Is Emotional Eating caused by Bullying?
No. Bullying is not the cause but it may be a contributing factor.
Experiencing Bullying
We overeat because we feel inadequate.
That feeling of inadequacy can be broken down into sadness (anger), anxiety and more.
The excess food (box of cookies) helps us regulate those difficult emotions above and we momentarily feel less anxiety and loneliness and misery etc.
If we already feel horrible about ourselves, bullying can exacerbate this and make us feel worse, leading to behaviors like emotional eating, which we were already on our way to anyway.
If we feel great about ourselves and then are bullied, one of 2 things can happen:
Uncertainty
1- We seek help or get help from attuned caregivers and can bear the difficult experience …
or
2- We keep it all secret for any number of reasons and let the continuous bullying take its toll. The result is to allow those negative messages (that are kinda forced) to dictate our self-esteem and so we feel badly about ourselves, inadequate and then move onto a behavior like eating too much or worse. This scenario is much less likely since feeling good about ourselves as children implies we have trusting, healthy relationships around us.
So it’s not the cause per se, but it can be one contributing factor in emotional eating.
Either way, if you eat emotionally, it’s time to start talking, managing and exposing yourself to the pain.
Read the EatingLove Guide for free online here:
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THE EATING LOVE GUIDE (FREE)
The Eating Love Guide has helped many people regain control of their eating patterns, resulting not only in weight loss but also better health and improved self-esteem. To read it online, click here.
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