By Shirley Cetner, M.Ed., LPC

Food and eating evoke strong, complicated and contradictory emotions rivaled by few other human activities. They may be a source of great pleasure or great pain.

Abnormal eating behaviors are called eating disorders. Eating disorders span from the anorectic's persistent avoidance of food to the grotesque overeating of some morbidly obese persons. Eating disorders also include the binging and purging of bulimia, repeated binging leading to obesity, and plain old eating more than we know we should.

Different as their symptoms may seem, sufferers of eating disorders share the perception of their lives as stressful and chaotic. Eating or not becomes their way of coping with otherwise unbearable emotions, thoughts and situations. Food serves as a pacifier or entertainer; refusing to eat or binging is viewed as the only way to regain or maintain some control in their lives.

While we cannot deny the influence of extremely thin and flawless-looking celebrities constantly appearing on television, magazine pages, and in movies, the true cause of eating disorders lies a little deeper within.

When we develop an unhealthy relationship with food, we are using and abusing food to fill an emotional need rather than to provide nutrition. We become numb to the needs of our body ignoring the natural cues telling us when to eat and when to stop eating. We also lose the ability to make healthy decisions about food.

Thus, going on a diet, trying to convince someone with anorexia nervosa to just start eating, or telling someone with bulimia to just stop binging and purging will not result in effective changes or desired results.

In order to deal with abnormal eating behaviors, it is important to identify our emotional needs we are trying to satisfy through food.

• Do you often feel sad, lonely, angry, or controlled by people or circumstances?
• How are your relationships with family members, friends, and co-workers?
• Do your eating behaviors change around certain people or situations?
• Is food a form of entertainment for you?
• Do you eat to avoid or postpone something you don't want to do?
• Are you munching out of boredom?
• Do you equate food with love and caring?
• Do you see yourself as a pawn of someone's manipulation?

Try to:

• Address your relationship with food rather than attempt to slim down.
• Read about and understand the biological factors contributing to eating disorders.
• Improve your assertiveness, problem solving and interpersonal skills.
• Learn to grade your hunger
• Use food diaries to identify the emotional triggers of abnormal eating.
• Join a support group.
• Discuss your food concerns with your doctor, friends and family.

Some people need the support of a therapist to facilitate success in developing a healthy relationship with food, your body and your self.