Do you feel safe?

Dear, Reader. It's been an interesting couple of days for us. I know you're thinking about all of the things that compel you to eat. All of the information you've been learning about your food. Why have I been forcing you down this depressing path with my thoughts?

When someone comes to me and informs me that they feel terrible about a habit that they have, I begin to look for warning signs of safety risk. Why? The link between depression and bad habits is pretty well established. Food consumption and depression are also established. The thing is, depression and somatic (physical) symptoms are so intertwined, it's nearly impossible to tell if you're depressed because you feel like crap or if you feel like crap because you're depressed.

We've already established that we feel like crap because of what we eat. If you've got the somatic symptoms of depression like fatigue, loss of interest in activities, and unspecific body pains, there's a pretty high chance you've got self-harming thoughts too. Now, when you have self-harming thoughts, your therapist is going to ask you to make this thing called a "Safety Plan." A safety plan will outline your triggers, risk behaviors, support network, and the things you do when you start to feel at risk to counter the bad stuff.

Sound familiar?

Now, I want to be very clear. If you have self-harming or suicidal thoughts, you need to reach out to a mental health professional. This exercise does not, in any way, replace therapeutic intervention. This safety plan we are developing is solely for food addiction.

If you enter into a program for drugs or alcohol, you create a similar plan. This plan outlines what your danger zones are and what actions you take when you think you might drink again. We are going to create a plan like this one for food.

I've created a Food Addiction Safety Plan for you to fill out. Don't panic if you don't know all the answers yet. After all, we still need to talk about support networks and what those look like. However, this plan will help you to see the things that are triggering you and get you thinking about what kinds of thoughts and behaviors follow the impulse to eat. Additionally, you can start to think about the kinds of things are you can do to not compulsively give in. These are positive coping skills that prevent relapse. We are going to learn these coping skills together.

Believe it or not unhealthy eating is a coping skill. Your body is literally starving on a cellular level. You are over-eating because you aren't nourished. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? You are packing on the calories, and you are starving yourself at the same time. Eating is the coping skill your brain is giving you to try to solve the problem of not having enough nutrients. Makes sense. But your brain isn't taking into account your addiction to chemicals in the wrong kinds of food.

We aren't going to spend to much time today worrying what those chemicals are. We will attack the psycho-education about our food later. Right now, let's focus on the safety plan. Tomorrow we talk about supports and how to use them.

If you're struggling with self harming or suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the Suicide hotline (1-800-273-8255).

We're in this together.

Jess