Emotional Eating Disorder

Emotional eating  is when an individual uses eating in response to an emotional trigger. Many individuals suffering from emotional eating disorder will use compulsive overeating or bingeing as an attempt to deal with and control emotions or negative feelings. Many people use emotional eating occasionally. However, when emotional eating or compulsive eating becomes a person’s only technique for dealing with emotions, stress, depression, or other negative feelings, it is a serious problem.

Emotional eating disorder can lead to a number of side effects including increased depression and anxiety, negative self-image, low self-esteem, weight gain, and obesity as well as the development of binge eating disorder or other eating disorders. For help overcoming an emotional eating disorder and the emotional problems associated with this disorder, you should contact a professional eating disorder treatment specialist.

At McCallum Place in St. Louis, we offer a variety of treatment options for individuals suffering from emotional eating disorder and other eating disorders. We also offer emotional eating disorder treatment at our sister clinic, Webster Wellness Professionals, an outpatient eating disorder and obesity treatment center also located in St. Louis.

Emotional Eating, Eating Disorders, Mental Disorders, & Obesity

An emotional eating disorder can be linked to a number of other more serious emotional, mental, and physical problems. Therefore, when emotional eating becomes your primary and central tactic for regulating mood and dealing with negative emotions, it is important that you seek help to overcome emotional eating patterns and behaviors.

Emotional eating disorder can lead to a variety of other complications and issues including:

• Obesity: Because emotional eating leads individuals to consume an excessive number of calories in short periods of time, it will often lead to unwanted weight gain. This can result in obesity, which has serious emotional, physical, and health risks for individuals.
• Binge Eating Disorder: Binge eating disorder, or compulsive eating, is an eating disorder where emotional eating becomes obsessive and frequent. Individuals who suffer from binge eating disorder will suffer from frequent binge eating episodes that are typically brought on by stress, loneliness, depression, or anxiety. Following these uncontrollable binges, individuals will then feel extreme disgust or depression. Binge eating disorder often results in a cyclical pattern where negative emotions lead to emotional eating and then this overeating results in additional feelings of depression or self-hatred.
• Bulimia: Bulimia is an extremely dangerous eating disorder where individuals will experience binge or over eating behaviors followed by an extreme and unhealthy attempt to purge oneself of the calories just consumed. Purging behaviors can include vomiting, laxative abuse, or over exercising. These behaviors are typically very dangerous and can result in a number of health complications.
• Depression, Anxiety, & Mental Disorders: As with many eating disorders, emotional eating disorder is often linked to a variety of emotional or mental disorders. This includes depression, chronic anger, anxiety, stress, and poor self-esteem.

Treatment Options for Emotional Eating Disorder

The best treatment for emotional eating disorder is a treatment program that addresses the behavioral issues as well as the emotional problems related to the disorder. This includes teaching and establishing healthy eating patterns, such as those that include three meals and 1 to 3 small snacks a day. Additionally, it is important to understand not to limit foods or follow restrictive diet plans as this can lead to cravings and worsen compulsive eating behaviors.

It is also important to treat the mental and emotional aspects of emotional eating disorder. This may include co-occurring mental disorders including depression and anxiety as well as poor self esteem, relationship issues, and stress. By learning new coping methods for emotions, you can learn to stop emotional eating and overcome emotional eating disorder.

Learn more about how to stop emotional eating.

St. Louis Emotional Eating Disorder Treatment

At McCallum Place, in St. Louis, we offer treatment for emotional eating disorder and other eating disorders. Our treatment programs include residential eating disorder treatment, partial hospital eating disorder treatment, and intensive outpatient eating disorder treatment. If you feel you are suffering from emotional eating or any other eating disorder, please contact our St. Louis eating disorder treatment center to learn more about our treatment options.