My 7 Year Emotional Eating Problem

I'm going to share a quick story of a mental health struggle I've been working through over the past few years...

When I was living in Sicily in September of 2022, I went through a couple of weeks where I was feeling miserable and depressed, even though I had all of Sicily to explore.

I wasn't excited about anything, I was staying in my apartment working all day and I didn't know what was going on.

I was eating lots of chocolate and binging on comfort food like Spaghetti Bolognese until I was so full I had stomach pains and needed to pass out asleep.

It was only after I spoke with my mam on the phone back in Ireland that she pointed out that maybe I was going through a depressive patch again.

She was completely right, and that was when I decided to start some therapy again.

I knew I needed to figure out why I was feeling so miserable and depressed and I was using food as a coping mechanism and a way to regulate my emotions.

I was using food to make myself feel better, to feel less stressed, and to cope with feeling depressed, and with feeling lonely.

Loneliness was the key feeling driving the depression as I was really missing my girlfriend, family and friends (The reality of travelling and living abroad on your own).

This unhealthy relationship with food and subconscious way of managing my emotions had gone under the radar for many years since 2015 because I'd still been training two to three times per week doing strength training in the gym or running.

It wasn't until I went through this rough patch that I was able to gain the self-awareness of just how much this type of behaviour had been impacting me over the years.

So, it was a blessing in disguise because it's only when I've gone through patches of poor mental health or been struggling with high-stress levels or feeling lonely or depressed or different emotions...

It's only when I have hit that low point that I've been able to sit down and journal or work with a therapist and understand on a deeper level why I feel a certain way and then also how to cope with that.

Now I have the self awareness to spot when I feel stressed, what's driving that feeling and how I can manage it in a way that's not self sabotaging or destructive to my mental health.

I just thought it was a really important thing to share because this had been a subconscious behaviour on and off for 7 years that was causing me many issues, but I didn't even realize it.

And I know for sure if I have struggled with this, then there's definitely going to be other people out there who have probably had a similar type of experience.

I think the common misconception people have is that just because on the outside you look like you might be in good shape physically, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have a healthy internal dialogue that will support your overall health.

Physical health and what you look like on the exterior is one part of the puzzle, but figuring out how you can also have good mental health as well as emotional health and understand yourself is a huge part of the puzzle too.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I hope it was helpful in some way.

Warm regards,

Elan "Prioritise your Mental Health" Darcy