It’s hard for people to grasp fully unless they go through something similar, but understanding food addiction and eating addiction is important. Many people will say that, in either case, people turn to food simply out of boredom.
People often point to weight gain and blame it on the food itself, rather than on their sedentary lifestyle. Sure, this may be true in some cases, but there may be a bigger problem lurking beneath the surface. At the heart of either condition—food or eating addiction—may lie emotional issues that people try to cover up with food.
The differences between food addiction and eating addiction may seem challenging to understand at first. Yes, they are both legitimate problems that link mental or emotional issues to food as a coping mechanism. Breaking it down, however, food addiction occurs when an individual becomes almost hooked on the food in question. The person may seem as though he or she simply can’t get enough and will therefore eat far too big a portion of the given food. Food addiction is quite common with sugar, salt, and carbohydrates. This may be due to the positive feeling that the food momentarily provides, or it may even be linked to a certain medical condition. Eating addiction, though, may be a quite different, and much deeper, issue.
Understanding Is Key to Getting Help
What, then, is the differences between food addiction and eating addiction? An eating addiction is a behavior with which the person almost seems as if he or she can’t help it. The person turns to food to help cope with anxiety, stress, depression, or other emotional issues. A person with an eating addiction finds comfort in food and, so, keeps repeating the cycle. Though the person may gain weight, which doesn’t help matters, he or she continues to eat often without realizing it. The person eats excessive portions, often unaware of doing so; but in the end, eating is the only thing that helps to calm him or her. It can be a terrible cycle!
So, though there are some significant differences between food addiction and eating addiction, there are also similarities. Though we don’t often understand such behavior, the people involved are often unable to stop themselves. There may very well be deep emotional or even mental issues beneath the surface with which the individual can’t deal. In any case, the person will turn to food to cope, and the cycle often spirals out of control. Though an individual may not want to come to terms with it, this mental, emotional, and physical condition can be put to a stop, with help, so that he or she can live normally once ready to do so.
