I Can’t Stop Overeating!

I’m sure there have been several times when you have wanted to stop yourself from overeating, but can’t seem to make yourself stop. Nearly everyone struggles with overeating from time to time. Many of us struggle with overeating on a regular basis. With each of these instances there is always a war within us. One part wants to stop and one part wants to keep eating. Why is this?

Early Life Patterns With Food

If you notice you struggle with overeating frequently, it is probably a pattern that started fairly early on in your life. When our earliest needs for attention, affection or physical safety and adequate food aren’t met, our relationship with food in our later years can’t help be impacted. Food can feel like a hug from the inside out. It can feel as though we are comforted in our time of need. What fires together, wires together! The more we go to food when we need emotional or physical soothing, the more our brain pairs food with safety. Overeating is born!

These patterns set us up to distance ourselves from physical cues for hunger and fullness. If we aren’t eating to ease hunger, how do we know when to stop? What complicates this even more is that food actually can calm our nervous system temporarily! The problem is, food never really takes the problem we are using food to soothe away. We are left feeling sick, shameful and still having to deal with the problem.

Breaking The Pattern of Overeating

So, what do we do about this? My approach is healing the part that holds the pain creating the need to use food for emotional reasons. How do we do this? Using a combination of specialized therapies to address trauma (this occurs on a spectrum and even the smallest traumas can impact our relationship with food) and unlock the food patterns created by the injured parts. Then, we use a specialized therapy technique to break the connections in the brain between food and comfort, soothing, relief, escape, etc. To learn more about my services and what to expect from treatment, click here. If you feel like you would benefit from meeting with me, contact me today!

Is your relationship with food beyond simple overeating and moving into Binge Eating Disorder territory? This approach heals those patterns too!

Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Weber State University and a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Utah. She has been working in the mental health field since 2001.

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