Fear and Over Eating

You may have heard rumblings lately, not from your own stomach, but from the media, comparing today’s financial freeze to the Great Depression.

If you are old enough to read this, you have some image in your mind of what that might mean.

I think of my own Mom being sent to the neighborhood grocery store as a little girl because she would not be denied credit, where others in her family might have been. My friend's mom told of the Italian women cleverly gathering dandelion greens underneath their skirts, so as to not be seen.

I know that my great-grandfather, a well respected merchant, lost his store in the depression. The word depression conjures up fear. Recession doesn't bring up joyful thoughts either.

We do not know what is going to happen and all the peanut butter in the world is not going to take away the fear of the unknown.

The fear is only as real as you make it, because really, fear is the playground for the imagination.

There is a strong connection between distress and sticking something into our mouths.

Imagine a baby screaming: in the top three things of what to do, sticking something into the mouth is on the list. I am sure you have witnessed the desperate ensuing sucks that may, or may not have to do with hunger.

Of course, as adults, we know better. Yes, we do, and when we act against our better judgment, the guilt is enormously heavy.

The connection between food and fear is not something we talk about too much.

It creeps into my office.

Last week I heard these words from a young mom healing her own relationship with food, "I notice my Mom feeding my baby in a kind of frenzy. He hasn't finished what is in his mouth and more is coming. He can't talk. You can see it in his eyes that he can't keep up."

I noticed it in myself when I was a college kid responsible for someone else's farm. Something had gone wrong and I found myself putting a cookie in my mouth as I headed out the door to see what could be done.

I once had a client with severe test anxiety, who during a test break downed a whole pitcher of beer. In the Middle Ages, beer was valued for its nutrition.

Was he thirsty? Was I hungry? Does the little baby have much choice?

What do you do if you have to eat everything on your plate and what is being served is out dated? What if everything in your in-law’s refrigerator is outdated?

Many of us have complex relationships with food and eating that often have nothing to do with being hungry or being sated.

Of course, if you are putting food into your mouth faster than a model changes, you would like to be gently hit in the side of the head with a soft two-by-four, so you will never do it again.

But really, with a little time and dedication, you can get to the truth of the matter and take the driver out of your behavior, as easily as you open the door to the refrigerator.