Anxiety The shyness and social anxiety workbook by Martin Antony, Ph.D. & Richard Swinson, Ph.D. The anxiety and phobia workbook by Edmund Bourne, Ph.D. Get out of your mind and into your life by Steven Hayes, Ph.D. Anxiety Disorders Association of America Feeling good by David Burns, MD Depression for Dummies by Laura Smith, Ph.D. and Charles Elliott, Ph.D. Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Eating Disorders and Body Image
Depression
The body image workbook by Thomas Cash, Ph.D.
Eating in the light of the moon by Anita Johnston, Ph.D.
Overcoming overeating by Janet Hirschmann and Carol Munter
Life without Ed by Jenni Shaefer with Thom Rutledge
National Eating Disorders Awareness
Something Fishy
Stress
The dialectical behavior therapy workbook by Matthew McKay Ph.D., Jeffrey Wood, Psy.D. & Jeffrey Brantley, MD
Where ever you go there you are by Jon Kabit Zin
Emotional Eating by Jaime Fenton, Ph.D.
Many people struggle with emotional eating, turning to food for comfort, and safety. Individuals stop listening to their bodies, which often try to communicate their nutritional needs. Decreasing your emotional eating is possible with some hard work.
First, find out why you eat when you are not hungry. Are you eating to cope with a particular emotion, maybe loneliness, boredom or sadness? Maybe you are using food to deal with a stressful event such as an argument with a friend, anxiety over an upcoming exam. Food can in fact comfort us when we are feeling bad or upset however the help is only temporary. While it may distract us from those feelings, those emotions or stressors have not been dealt with in any real, significant way and those issues will likely resurface again. Work to find many different ways to cope your feelings and stressors. For some journaling can be helpful. Others may be helped by reaching out to a friend or family member. Discover the method that helps you best.
A related problem is cutting down on your food intake to deal with emotional issues. Dieting is dangerous particularly because it can be a pre-cursor to developing an eating disorder.
Second, learn to eat largely only when you are hungry. This can be challenging for some people because years of dieting and emotional eating can quiet or silence someone’s hunger signals. Work to discover your cues for physiological hunger which could be anything from a growling stomach to feeling faint. You must find a way to distinguish those true hunger signals from emotional “hunger” signals which can be tricky!
Engage in some stress management strategies when you find yourself wanting to eat when not hungry. An example would be distraction. Begin a task that keeps your mind busy such as researching a topic on the internet, talking on the phone, or exercise such as walking.
Lastly, in an attempt to eat more healthily do not cut out “forbidden” foods. Some examples of forbidden foods are deserts or carbohydrates. This is a recipe for emotional eating. Your body craves these foods for both psychological and physiological reasons. Find a way to incorporate these foods into your diet.
If you are struggling to overcome an eating problem, psychotherapy may help. Counseling may help you to find different real ways to cope with emotions or stressors without turning to food.