What Are the Treatments for Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating can create feelings of guilt and cause weight gain, especially because you're not eating out of physical hunger. Emotional hunger and physical hunger differ in that emotional hunger occurs suddenly and feels as though it can be satisfied only with a particular food, usually junk food. Treatments for emotional eating involve identifying and dealing with the root causes of emotional distress.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

• According to MayoClinic.com, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps you learn to recognize the triggers that make you emotionally eat. CBT focuses on the dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors connected to emotional eating. Many therapists encourage using a food journal to record food intake to help find eating patterns and their accompanying feelings. By identifying the emotions attached to your eating patterns, you'll become more conscious of your diet.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

• MayoClinic.com also reports that dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) aids in treating emotional eating. This treatment equips you with the skills to tolerate stress and control your emotions. An aim of DBT is to give you the capability to strengthen your relationships. Because DBT is a specialized therapy, be certain you are working with a therapist who has specific training in this field.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy may end emotional eating by helping you process traumatic events and alleviate stress, according to the EMDR Institute. It is a psychotherapy treatment involving eye movement and external stimuli; therapists must be trained in EMDR, so be sure to find a certified professional when seeking this treatment.

Medication

• Medications for emotional eating target the symptoms rather than the actual eating. MayoClinic.com explains that antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), may have positive affects on mood, treating emotional eating. The anticonvulsant drug topiramate also may reduce appetite. Sibutramine is a medication that suppresses hunger, but it may cause side effects.

  Consult your doctor about medication use. MayoClinic.com advises adding medication to a therapeutic treatment, resulting in more positive effects than medication use alone.