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Emotional hunger is a way of eating without feeling any physical symptoms. This action is mostly performed to cope with negative emotions.
Why do we experience emotional eating? Who experiences it?
Actually, there are many reasons for emotional eating. Here, we mostly look at emotions. That is, if a person has not developed healthy methods to cope with negative emotions, they may turn to eating. So why eating? Because from the very first moment we are born, we are programmed to receive affection or love through the mother’s breast. Meaning, when we cry, when we don’t want something, or when something is missing, we are immediately given food, milk, or chocolate. Thus, we actually learn this behavior from a very young age and then tend to repeat it. Our psychological resilience might be low, our ability to express emotions might be lower. There are actually many reasons; these are just a few of them.
How can I tell if I have an emotional eating problem?
First of all, we can understand an emotional eating problem when our relationship with food deteriorates. So how does our relationship with food deteriorate? If we suddenly find ourselves eating without feeling a real sense of hunger, without any stomach cramps, stomach rumbling, etc., and this act of eating mostly occurs when we experience negative emotions or after negative thoughts pass through our minds. Usually, we do this to cope with stress, as I said before. Here, we actually need to pay attention to this; there are some signals: emotional hunger signals and physical hunger signals. If our hunger signal has arrived, we should look at this: “When was the last time I ate?” If it has been 2 or 3 hours since we ate, then I might really be hungry.
Then we look at this: “When was the last time I drank water?” If we haven’t drunk any water, then maybe what we are experiencing is thirst. Apart from this, as I just mentioned, do I have cramps in my stomach, is there a rumbling? If we answer yes, it could be physical hunger. If there are no symptoms, it could be emotional hunger. And again we ask ourselves: “What was going through my mind just now? Was I bored? Was I feeling lonely? Did a problem I experienced in the past come to mind? Or a problem I am experiencing right now, or my anxieties about the future…” When we analyze these in this way, when we answer them, we actually stop at that moment and notice the emotional hunger. If we repeat this a few times a week, then it means we have an emotional eating problem.
How does emotional eating problem affect those who have stomach reduction surgery?
Emotional eating already occurs in most individuals experiencing obesity problems. We detect this during our pre-operative interviews. That is, when asked, “When you are bored, sad, or angry, do you turn to eating (mostly junk food and sugary foods)?”, we usually get a “yes” answer. Apart from this, we have a short eating disorders scale. We also ask these, and if we get 2 or more yeses here, it again means there is an emotional eating problem. And this is again present in most obese individuals. So how can it affect after surgery? The person won’t feel anything in the first stage. Because the patient is on a honeymoon. The appetite hormone has been removed, their stomach is now small, and they feel nauseous when they smell food. But after 6 months, after a few months, maybe after a year, when the person experiences a problem again, if they want to eat something, the patient can then reach a level that can cause weight gain again, and of course, psychological support comes into play in this regard. We just talked about the signals, the emotional hunger signals. By tracking these, by observing these, we can actually weigh ourselves. And if we are experiencing an emotional eating problem, we must definitely get psychological support after bariatric surgery. Because, as it is said, in the following periods, this emotional eating can recur and cause weight gain again.
How can I cope with emotional eating attacks?
First of all, is this an attack, or did I really want to eat that thing at that moment? How much of this thing am I eating? It is necessary to pay attention to this. Emotional eating is an eating disorder, but it falls under the category of “eating disorders not otherwise specified” in the DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria book. Meaning they can’t exactly name it in a certain way. It can’t be said that there is exactly this diagnostic criterion. In the literature, it cannot be said that if you do exactly this and this, you can get rid of emotional eating. It varies depending on the patient. But the most important thing is emotion regulation. Meaning we need to be able to regulate our emotions. We need to be able to accept our negative emotions, not just cope with them. So, if we are angry or sad, we shouldn’t use sentences like “I must cope with this, I must do something to get rid of this emotion.” Maybe you need to experience that anger at that moment, or you need to accept that sadness. When we reach this mindset, when we accept those emotions, we don’t turn to other things to suppress those emotions. Apart from this, of course, with a therapist, we need to examine which emotions are we actually trying to suppress, which emotions bother us, which emotions are we trying to push away with food? Which emotions, thoughts, events lead us to this?
After examining these, support will be provided on that issue anyway. But still, to prevent an attack, we just mentioned the hunger signals to you. The differences between emotional hunger and physical hunger. First, we evaluate this signal. When the hunger signal comes, is there a rumbling in my stomach, when was the last time I ate, did something bad cross my mind? When we do that analysis anyway, what is called an attack disappears. Because an attack means getting up and doing something suddenly, suddenly finding yourself in chocolates. When you do this analysis, you are already giving yourself time. Then wait, drink a glass of water, wait a little longer. Are you still craving it? Think a little more. Maybe there are other activities that make you happy. Maybe talking to someone will be enough, maybe going for a walk will be enough; still didn’t work? Then eat. It means you need to eat that chocolate. So here, the psychology of prohibition actually comes into play. Restrictive eating patterns, especially when dieting, trigger emotional eating attacks quite a lot.
In a study conducted in 2020, it was observed that restrictive diets highly affect emotional eating. In fact, another experimental study was conducted. They made one group diet with a restrictive eating model, and the other group not with a restrictive eating model. By the way, restrictive eating means prohibiting too many foods. They prohibited some foods to the subjects. Like “You won’t eat this, you won’t eat that.” The group that received the prohibited foods became more sensitive to food. This means; while someone can say “It’s okay if I eat this or not, or I’ll eat it when I’m hungry,” theirs is not like that. They are in the psychology of “I absolutely must eat it.” Actually, this topic is a very broad topic; this information alone may not be enough for every patient. But in general, if you are asking how I can control my attack, first look at these signals. Apart from that, look at what we can do about emotion regulation, you need to learn methods of coping with stress. What are these? Social support is the most important. First of all, contacting your surroundings, increasing your communication more. It could be breathing exercises. Doing sports, going for a walk secretes a lot of the hormone serotonin, that is, the happiness hormone. If none of these work, then professional support must be obtained from a psychologist.
