Video Description
Clinical psychologist Steven Mahan explores when ‘comfort eating’ (as a way of coping with difficult emotions) gets out of hand and becomes a problem – and what you can do about it. https://www.thechelseapsychologyclinic.com Chelsea Psychology Clinic are a group of London psychologists and psychiatrists offering private psychological therapy and psychiatry treatment from their premises across central London and Chelsea. The private therapy sessions cover the following areas: – Acceptance & Commitment Therapy – Cognitive Analytic Therapy – Cognitive-behavioural Therapy – Couples Therapy – Dialectical-behaviour Therapy – Mentalisation Based Treatment – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy – Schema Therapy
Video Transcription
Our relation with food is quite complex. So it can be used as a treat, such as Christmas and birthdays. It can be used as a way of sustaining our lives, such as, you know, just to, basically, survive. But for many people, they use food as a way of coping with difficult emotions. And the most commonly used term for this is “comfort eating.” But comfort eating can become problematic. If you use it as a way of coping with you emotions every time you experience anything negative, such as anxiety or low mood, you turn to food to cope, it can then lead to obesity, or low self-esteem if you do gain weight. And it could also lead to a number of health conditions as well, such as diabetes, heart disease. So, someone who comfort eats although in isolation it might not be too problematic, if you’re using it all the time to cope with your emotions, that’s when it can become quite complex. And you might need a therapy to help you to come up with alternative ways of soothing your emotions than with food, such as relaxation, engaging in other activities that you enjoy, speaking to a friend, and so on.
