Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Conquering Cravings by Managing Anxiety

Cravings are incredibly frustrating. I've worked with many clients and students who share that they do terrific with weight management, only to succumb to cravings that seem to undo all their hard work otherwise. Cravings are especially challenging when they're frequent, intense, or both.


We've already talked about how to beat the cognitive distortions of cravings, and I hope you've found those tools helpful. Today we'll take a look at how anxiety can overlap with cravings, and consider what you can do to conquer your cravings by managing anxiety.


First, let's clarify how anxiety is different from stress. Stress is the body's response to a situation you perceive as challenging or threatening. It's often defined as the fight-flight-or-freeze response. In other words, you believe you're in danger, so your body automatically prepares to either fight back, run away, or freeze. When you're stressed, you're thinking, "How will I handle this?"


In contrast, anxiety is worrying about things that aren't happening. In fact, many (even most!) of the things that anxious people worry about never come to pass. Anxious people are inordinately fond of "What if...?" thoughts.


Personally, I'm not one to stress overmuch. When things are actually happening, I'm usually able to marshal my resources and manage situations. I often find situations many people find stressful to be fun, rather than scary.


Instead, I tend to be an anxious person. My relationship with cravings changed dramatically when I learned about anxiety and began taking steps to better manage it. In fact, discovering and managing my anxiety all but eliminated the sense of dread and panic I'd often experience in the mid-afternoons, which would then lead to intense cravings.


So, if you tend to worry about "What if..." questions, or if you've noticed that you have intense, powerful cravings that 1) aren't related to seeing or smelling food, 2) happen frequently, especially if they tend to happen at the same time of the day, 3) are for what you consider to be "comfort food," 4) are associated with feelings of dread, panic, or fear, you might benefit from exploring whether your cravings are related to anxiety.


Dr. Edmund Bourne's excellent book, "The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook" is a terrific place to start. This book provides a tremendous amount of information on ways to manage anxiety, ranging from self-esteem to cognitions to self-nurturing. You can find more information on his book here. If you check out the book and work on managing your anxiety, don't forget to stop by and let us know what you try, and how it goes! :)

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