The Battle Against Depression Eating

[RhiaWolfe]

So, for the past several days I have been going out to eat a lot, eating a lot of junk food, and eating because I'm bored and depressed. I have made some bad decisions. I have stayed strong in one area. I have not gone back to drinking soda. I'm using that as my motivation to get going again. I have not completely fallen off the wagon. 

 

I've been depressed and stressed out in my personal life. I'm having the biggest falling out with my best friend who I have known for 20 years. She is going through something horrible that I cannot help her with and she is lashing out at me. On top of that work is getting stressful and I wonder if I'll lose my job. Then of course the election didn't go as I had hoped. There's so much negativity around me. 

 

Last night to try and combat the depression, I went out with some friends to a bar for Tuesday night trivia. I ended up getting nachos and drinking beer. It was a fun night, but today I feel guilty about it. Even though I feel guilty about it, I found myself overeating junk food again today. 

 

Finally after lunch I told myself to stop it. I'm just making things worse. I have an itch to actually get up and move right now because I've been so sedentary today. I put down the candy and picked up an apple. I'm going to the gym tonight with a friend. 

 

Today is my respawn day. I will make sure I get back to where I need to be! 

[Raincloak]

That's great!  How about listing four or five strategies to cope with boredom, that don't involve eating?

[RhiaWolfe]

6 hours ago, Raincloak said:

That's great!  How about listing four or five strategies to cope with boredom, that don't involve eating?

 

Well, I think the first one would be to not keep bad snacks around. If I have something to snack on, I'll just munch and munch without realizing it when I'm bored, and soon I've eaten a LOT. 

 

I get bored at work a lot because I"m an office worker. So one thing that I can do to try to help (and I have in the past and this has worked) is to get up periodically and walk/run for a bit before coming back to my desk. That gets my mind more alert so I can focus and not be bored. (I have trouble doing this when I'm depressed). 

 

I can't really think of too many other things right now for my work situation. The past few days have been because I was not only bored, but depressed. Depression makes everything 10x harder. Yesterday I got my butt in gear and decided it was time to get back on track. So far I"m doing good! 

 

If you have any suggestions for ways I can improve or help, I'd really appreciate it!  

[ManInTheArena]

Hi Rhia. Sounds like you needed that night out with your friends! And frankly, it sounds like you also realized pretty quickly (within a few days) that you needed to get your ass back in gear before you stopped caring about health altogether. And then you came here. You did a ton right imo by limiting your damage. And now you have this experience under your belt and know exactly how it feels to go overboard one night and let it bother you the next day. So maybe the next time a situation like that comes up, you can catch it even faster.

 

I feel you about being bored and depressed at work. Blah. How do you get out of that?

 

Kudos on the respawn 

[RhiaWolfe]

On 11/16/2016 at 10:26 PM, ManInTheArena said:

Hi Rhia. Sounds like you needed that night out with your friends! And frankly, it sounds like you also realized pretty quickly (within a few days) that you needed to get your ass back in gear before you stopped caring about health altogether. And then you came here. You did a ton right imo by limiting your damage. And now you have this experience under your belt and know exactly how it feels to go overboard one night and let it bother you the next day. So maybe the next time a situation like that comes up, you can catch it even faster.

 

I feel you about being bored and depressed at work. Blah. How do you get out of that?

 

Kudos on the respawn 

Thanks for the kudos! I'm still struggling a bit... I'm wondering if it is the holiday stress getting to me. Also other stressors. I'm working on it. 

[thephantomkitty]

I have personally found that a few minutes of guided meditation a day helps quite a bit with the depression. There's an app called Calm that I really enjoy.

As for work, a friend of mine is super into various things you can play with in one hand. Like resistance balls. Or she has this one fun one that has loops that go around your fingers and you stretch it. No idea what it's called, unfortunately.

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[FallenAngel]

I can be an emotional eater too, normally when I am bored. I have found that not having the foods in the house that I snack on the best way to deter me. I also try and find other things to do to stop the boredom and frustration. There are times when I've been under a lot of stress where I've just not bothered fighting it and having a meal which isn't as healthy as I'd like. Sometimes I think it's okay to blow off steam like that, it's when it gets into a regular habit that it can be a problem.

 

Find you what things work for you in terms of beating boredom and/or stress and try using them when you're struggling