Overcoming Emotional Eating

Hi everybody

First of all, thank you so much to all of you for keeping this forum alive. Reading in here has definitely kept me going. 

I finished my 18month taper and have been benzo free for a year now. Althought life is infinitely much better now, I still feel like I haven't recovered completely.

One issue that I struggle to deal with is overeating, especially at night.

While I was heavy on the benzos, I developed a nasty habit of binge eating at night. When the effect of the benzos hit, it was as if I let all inhibitions go, and started stuffing myself with absolutely anything. I have been eating raw sugar directly from the jar... it was crazy.

Although I don't binge as heavily as used to do, I can't shake the habit and it bothers me quite a bit.. the habit is bad for my teeth, waistline and inner clock.

I'm 100% sure that this is emotional eating, as I use it to calm myself down at night. I'm very rarely hungry when I start one of my binges (which I do almost every night). During daytime I can be quite disciplined with what I eat, but at night I just lose all control. 

So! Have any of you been dealing with something similar, and how were you able to shake this habit?

Thank you so much, and bless all of you in here!

Hi, gM!

It seems in my case that benzo wd has certainly fanned the flames of my cravings for carbs. I've been doing Keto/Carnivore for the last 2+ years and lost approx. 80lbs along with other health benefits, but with the WD symptoms thrown in, it was particularly tough to resist eating "comfort foods" (or drinks for that matter), any hour of the day or night. I did find however, that after switching to Carnivore and finally eliminating most all carbs (which are addictive in my opinion), those cravings faded as time went on. I have to admit, there was still a fair amount of will power that needed to be applied at first, but over the long haul, doing so gave me the feeling that I still at least had some control of my overall health and wellness. Hope this helps you.

R

I actually take a med for bipolar that increases my appetite. Benzo WD kills my appetite so I end up in the middle. For maybe one meal a day, I sort of binge. I also eat ice cream every night as a self soothing thing. I may not even be craving ice cream but I eat it anyway. I eat Ben and Jerry's, so it's the really high fat, high calorie stuff too. I wish I could help. In a way, I am grateful for the benzo loss of appetite to balance out my overeating.

I wish I had a cure for all of us. I am sorry that you are dealing with this. I hope it gets better for you.

HM

I used to eat emotionally and after a cold turkey from a steroid a number of years ago I started to work with a functional doctor and learned about how improtatn it was to heal my body phycially so I started an elimination diet and it changed my life. I lost over 100 lbs and started to feel better that I had in years. I was determined to be healthy and when I started to realize how the foods I was eating affected my physically and emotionally it made me want to do it even more. The first time I ate things I removed and felt so sick after I never ate them again. My bigggest ones were sugar, gluten and dairy.

I will pray you are able to break the cycle as I know all too well how hard it is. Now I lover food just as much but enjoy it in healthy versions and not in excess. Having said that I have been so sick during this taper that I have not been able to eat those things I really enjoy and I actually lay in bed thinking about all the foods I look forward to eating again. You can do this, but it will be one step at a time. It took me a full year to fully implement the emlination diet.