aspects:

• Cause: Physical hunger appears due to certain nutritional needs that the body has at a certain time. Emotional hunger, however, arises in response to certain internal psychological-emotional conflicts.
• Appearance: Physical hunger manifests itself gradually and can wait, while emotional hunger arises more abruptly and with considerable intensity and impatience.
• Satiety: Physical hunger is covered once we have ingested the necessary nutrients that our body demanded. On the contrary, emotional hunger is difficult to satisfy even though, on many occasions, our body has been stuffed by the food ingested.
• Selected foods: Physical hunger chooses those foods that, due to their nutrients, cover the body’s physiological needs. On the other hand, emotional hunger usually craves foods that lack nutrients and are loaded with unhealthy substances, such as fats or sugars.
• Emotions it generates: after satisfying physical hunger, the person is strengthened, calm and satisfied. Once a binge is over as a result of emotional hunger, the person feels disappointed in themselves and sadness and anger usually accompany them. Discover how to manage sadness in this article.

How to overcome emotional hunger

While emotional hunger is another addictive psychological disorder, our recommendation is try to find a solution as soon as possible to avoid greater evils in the medium or long term. Like any process of solving psychological problems, overcoming emotional hunger means traveling the path of personal self-knowledge, care and improvement of conflict resolution strategies.

Here are some tips to control emotional hunger:

1. Start a work of personal self-knowledge to help you become aware of your problem and help you investigate the causes that caused it, since this type of disorder is a reactive response to an internal conflict.
2. Learn to detect it and look for alternatives: Helped by therapeutic work, learn to detect when you feel emotional hunger, and not physical hunger, and look for alternatives that calm that inner restlessness. For example, you can go for a walk, breathe consciously, practice body relaxation, etc.
3. Learn to eat healthy: On many occasions, emotional hunger originates as physical hunger connected to emotional dissatisfactions and, if not controlled, leads to excessive consumption of unhealthy foods that fill our body, without nourishing it with what it needs. Eating healthy will cover your physiological needs and will give you tools to overcome emotional hunger and eat healthy foods that “turn off” inner anxiety.
4. Call a loved one: In certain moments of loneliness in which we remain inactive, emotional hunger is activated, reminding us of our emotional emptiness. When you notice its signs, call and meet with good friends and loved ones to end the anxiety.
5. Do everything that makes you happy: When you perceive signs of emotional hunger, you should focus on those actions that strengthen you to make any inner dissatisfaction disappear.
6. Learn to control your impulses: If you want to overcome emotional hunger, when it appears, you must learn to control your impulses and, if you have started compulsive consumption, try to stop it.
7. Heal your inner wounds: Therapeutic work will help you heal the pain caused by your wounds and imprint within you new images about yourself, about others and about life. This will involve the complete erasure of any symptoms of emotional hunger.

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 What is emotional hunger and how to overcome it we recommend that you enter our Emotions category.

References

1. Antolín Gutiérrez, M. (2018). Emotional hunger. A door to the interior. Eat the world. The eating disorders blog.

Bibliography

• Jan Chozen Bays (2013). Eat attentively. Kairos Editorial.