Anger And Eating

Are you an anger eater? Anger and eating are intertwined for many people.

It's actually one form of emotional eating - and can cause people to gain weight. And if they don't address the anger and eating habit, it will be almost impossible to lose the weight.

The anger could be caused by many things. You may be angry at your spouse for not taking the garbage out. Maybe your boss humiliated you at work.

Maybe your mother told you - in that charming way of hers - that you weren't getting any younger so maybe it was time to find a good man and settle down soon.

Regardless of the reasons, angry eaters overeat as a way to express (or more accurately repress) the anger they feel. They may not feel that they can express it to others so they take it out on their own bodies.

Angry eating is not just unhealthy because of the immediate physical reasons. Did you know that emotional repression - particularly repression of anger has been linked very strongly to breast cancer and other cancers?

You may not be able to express your anger directly to the person (like your boss) but that doesn't mean you can't express it in a healthy way without eating through it.

Eating when angry makes no sense since it's just hurting yourself. Here are several ideas for expressing your anger instead of eating it.

1) Ask yourself - what can I do?

If you're angry or frustrated about a situation, the best way to ease the stress is to feel that you have some control over it.

Ask yourself "What can I do to make this situation better?" Maybe you can look for another job, maybe you can remove yourself from a toxic situation or a toxic friendship.

There's always something you can do to improve the situation - even if you can just learn from the situation so that it doesn't happen again.

Realize that eating in response to anger is what victims do - it's a passive reaction. By asking yourself what you can do to improve the situation you're taking a mastery role.

And that gives you a much healthier sense of control and less stress.

2) Learn the power of forgiveness

Try to forgive the person who hurt you. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but it's actually a fact that if you don't forgive someone - the only person you're hurting is yourself.

You could be hurt and angry for weeks at a certain person - and they could be totally unaware of your anger. So who's the one hurting here?

Forgiving doesn't mean you forget - it doesn't mean you go back for more of the same treatment either. It does mean that you give up your right to seek revenge on that person.

Trust that what goes around comes around and let it go - for your own health, not theirs.

3) Write down your feelings

Take your journal and write everything out. You don't have to be positive about the situation - be real.

Express exactly how you feel and how angry you are. This gets the anger out instead of you shoving it down with food.

Even writing a letter to the person who hurt or angered you can help. Writing is a fantastic way of expressing yourself - you'll find yourself becoming much more calm as the emotions flow out of you onto paper.

4) Stick up for yourself

Many times people eat when others talk down to them or take advantage them. They don't know how to confront or stick up for themselves so they end up eating.

Instead of eating your feelings, try sticking up for yourself. You have every right to be an independent person with your own views, emotions, inherent value and opinions.

By asserting yourself, you may find that some people back down. If you're not used to asserting yourself, you may want to take an assertiveness training class.

But realize at the end of the day that you have every right to stick up for yourself. By eating, you're telling yourself that you're not worth it. That you deserve bad treatment.

So you not only hurt yourself physically by stuffing down too much food - but also mentally and emotionally - by telling yourself that you deserve to be treated badly.

5) Take an anger management course

Some people are never taught the proper skills to feel or manage their anger. So they grow up without a clue of how to handle their rage.

If you find your anger and eating is becoming a problem, try taking an anger management course. You'll learn how to handle your anger and frustration in positive, healthy ways instead of eating.

And you'll gain much more confidence and mastery in your own life.

Those are 5 things you can do about anger and eating.

If you struggle especially with emotional eating - eating because you're angry, sad, anxious frightened etc., you might want to check out the Shrink Yourself program.

It's an online program that will help you stop emotional eating no matter what emotions are fueling your overeating.

Was this information useful? This article on Anger And Eating is one of several articles found in our Emotional Eating information section.