Has anyone had therapy for this?

[Whattodonowandthen]

Put something similar on weight loss chat but got no response...

I'm hoping to get therapy for emotional eating. I've realised that I eat when bored and want distraction (stupidly I didn't realise boredom was an emotion when it came to eating so it's taken me until middle age to realised I'm an emotional eater).

I'm also concerned that despite being knowledgeable about nutrition, a relatively capable cook and not buying into 'diet culture' I still just overeat all the time. I am, at times, unable to control myself.

AIBU to ask if anyone else has sought therapy for similar reasons? If so, what was it like? Did you find it helpful?

Yes, CBT for binge eating disorder.

My “symptoms” were

• eating out of boredom
• unable to stop eating sometimes, even if I felt sick
• never ending cycle of noticing I was putting on weight or unhappy in my body, so I would eat to comfort myself, which then made me feel guilty and hate my body
• binging due to stress, having an “off day”, low moods = binge

There is usually a deeper issue as to why you over eat and emotional eat, it is actually an eating disorder

Thank you, that's really helpful.
Your final sentence really struck a chord.

I know there must be reasons as to why I'm unable to control myself, I'm just not sure what they are.

I think I probably think of eating disorders in quite extreme ways and so haven't associated myself as having one.

Likewise, I don't feel I have one big trauma that would be a root cause, in many respects I feel like a bit of a fraud which is probably why it has taken me until now to seek help.

I'm having to readjust my mindset on both what therapy involves and what disordered eating looks like.

I know what you mean. When speaking to my therapist I said “I know it’s not like anorexia” and she explained to me that over eating and binge eating is definitely an eating disorder. It might not be the extreme, but it can be just as bad.

Yes. Amongst other issues, I am in therapy for an eating disorder. It takes time but it’s slowly helping. Good luck.

@Imrighthere that must have felt shocking but perhaps also a bit of a lighbulb moment!

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 thank you, that's encouraging to hear. Wishing you all the best with your therapy