Why Do We Eat At The "machine"

A specialist in eating disorders talks about "automatic" eating, cites three psychological reasons for this habit and gives a recommendation on how to avoid it.

Author: Lyudmila Pavlova – psychotherapist, specialist in eating disorders

When food imperceptibly turns into a cunning enemy, and the desire for pleasure - into violence against the soul? Instead of a conscious meal – throwing food into the mouth, not even specifying which one. Below are three main reasons why this happens.

Inability to receive pleasure

Masha is a girl from a good family, in which it is not customary to share feelings. It is shameful to pay attention to the body. It is not accepted to be idle and rest. For the mind - please have books, chess. For health - running, exercise. For pleasure - only food. The "girl" will soon turn 40, but nothing has changed. She may not even know that she feels anxious or irritated, and sincerely believe that it is hunger. And there are many more such people than it seems.

The desire to "shut up"

Klavdia Petrovna, 55 years old. Embarrassingly, she tells: she began to eat uncontrollably a lot. She does not notice how some piece is already in her mouth. Apparently, the excess weight is not visible, but the habit itself alarms her. We start talking about whether this has been happening to her for a long time. Gradually we come to a delicate moment. Klavdia Petrovna witnessed her son-in-law cheating on her daughter. She is confused. She is afraid to tell her daughter, who loves her husband and is expecting a child from him, so as not to destroy the family. But keeping a secret is difficult. In order not to speak, Klavdia Petrovna unconsciously covers her mouth - yes, with food. After the understanding comes, why she needs these wayward pieces, the habit goes by itself. And I had to work on the family situation.

Chronic stress

Katya, 18 years old. She lives in a small apartment with three neighbors, with whom she constantly conflicts. Everyone ignores Katya and constantly pushes her, so she tries to avoid communication. She can no longer hold back a grimace of anger when one of the neighbors approaches her. Earlier, when Katya lived alone, she ate a balanced diet and was slim, but now she eats all day and even at night, choosing fatty foods. Her weight and size have grown a lot. Examinations showed a high level of stress hormones in her blood.

Katya is NOT a student in a dormitory and not a girl in a communal kitchen. She is not a person at all, but a macaque who lives in the National Primate Research Center in Yerko. Chronic stress stimulates appetite in many species of mammals. And if the changes are so noticeable in animals, people have not escaped such a fate.

How to account for "missing" candies

In these and other similar cases, the saving bun is used for comfort more and more often. Emotions disappear... Food remains almost the only source of pleasure, salvation, support, reward. An unaccounted candy that got into the mouth becomes "missing" after 15 minutes. Moreover, food is also a kind of pleasure, because gluttons are not gourmets who get pleasure from taste. Automatism is transferred to the food process itself. At some point, a person stops noticing how and when food enters the mouth. Just mechanically swallows. When overeating becomes noticeable, a person begins to scold himself for gluttony, lack of willpower. She feels ashamed. The shame is so unbearable that now I have to eat it too. And further in a circle: problem-food-shame-food.

How to avoid automatism? It is important to stop and mark the moment when you are going to eat something. Often this awareness alone is enough for positive changes.

It is useful to keep a food diary, in which the main thing is not calories, but what you eat and why (real hunger, boredom, sadness, fear, etc.). If you are not afraid to meet your experiences face to face, you will no longer need an "intermediary" in the form of extra food.