Struggles of the (not so) rich and famous.

How does one intro posts centered around one's personal life? 'Hey?' 'Yo?' 'What's up on your side of town?' Maybe I'm crazy, but a simple "How-de-do" doesn't seem sufficient prequel (or justification) for dumping a day's/week's worth of emotional and mental crap onto the internet. Should I just put out a general page warning? Beware: here be short people who vent!

The short part of that warning is important - I tend to blame shortness for most of my emotional angst. Somewhere along the line my brain decided that short people carry the same amount of emotional turmoil as regular-sized people, except short people's turmoil is condensed into a smaller space thereby making it more potent, which is why short people are more volatile than everyone else. Or something like that.

So there! You've been warned. Don't come complaining to me when I start complaining over people who complain to me at work. Got it? Good.

Today was one of my first days off in...A long time. In four months, to be exact. That might not seem like a long time to some people, but I've been working full time and been in school full time this past semester and as a result have been feeling burned out and mentally and physically exhausted. I'm an introvert. I need "me-time" in order to recharge and feel energized; being deprived of "me-time" results in episodes of emotional eating, grumpiness, and random crying fits.Because these unhealthy reactions were happening way too often recently, I called a time-out and took a few days off work, In light of this I'd like to take a moment today address some simple facts about emotional eating.

1. It's an addiction.

Emotional eating isn't just another way to deal with stress - it's a very real addiction that can take a very heavy tole on a person's self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth. This is an issue that all the women in my family struggle with, starting with my mother and traveling down the line of my sisters to me. We are healthy individuals who eat healthy things; we love good food; we associate food with community and family and closeness with each other. That being said, we also have a predilection to solve our problems with food. Or celebrate with food. Or make food for others as a sign of caring. For people like us it's a LOVE LANGUAGE - and, like any love language, it can be ABUSED.

   2. Stress-eating cannot be "treated".

My sister, who struggled with anorexia and binge eating growing up, brought up a really interesting point about stress-eating on her blog. She writes:

"I think it is interesting that people with an eating disorder have to learn how to manage their addiction by engaging in it in moderation. Like, can you imagine telling an alcoholic that they have to learn to drink in moderation? Former alcoholics don't try to drink in moderation. They completely abstain from drinking altogether. But obviously one can not completely abstain from eating. Food, and eating, is necessary. So those with an eating disorder--bingeing specifically--have to exercise some pretty intense self control by learning how to eat…and then stop."

Think of most recovery plans for addictions; think of AA. What do they advertise as the point of the whole process? To go "cold turkey". What is the point of almost all addiction recovery groups? To go cold turkey. Do you know what the problem with trying to recover from stress-eating is? YOU CAN'T GO COLD TURKEY. Even the words "cold turkey" have to do with food. What can you do, then, as a stress-eater? You have to be constantly vigilante and constantly controlled, because God-forbid you take one cookie, you might eat them all.

    3. Shaming is not okay.

In a society where not eating is valued, people who stress eat often feel worthless and abnormal because they lack the "proper self-control" to restrain from food. You know what makes it all worse? When you reach for a second piece of bread and get "the talk" or "the look" from one of your girlfriends. You know what I'm talking about - maybe you've even done it yourself when a girl next to you grabbed that last cookie, after she'd already had ONE. The look that says, That's going right to your thighs. Or the pointed, Oh, you're having more carbs? remark. As if for the past hour we haven't been fighting an internal battle over that cookie, or that bite of cheesecake, or that last handful of chips. Apparently smoking is okay even though it destroys your lungs, but bread is bad even if you run five miles daily. Anyone else seeing a problem here?

    4. Support is everything

Ask yourself: if you were throwing a celebratory party and knew that your closest friend, a recovering alcoholic, was planning to attend, would you devote an entire table to alcohol? I hope that your answer is a solid no. May I propose, then, that we show the same care and support to our friends who struggle with stress-eating? Taking the extra time when hosting an event to plan healthy snacks and small quantities of food,  instead of a table with seven packages of Double-Stuff Oreos and five bowls of chips? Such care can often be the difference between a stress-eater maintaining control or going on a binge. As someone who's been there and done that, having a veggie platter at a party is a saving grace.

And...that's really all I have to say on the matter (for now). =)