Anxiety (Free Floating Anxiety=FFAs)

I've been thinking about posting this since yesterday so I'm spending my lunch break BOTTing and sharing with you.

Yesterday I was feeling this general sense of being anxious.  I didn't really know what it was because there wasn't anything specific going on.  Usually there is some situation that causes emotions that trigger my head hunger.  I'll go through the things that work for me to process the emotions and situations that are overall successful in combating emotional eating.

This feeling of anxiety wasn't horrible but I was very aware of it.  I really wanted to eat.  Emotional eating would make that uncomfortable feeling of being so anxious either go away or dull it.  Also, I was troubled because there really wasn't anything to hang my hat on as to why I was feeling the way that I did.

When it persisted, I created a list of what was going on for me that came to mind.  There were probably eight different small things.  I checked them a few times to review each one individually and deal with how to handle or why it was on the list.  After about an hour, the anxiety was much calmer and more manageable.  Just from making the list and reviewing each item individually beat the FFAs.  When I thought of FFAs, I thought of these things just hanging over my head floating around.  When I put them in writing, I was able to deal with each item.

The reason I share this with you is that it is so profound to me.  The anxiety wasn't a result of any particular large thing but just a list of little small things.  Those little small things combined were enough to cause the uncomfortable emotions.

I'll step out a little bit and tell you my thoughts on BOTT.  Food, exercise, vitamins, water are extremely important.  As wls patients we focus on our outsides of losing weight and obtaining our health.  There's also the emotional component that sometimes gets lost or just not wanted to deal with.  If we stop at the outside, the inside will still cause us head hunger screaming at us, still fighting the tug of war between emotions and food, driving the urge to emotional eating and still not living our life without the crutch of food.  I believe that if we deal with the emotions with strategies that work for us, the food and emotionally eating isn't the draw that it once was.  Food is the symptom and not the problem like many of us thought (or think). 

I feel a success from yesterday.  The FFAs were really strong and causing a persistent uncomfortable feeling of anxiety.  As much as I thought about eating, I didn't and that was hard.  The rationalizations came and I made them go.  I also picked up a new strategy of making a list - writing them down to review individually.  Give each one my attention, dealing with it and put into perspective.

I just wanted to share this to see what all of you think as to the emotional component in your own BOTT.

Thanks for reading.

Cathy

Wow Cathy, 

This is very interesting and you are so right.  When I talk to members on the phone that are starting the process I tell them thy have to get it right between the ears before re-arranging their plumbing.

The next  time I feel this way (and I do often) I will try and write it down...I guess getting it on paper takes away the power it has over us.

I hope members will start to dig deep or we will never get off this Merry Go Round.

Take care,
Kathy

I thought I was just sitting down at the computer to post to the daily BOTT cardio/cafe thread, but now I know it was really to read what you just wrote.  This was so meaningful to me, esp. this afternoon, as I am battling exactly what you described. 

I agree with everything you've said here.  Although I know full well that my weight issue is primarily a symptom of inner issues, I still suppress--or just don't effectively deal with--the roots of my emotional eating.

Thank you so much for what you wrote.

Cathy, I could have really used this on Friday : ) but now I have it for future use.  On Friday I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin near the end of my work day.    I still don't know what it was ..    If I can get my mind around it the next time it happens I will definatly try to write down what I think is going on..    Thanks for the new tool to add to my now growing bag of  tools... Maria

as usual, Cathy~Perfect timing....must be something in the air, given the other posters.  I have had this odd sense of anxiousness about me as well.  As my clients would say, 'its there, just not in bold print" so it wasn't something that I could quite put my finger on.

Next time, I will write down at the very least, what I think it is....maybe even that will help.

Have a great evening.

Thanks for sharing, Cathy!  I'm sure this method will come in handy.

Kris

Cathy, I'm glad you posted this b/c I think its a very helpful thing. I have felt myself in that state before too, but not knowing how to deal with it. I think your strategy of writing everything down was great! I'm going to give it a try the next time I'm struggling! Thanks!