Depression and Overeating

There are some people who might be depressed because of a chemical imbalance. But that is probably not the norm.

You may be depressed because you are not dealing with your emotions correctly. You are stuffing your emotions down with food.

If you use all your energy to avoid dealing with unwanted emotions/ feelings you have no energy left to live your life. You may have been depressed for so long that you no longer know what emotion(s) you are avoiding.

Depression evokes the emotion of feeling worthless along with an infinite amount of others(along with low self-esteem).It causes people who emotionally eat to reach for food as a first response.

It is quite typical for a person who struggles with overeating to also struggle with depression.

• Overeating feeds into the cycle of depression. It gives you a temporary "fix" of numbness. Quite similar to a drug.

  But that feeling dissipates quickly. Then you may feel the need to eat more to achieve the high again.

• Some over eaters describe this as an "euphoric" feeling. Almost as if you've gone into a trance; your own little bubble from the world.
• It may be how you escape. The only problem is that it pushes you further into depression.

An emotional eater also feels extreme guilt or shame after a binge.

You may beat yourself up or promise that tomorrow will be different.

Covering your emotions with food only makes the problem worse. It gives you a temporary solution; so it is tempting to keep going.

In doing so you drain yourself of any energy, which leads to depression. You have "depressed" yourself by not facing the problem.

Depression and overeating have a very real link. But that doesn't mean you have to be stuck where you're at. If you want to learn more about depression you may want to look into taking a depression test.

You can overcome both by learning to face and control your emotions.

Other helpful sites:

• Anxiety Help from Sound-Mind.org
  Anxiety Help from Sound-Mind.org is a self-help website that offers free anxiety help from a former sufferer. Here you will find answers given from a personal perspective based on real personal experience. Learn how to overcome panic attacks, obsessive thinking, agoraphobia and find free support along the way.

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