Overeating when I'm sad? Advice?

For a long while now I have been battling depression, and recently my bad feelings have been taking over. Whenever I get into these "bad" fits I eat a lot, and a lot of junk. How can I stop this ravenous hunger and sweet tooth? It doesn't even matter if I am hungry or not anymore, I just eat.

Hi. Welcome to the emotional eaters club. I am Laura, your host. I used to self medicate with food (and yes, sometimes beer) all the time. Shot my weight right up after my mom died when I spiraled into depression. Now I'm on the right meds and feeling a lot better and really don't feel the need to do that.

I'm not saying you need meds, but in my case I did. One trick that sometimes worked for me was just chanting in my head "if you still want it, you can have it tomorrow. I promise, if we still want those nachos we will get up and order them ASAP tomorrow" and a lot of times it works.

I don't know about everyone else, but when I'm in one of those "I need pizza or I will DIE RIGHT HERE moods, I can't eat something else and be like well ok, I wasn't so hungry". I need the right medication: PIZZA

The only thing for me to do is just not eat because what will end up happening is I'll eat the healthy meal then 20 minutes later eat the pizza or whatever

You are so not alone with this. My husband is a food self-medicator, too. It's great when we get mutual bad news. We go running to the nearest Mexican restaurant to drown our sorrow

oh my. jackie i'm in the same exact place as you.  battling a bit of manic depression, and on those low days completely go crazy eating junk. and i do mean crazy.

i've recently finally told a few family members about some of my issues involving food and depression, and for the first time in my life went and saw a therapist.  i'm hoping this is only the first step in an extreme uphill battle with these issues.. but now i'm not alone.  i haven't begun meds yet, but i have a first appt. with a psychiatrist coming up (read: M.D.) and will hopefully be prescribed some sort of anti-depressant/mood stabilizer.  i need to try something to get this crazy manic mind of mine under control..

anyway.. i don't have much advice for you, but i certainly can empathize. and if you're serious about it being depression, maybe telling some family and/or seeking the help of a therapist will help you, too.  all i know is simply telling someone, speaking out loud, some of the crazy thoughts that run through my mind, make me feel a smidge less crazy inside.. good luck

Oh!! I am new here and I would love to make you all my friends since I'm on the same boat.  I am the biggest emotional and binge eater ever....  When I am stressed or sad or depressed the only way out for me is food of any kind.  Sweet after savory and then again sweet and savory with sweet together, all those weird and usually not normal compinations work for me when I'm in the blues.  Thing is, I gained 15lbs so I decided to do something about it and went to a nutritionist, hence I pay a pretty penny to see results and lose weight.  I am on "a diet" since December 2nd and I haven't lost a pound.  I am zig-zaging about 5 lbs constently so my nutritionist told me that I should see a psychiatrist because she can't help me any more.... (do you believe that?).  Anyway I didn't want to go that route so we made the decision to give it a try for a few more weeks and see how is going to go.  She gave me some tools of how to think when my mind starts playing games with me and my taste-buds and what to do when all I think is food and I have to say so far is working and it has been only a week.  Plus I found this site and I think it helps me even more reading similar stories and struggles and counting the smallest calorie.   Sorry I don't have advice for you either but if you think you need help, go for it.  Good luck with everything and I totaly understand your struggle. 

Hi there,  i dont have depressions but i am an emotional eater too. carving food makes somewhat sense because your body will release endorphines after eating which make you feel better. a basic step to try and feel better without eating is to get those endophines from something else: exercise.

someone else posted the following 'food for mood':

it is hard to tackle depression and weight loss together. maybe talking to a doc or cousellor would be good but i dont know your life circumstances.

I'll join the club.
I'm going through it right this second....My husbands in the military and just got told he's going to the 'field' and doesnt know how long he'll be gone.  I don't even know any1 here and don't have a working vehicle but I DO have a 7 month old.  I want to eat the entire house.  Literally.  I want to sit here and watch sad movies and eat everything.  Sad movies are always the best for bad moods, right? lol

Sometimes when I feel like this I just pick healthy no calorie things like I'll probably eat tons of green beans lol.  Drinking water helps or mints or gum...
Or working out could at least get your mind off of things for a little while.

Emotional eating.....  been there (lots), done that (lots), put on weight (tons), still struggle with it.

I found it helps me to get out of the house and take a leisurely walk.  On days when the weather was too foul to walk, I'd take on a cleaning project (clean out a closet, rearrange a cupboard, etc.).

The key was recognizing that I wanted to eat because I was depressed and not because I was hungry.

Getting out of the house does help, as long as you don't go to Arby's

I do two things to combat this issue:

1- remove anything that I can binge on that is bad for me... I love fugi apples, and have a ton of those to binge on if craving sweets.  those 100 calorie packs of whatever... lose em.... one is fine, but in a weak moment they all dissapear quickly.

2- bulky good foods.  when I want to binge, I drink water and sometimes add those calorie free flavor things...then after water... I eat like crazy as much as I want of the following:

Salad- topped with low cal dressing or lentils and salsa... 

Soup - I make 800 calories worth of soup that could feed a small family for a week, and eat bowl after bowl... each bowl is like 50 calories and I can't fit anymore down... the soup usually has some or all of the following: lentils, brown rice, barley pearls, bulgar, cauliflower, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes, celery corn, mixed frozen veggies ... spices and anything else that is in the vegetable drawer....

been losing 2 pounds a week for the last 3 months doing this... it works, and it is amazing how the mood changes when you are losing weight...

oh, and coffee... love me some coffee...

none of this may help you, but I can relate a bit to your situation and this has worked for me!

I just ate my way through Hershey kisses and Wheat Thins!!! I am feeling sad and lost and food is my feel good medication..........I'm glad to have found these older posts and hope that I can get my act together again.

firstly dont keep ANY trigger foods in ur house

fundamentally its about Realising and Accepting and Acknowledging that abusing food doesnt make u happier it makes u sadder

think about that, itll eventually hit u like KABLOOEY wat am i doing this for? i get my ipod and walk around the block and shops near my house

What can you do about the keeping trigger foods out of the house if you live with your family and they don't have an eating disorder?

Before I used to binge on cookies, cake, chocolate, crackers, biscuits, ice cream, cream cheese. My mum stopped buying those foods (and my sister and dad really resented me for it!). 

As a result I now binge on bread, cereal, oatmeal, cheese, turkey, apples, jam, chocolate milk, yoghurt, etc. If not I'll just bake muffins or something :(

Those are essential foods, so she can't stop buying them, but I still binge on them. Yes, the calorie totals go down by a huge amount, but now my family is losing weight and I'm still gaining!

So now what?

i used to do the same as u described above, binged like mad on anything even healthy stuff

the only thing that REALLY motivated me and made me see i didnt need is is to have 2 protein sources at Each Meal and at least 2 small cans of beans a Day

like breakfast--stirfry with eggwhite quickfried in at the end, chicken, beans

salad for lunch with beans, tuna, turkey

dinner salad with beans+ crabmeat/chicken/tukey, hard boiled egg all in it

u get the idea. this over a few weeks completely killed the compulsion. now i walk past my familys leftover takeaways and just cant face eating them, im too full

im just not a breakfast food person btw, but u can alter what i have. eg u can have slice of ww toast with peanut butter and some baked beans, with some toms/shrooms

good luck!

really, go with protein and fibre! 

Definitely the best thing you can do for yourself is dont keep anything sweet or snack-ish in the house.  Only keep things that you have to cook so that you will be too lazy to make it. 

Emotional eating is one of the biggest problems we have today! When you've had a not-so-pleasant day at work, school, or whatever your occupation may be. I'm sure you can't wait to go home and angrily eat those crispy, salty chips!

I have the same problem, eating out of sadness and lonliness. I really shouldn't be giving advice when I haven't got over the problem myself, but take most bad things out of your house, and distract yourself. Get your anger out on those dumbells instead of thouse doughnuts! Soon you'll be out of depression and into atheletics!

Oh, and forgive my run on sentences. It's how I talk to.