Since the pandemic, Ms. B has been accustomed to staying in the office during lunchtime and eating takeout alone. In the past, she would cook dinner and eat with her younger brother who lived with her. Ever since her brother moved abroad, she would often have dinner at home alone. Additionally, due to staff turnover in the company for the past two years, she has been getting off work at a later time. As a result, she has recently given up the habit of cooking dinner. No matter if it was lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack before bed, she would eat while watching videos and posts of influencers online, which made her feel like “having company while eating.”
Food has evolved into the primary source of satisfaction in her life and the most reliable way to relieve stress. Therefore, the amount of food she consumed each day increased, and the preference swayed towards high-calorie and high-sugar foods. Gradually, eating has become purely a way for stress relief (stress eating). Even if she ate until her stomach bloated in pain, she still found it difficult to stop. She felt guilty about this, but that guilt did not stop her from continuing to binge eat. Instead, it made her more stressed, and she ate even more.
How could she stop herself from relying on eating to relieve stress? In September 2024, a study was published in the medical journal Health Psychology, which found that valuable interpersonal relationships (social resources) can help reduce the behavior of stress eating; when you feel that someone understands and cares about you, you are less likely to stress eat. During our assessments of the sources of stress, having social support can help us see the situation as more manageable – we are not fighting alone, we have allies.
One thing to note is that the so-called “valuable interpersonal relationship” must meet the following conditions: 1. Able to support you; 2. Appropriately responds to your needs; 3. Able to care about you; 4. There is a give and take, which means that while I understand and care about you, you also understand and care about me. The takeaway is that daily one-way engagement with the videos or posts of internet celebrities is not a valuable interpersonal relationship.
Recently, Miss B chose to have lunch with some old colleagues who worked nearby. During festive days, she would invite one or two friends over to her home and cook together. She also talked to her brother via video chat more often. In this way, her loneliness and stress gradually decreased, and she naturally started to eat properly and the stress binge eating halted.
Written by: Dr. William Chui
Originally posted on: HKEJ Health
Translated by: Cheuk Long Chan
