A lot of us use food as a coping mechanism.
We’re eating to cope with stress, fatigue, boredom, anxiety, anger, grief…did I mention stress?
This might be OK — after all, coping is good, right? Except that all that “coping” is leading to unwanted consequences. We gain weight or we can’t lose weight…and that is creating stress, fatigue, anxiety, anger, grief.
Maybe we actually need to do less coping.
If you stopped using food to “cope,” maybe you’d be compelled to make changes that made your life less stressful, boring, or exhausting.
And maybe that’s the difference between coping and self-care.
So, here’s a question to consider: Is self-medicating with food allowing you to tolerate things that maybe you shouldn’t be tolerating?
What about your life might you be moved to change if you stopped “coping”?
