Addicted to food

[Atmywitsendneedhelp]

Changed username for this.
I'm really struggling, I've realised over the past couple of years that I'm totally addicted to food. I eat secretly, I binge eat, no one knows, I'm too ashamed. My weight is creeping up and up and I'm mortified. I use food as a stress reliever, a comfort, to soothe me, to calm me. Just about everything. I'm on anti depressants.
My husband has over the past year lost a lot of weight and done amazingly well. Which makes me even crosser with myself. :(
What can I do?
I do exercise already so that's not the answer.

Bump

Don’t have the food in the house to start with.

Can you start by dealing with the stress? What is causing you so much anxiety?

And why are you cross with your dh for losing weight? It isn't a competition. If he is successfully losing weight, why not ask for his help? You're married, you're a team, and he seems best placed to help you. Talk to him about it, get rid of the secret element, and maybe it will get easier.

You need to sort out the root cause first - why are you so stressed and what are you seeking comfort from with food? Ideally you would get rid of the cause of stress but if you can't then you need to swap food for another way comfort yourself. Anti depressants sound like a good call, maybe talk to your doctor about different types or dosages. Plus perhaps some kind of counselling or talking therapy would help? I'm sure you can do this but probably not by thinking about it as a diet problem as it sounds like something more

Thank you oh I'm not cross with him, I just wish I had his willpower.

I said it made me cross with myself not him.

There are some good posts in the eating disorders thread about binge eating and some good books recommend (brain over binge is one that springs to mind). I'm not saying that you have an eating disorder but you might find it helpful.

Will power doesn't really come into it unfortunately it much more complex. Some prefer the structure of a a WLP like slimming world or WW.

Food addiction is a real thing and I had it myself but unlike you mine want emotional eating it was a insulin resistance.

Lots of people will tell you to move more and eat less but it's more complex.

Eating healthily is really important and remember not all calories are equal. No one became over weight by eating too much broccoli.

My slim husband also switched to salads for lunch and lots a couple of stone. Infuriating!

Salads full of cheese and dressing I should add!

You don't need diet and exercise tips...you need to deal with the psychological cause. Telling you to not keep food in the house is ridiculous advice.

Yup because I will binge on bread and butter if that's all there is!

What’s that going to do?

That was in response to the don’t have any food in the house.

try Overeaters anonymous OP it’s like AA they understand

I joined noom to help me combat comfort eating

What did noom do?

Are you on the right medication - if your eating is causing the depression ( the fact you can't resist it) maybe an anti- anxiety medication would suit you better. Anxiety seems to make me feel hungry - I think my glucose levels drop so I just need to munch something now! preferably. Sweet.

That's an interesting point thank you. I'm on sertaline, only since April. Before that I was on citalopram.

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I think SSRI's made me insatiably hungry all the time. Possibly because whatever was making me depressed and actually needed attending to I was attempting to ignore and suppress. Also sugar and refined carbs. They made me binge uncontrollably.

Like someone else said try a 12 step programme. Eating Disorders Anonymous is good eatingdisordersanonymous.org
Also link to OA oa.org

Read saving grace bu Grace Kitto
It’s excellent

Review your meds: I lose lots of weight on Prozac but pile it on with others

I sympathise: currently in a terrible eating pattern

Prozac is actually recommended for binge eating - a higher dose (60mg as opposed to 20mg for depression) and works well for a lot of people, as someone said above. I think it's worth addressing the biological reasons for these cravings.