What Causes Binge Eating?

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For those who struggle with binge eating disorder, the compulsion to eat is rarely about hunger; more often, it is a desperate attempt to soothe emotions that have nowhere else to go.

Eating Your Emotions: What Causes Binge Eating?

If you are one of the millions of people who struggle with binge eating disorder, it can feel like a nightmare. Most of us occasionally eat too much, such as during the holidays or at a favorite restaurant.

The condition usually happens because of social pressure, a celebratory atmosphere, or simply because something tastes amazing. We may end up feeling uncomfortably full, but then we move on, making these episodes more of an exception than a rule. However, when eating becomes uncontrollable and harmful, it may be a sign of binge eating.

If you notice a tendency toward binge eating, it does not necessarily mean that you have an eating disorder. Still, you may benefit physically and emotionally from addressing the issue before it reaches that point. A helpful place to begin is by identifying your triggers.

Identify Your Binge-Eating Triggers

There are three common ways people may relate to eating:

Eating for the body, providing the nourishment it needs.
Eating for the mouth, seeking comfort in chewing, tasting, and enjoying certain foods.
Eating for the brain or heart, which may be an attempt to soothe difficult or unresolved emotions through food.

The first is the most directly connected to physical nourishment. When you find yourself eating mainly for comfort or emotional relief, pay close attention to what may be driving the urge to continue eating.

What are your triggers? Some common factors include:

Stress at work
Family emergencies or problems
Relationship difficulties
Financial worries
Boredom
Suppressed or buried emotions

Trapped Emotions and Binge Eating

If, through careful self-observation, you realize that you are “eating your emotions,” the next step is to identify what those emotions may be and work toward releasing any unresolved feelings that could be influencing your behavior.

One method sometimes used to explore emotional patterns is muscle testing, described in some holistic practices as a way to seek responses from the subconscious about what may be happening in the mind and body.

Muscle testing is typically performed through a series of yes-or-no statements or questions. In this practice, it may be used to identify emotions believed to be contributing to distress, including patterns thought to extend across generations, and then work toward releasing them.

After addressing an unresolved emotion, it is important to take some time to reflect and notice whether the urge to binge eat is still present. If the urge has lessened, those emotions may have been contributing to unhealthy eating patterns.