Can anxiety cause binge eating?

You are really worried about [work/ your child/ your parents/ money] and just don't feel like eating.

You feel sick to your stomach and so you just can't manage to eat much for breakfast and skip lunch entirely.

But then the evening comes around ... you finanlly have a moment to rest... and you are HUNGRY!

You are so hungry in fact that once you start eating, you just cant seem to stop...

Anxiety can for some people cause binge eating. Anxiety often has the physiological effect of suppressing your appetite. If you find yourself not eating for long stretches of time, when your hunger finally catches up to you, you may end up over-eating or bingeing. (It is worth mentioning too though that anxiety may, for some people, also cause an increased appetite and grazing through the day.) Often the symptoms of anxiety are very physical - including things like headaches, sweating, heart palpitations, nausea and butterflies. These physical symptoms can in turn affect how we eat.

We tend to look at our eating behaviours independently from the state of our mental health. But the two are in fact very closely connected. How we feel will affect directly what food choices we make. And the food choices we make, can in turn affect our mood. You can't really change one of these things (your mood or your diet) without it affecting the other.

So what can you do if you are binge eating because of anxiety? Here are a few steps you can start to take:

1.Prioritise eating little and often, even if you don't feel too hungry.

Even though you may not have much of an appetitie, making sure you are eating something can displace that urge to binge later on in the day.

2.Use relaxation tools to manage the anxiety

Tools such as hypnotherapy and meditation can help to switch off the body's flight-or-fight mode i.e. our anxiety response. Using these tools in high-anxiety times can help you to feel better and in turn make it less likely that you will binge.

3.Talk about how you are feeling with someone

Just saying out aloud how you are feeling i.e. "I am feeling anxious" and then talking through why you are feeling this way, can help your brain and body to start dealing with the anxiety. When we name our feelings and talk them through, we activate a part of our brain that can think more rationally (rather than emotionally) about challenges in our lives.

4.Prioritse rest and sleep and take a break from caffeine and alcohol

This make seem like a cruel joke to parents of young children, but prioritising sleep and rest can really help to reduce your anxiety levels. Unfortunately caffeine and alcohol also have the effect of elevating anxiety levels and so if you find yourself feeling very anxious, taking a break from these two things can be beneficial.

5.Move your body in a way that feels good

Physical activity can really help to discharge some of that anxious energy. Moving your body in a way that feels fun to you can help you to feel less anxious.

If you think that your mental health may be affecting your food choices and would like some support to improve/ manage both, please reach out to us at info@thefoodtherapyclinic.com to book in a free consultation.

“Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.”— Jodi Picoult