Food and Anger - need your help!

I've been REALLY REALLY angry recently and a struggling with nighttime emotional eating.  I find that my anger is so overwhelming that I'm emotionally shutting down and trying to avoid it.... by eating.  BADBADBADBADBAD!  I need your help.  What do you do when you are PISSSSSSED and can't seem to get your hands away from your mouth???  I've never been good at properly handling anger - never developed those tools.  How the heck do I stop defeating myself?

Heather

Gosh Beauty I really don't know how to help cause I yell or cry when I get angry and food is the lasst thing I want. I have to prove myself to others by "starving myself" for pity, sad I know, but HEY.

I usually just go to my room and watch TV, read, Cry, snuggle with my puppy....But it gets me out of the kitchen (we live in the kitchen at our house as we have a breakfast bar and a TV so everyone hangs out there)

Big Hugs and Good Luck

God Bless

Lisa

I do the very same thing. I'm working on it with my therapist. She's suggested finding good ways to vent that anger. I recently bought a series of the old Tae Bo tapes - that helps. I scream into pillows. I also have a few "soft" rubber balls that I literally throw at the walls over and over again. She got me started doing that in her office for like 15 minutes straight and by the time I was finished I was in sobbing tears. I SO needed to release the anger. Now that the bottled up semi-rage was released, I can more easily get rid of the daily things that anger me.

Good luck with this. I completely understand how difficult this can be.

~Heather

I like that Heather.  I started telling my son when he was about 7 that when he got mad he could go to his room and through his socks against the wall.  He still does it and he says it makes him feel better.

i exersize...to very angry music.
I scream into pillows
i literally flop onto the bed and kick and punch til I'm exhausted
I've bought dishes at the salvation army store just to throw them against the wall of the garage
I scream in the car

Heather:

I have been struggling with the same thing, too.  Some things that have helped are as follows:

- Simple meditation/relaxation techniques....the book Full Catastrophe Living has been helpful, although it has only been a few weeks since I started using techniques from the book.

- Doing something with your hands.  Hand-kneading bread dough and wood carving for me, although I have to give most of the bread away to avoid temptation.

- Something that might sound a little silly would be for you to stare at your own image in the mirror and marvel at the transformation you have achieved.  You are one fo those fortunate women who are beautiful at any weight, yet there is something mroe in your recent photos...self-confidence, a greater sense of contentment...something. Perhaps tha positive image will help as you work your way through your anger.

Take care,

RP

Here is what I do...

PRAY
Exercise- really clears my head
PRAY
Eat sugar free popsicles- count as water and have almost NO calories!
PRAY
Drive in my car with loud music playing
PRAY

Journal. Get one. Write down everything that enrages you. Just pour it out onto that paper. That's what I do lately. I use my journal for everything. Every feeling goes in there. It keeps me from bottling it up. You don't have to share it with anyone so it feels like a safe "friend" to ***** scream, cry, whine **** moan, etc. to. :)

Go for a MAD WALK! While you're still pissed, go stomp around the neighborhood like you're stompin' bugs! It helps!

Talk, talk, talk to yourself quietly or outloud about what is making you mad. Sometimes hearing yourself talk helps you to get the to the core issue of what is really making yourself mad. Instead of eating live in the moment "okay so this is how it feels to be really pissed off." It is okay to feel high levels of frustration the feeling will pass, give your self permission to have the experience not hide it with food.
If this fails, I turn a radio on to a station with songs I know (I personally like the oldies because some of the lyrics are silly). I pick a song with words I know and sing as loudly as I can. Try dancing to burn off the energy if your really pissed off. I also use stupid songs that end up making me laugh and it doesn't take me long to realize I am not being rationale. 

Good luck. Tricia