TOXIC SHAME

 

Toxic Shame

 

What keeps someone struggling with food addiction and compulsive eating ? Why is it so hard to end that vicious cycle of emotional eating and binging ?

For many people it is the pain of feeling “toxic shame”. Psychotherapist and author, John Bradshaw, has written extensively about shame and how it can keep someone paralyzed in dysfunctional patterns. When a compulsive eater uses food to feel better, to run from painful emotions or stress, he/she is entering a spiraling cycle of eating.

This can be perplexing for many because it is hard to understand how powerful toxic shame can be when you are under its spell. Someone who is feeling toxic shame believes that they ARE wrong, bad, unworthy. This kind of thinking ultimately leads to more emotional pain and poor self worth. These feelings then lead to more running from emotion by numbing out with food. You can see how toxic shame can keep someone trapped in an unhealthy and dangerous cycle.

At the Kayenta Lifestyle Transformation Program, we help people get out of the shame cycle and rid themselves of the false core beliefs that hold them in that cycle. We teach how “Healthy Shame” can actually be your ally in stopping compulsive eating.

For more information about how to end your unhealthy relationship with food through the Lifestyle Transformation Program, please contact me at:

     lifecoachally@gmail.com

               or

     kayentatherapy.com

We all have the right to live an energized, connected, balanced life! Make yours happen.

Karie Lindsay, MSW, Certified Professional Coach

 

Emotional Eating

Emotional Eating

 

Emotional eating is a very human experience. We don’t just use food for fuel, we use it to celebrate, to comfort, to ease stress, to show love, and to medicate painful emotions. So when does emotional eating turn from something moderate and natural into something that is compulsive and unhealthy?

When emotional eating takes a turn into a type of eating that becomes unmanageable, automatic and with negative consequences, we call it compulsive eating. Compulsive eating can become a very vicious cycle for people who become dependent on food as a numbing agent against painful emotions. Our brains actually reinforce this kind of eating by setting up neurological pathways that allow “feel good” chemicals to surge through our systems when we binge on foods that are high in sugar, fats and salt. So, we get a mood altering neurochemical effect from eating which can become habitual for people.

This intense emotional eating can exact a heavy toll on one’s physical, emotional and social life.

Not everyone who compulsively eats deals with obesity. For the large majority of people obesity is one of the devastating negative physical consequences that comes from their unhealthy relationship with food. But, there are others who are secretly at war in their heads with food, but you might never know it. This is a painful and lonely emotional life to live.

There is help for compulsive eating, binge eating, intense emotional overeating, food addiction. Whatever you wish to call it, it is an epidemic in our society, and more resources and programs are needed which target this underserved population.

Here in Las Vegas, I direct a program called Kayenta Lifestyle Transformation. This is an outpatient compulsive eating program which helps clients to change the way they eat, live and connect to their life.

For more information, please visit: Kayentatherapy.com Click on the help for compulsive eating tab.

Take the brave step of caring for yourself and those around you by seeking help.                         

                                                  Karie Lindsay,MSW,CPC