The Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast

BEE #142: Breaking the Pain-Emotion-Food Cycle: Strategies for Emotional Eating and Chronic Discomfort

• Kristin Jones

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Are you tired of letting pain dictate your eating habits? This week's Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast dives deep into the complex connection between physical pain and emotional eating. Join host Kristin Jones as she explores the science behind this cycle, offering practical strategies for those living with both acute and chronic pain. Discover how understanding the triggers of your eating can lead to healthier coping mechanisms and a better quality of life.

We'll unravel the difference between acute and chronic pain, examining how the frustration of persistent discomfort can fuel the pain-emotion-food cycle. Learn how this impacts your mental and physical well-being, often leading to weight gain and decreased self-esteem. We'll also discuss the critical role of the brain and neurotransmitters like dopamine and cortisol in cravings and emotional states. Kristin shares her personal journey and the power of mindful eating to break free from this cycle.

Join Kristin's supportive Facebook community (see link below) for connection and encouragement! Then, grab your FREE Stop Dieting 5-Step Guide (see link below) for even more resources to help you on your journey to a healthier, happier you.

Connect with me online:

1. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakthroughemotionaleating/
2. You Tube channel, Kristin Jones Coaching: https://www.youtube.com/@KristinJonesCoaching44
3 . Website: https://www.kristinjonescoaching.com

If you want to learn more about a non-diet approach to weight loss, get my FREE Stop Dieting Guide. Go to https://go.kristinjonescoaching.com/stop-dieting-guide

Needing more specific and direct support for your emotional eating and overeating? Check out my online course, Stop Dieting Start Feeling, and my personalized coaching program, Breakthrough To You.

If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to leave a review on the platform you used to listen and share it with your friends on your Instagram stories. Also, be sure to follow me on Instagram @breakthroughemotionaleating, and don't hesitate to slide into my DMs to share your thoughts and feedback. Your support means the world!

Speaker 1:

Do you want to lose weight but struggle to stay committed to a meal plan because you constantly feel hungry? Does food provide you comfort when you are bored, angry, lonely or sad? If so, you are in the right place. My name is Kristen Jones and I'm a life coach specializing in emotional eating and weight loss, and I'm also a lifelong emotional eater. I want to provide you with information, motivation and support so you, too, can learn to manage your issues with food and develop a healthy relationship with yourself. Welcome to the Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast. Hi and welcome to the Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast. My name is Kristen Jones, and thank you so much for joining me this week.

Speaker 1:

Today's topic is going to be one that I don't think is talked about very much, but I would bet that everyone listening to this podcast knows someone who is in some degree of physical pain, and whether or not they're in physical pain that is acute or physical pain that is chronic, physical pain has a huge impact on a person's mood, on a person's personality, and absolutely has a huge impact on their eating habits as well, and there's a very, very significant connection between pain and emotional eating, and I'm going to explain to you what that connection is and why it exists, and then kind of what you can do to help alleviate those symptoms, those things that can come up with those changes in appetite, changes in eating patterns that can occur when you are in pain. Because when we're in pain physical pain and we are seeking a solution and we can't find a solution, not only are all of those emotions going to come up that are going to trigger our desire to soothe ourselves and make ourselves feel better, which is going to cause emotional eating but there is going to be a level of frustration as well, and that frustration and those emotions and the emotions not even related to the physical pain, but the mental anguish and the frustration that is created when you feel like you're trying everything and nothing is working that is what then, in turn, also causes you to turn towards emotional eating, and so that can really be something that is really really impactful as well. So we are going to talk about that today and we're going to really look at how not only where it's created, but also how you can help yourself and help those that you love when it comes to addressing those emotions and those feelings, and actually, things that you can do to help a person who is in chronic pain or in pain and is seeking some sort of solution, but it's not there now and they really need that support and understanding. This is for all those people who are in pain, but all those people who live with those people in pain, and how challenging that can be as well. So again, welcome to the Breakthrough Emotional Eating Podcast.

Speaker 1:

I always go live on my Facebook group, breakthrough Emotional Eating, which is on Facebook. If you are not a member, you want to be a member. It is at wwwfacebookcom. Forward slash groups. Forward slash food breakthrough. And when you go to sign up to get into the group, I will offer you a mini course that I've created. It's a three-part mini course on emotional eating. It's your first steps in the process of how to address emotional eating. So if this is something that you just newly come across and you newly are dealing with, or if it's something you've been dealing with for your entire life and you are just looking for some type of guidance and direction as to how to deal with it and what your next step should be, join the group. I'll offer you that mini course. Please say yes and I will send it to you right away.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's get into the topic Now. This topic is near and dear to my heart because at this point I am in what is called acute pain and I'm going to explain the difference between acute pain and chronic pain. So acute pain is pain that has occurred, usually as a result of an illness or an injury, and it lasts usually one to two weeks. It can usually be alleviated through the use of over-the-counter medications and it's something that is expected. The prognosis is that you're told how long it's going to last and that's how long it lasts. There usually is not any kind of long-term, long-term effect or prognosis for a person. I have notes, I have to look at them, but a then also hot-cold therapy will work as well to soothe it and to help it go away.

Speaker 1:

Chronic pain is when we get to about a month of the same consistent pain. And I am about two weeks away, a week and a half, a week and a half away from getting to the point where the pain that I have in my chest from the airbag deploying into my chest, my chest, from the um, the airbag deploying into my chest, um that pain were just about a week and a half from it being, from it becoming what would be considered chronic and chronic. Again, chronic pain is pain that is a result of an. It could be an injury, could be a, um, an accident. It also could be an underlying condition. It could be a pain, could be a symptom of an underlying condition that you don't actually have a diagnosis for yet, and it usually lasts longer than what is originally prescribed by your doctor or what is supported by your doctor.

Speaker 1:

You have to have prescription medication in order to gain any kind of relief from it and oftentimes there isn't a solution. Oftentimes you do lots of tests and they don't know where the pain is coming from and, honestly, if you have not worked, if you have not worked around or been a part of someone's long-term medical care, a lot of times it's kind of frustrating and it's almost kind of disappointing to realize that a lot of times medicine is just kind of guessing what they think it might be and then proving that it either is or it isn't, and it that can be maddening and frustrating for people who really need a, an answer and an explanation and a solution to a problem, because a lot of times it's just guessing. It's like, well, it could be this, let's do this and see if that, if that you know, sets it up and makes it so it it. It falls under that category. Sometimes there are things that diagnoses that doctors give that it's just a guess because they've ruled out everything else. Um, and there's pain, and so it might be this, and they always will throw in that might because they don't know.

Speaker 1:

Fibromyalgia is one of the diagnoses that is very common for people who have unexplained pain and that they can't explain what it is. There's no definitive explanation and they kind of don't know what direction to go in, and so they'll just kind of lump it into that it's fibromyalgia and then they'll treat it as that and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it works temporarily and then it comes back. So we have to understand that diagnosing and fixing pain is oftentimes a very, very frustrating and confusing road to be on. So it's so important as a person, as someone who's in the life of another person who has chronic pain, it's so important to be able to understand and to be able to empathize and get what that person is going through. And then obviously I want to explain, for those people who might not know what emotional eating is, the legit definition of what emotional eating is.

Speaker 1:

Emotional eating is the dependence on food to manage your emotions. So emotions come up. People don't want to feel them, their emotions are too intense, they aren't things that someone wants to deal with, and so, in turn, they deflect and they eat instead, and that becomes the distraction that becomes the thing that they're able to do, and it seeks to give them a temporary, very temporary relief from the bigger issue. Whatever that problem is, now there's a cycle, a P-E-F cycle, and that is the pain, emotion and food cycle. And the pain, emotion and food cycle is that pain in and of itself will trigger negative emotions. A person will feel badly about having those negative emotions. They won't want to deal with them, they won't feel comfortable with them, and so and oftentimes it's just exhausting because they've been doing it for so long.

Speaker 1:

And so what do they do to get rid of those negative emotions is, in the moment, they choose to eat because eating gives them a temporary sense of satisfaction and and that and I think all of us have done that from one time but one point or another, and it really isn't that big of a deal if it's something that is an exception and not the rule when we start using that as the thing we use to get through our days and get through the consistent times of being uncomfortable or being in pain, that's when it becomes a problem, because that consistent overuse of food and it's usually high fat and high, you know, lots of high sugar foods those are the foods that usually have a sense of calming us down, and so when we consistently do that, that then creates the issue of weight gain and discomfort and dislike with ourselves, disappointment in ourselves, guilt and shame, all of those things, and then they all contribute to a very, very negative self-esteem. And so it's important that we all understand that all of these things are related, they're all connected and they all kind of want, you know, kind of weave within themselves and stay connected. And they affect not only how we feel physically to you know, even more physically painful, but also mentally and psychologically and emotionally. So how pain and emotion impacts the brain is very, very complex. It's complex and there's a lot of different systems that are at work in the brain that deal with pain and emotions and those receptors. So there are three areas of the brain that are impacted by the disruption of the areas that regulate hunger, reward and our motivation, sorry, our mood regulation, hunger reward and mood regulation.

Speaker 1:

So the three areas of the brain that we're going to talk about today, the first one is the limbic region. And the limbic region is responsible for emotions and motivation and memory, and it is heavily, heavily impacted by pain. And so when it is impacted by pain, the limbic system also responds to those pain receptors and those pain signals. And it is it all. And the limbic system not only has its own region that it controls, but it also has a huge impact on another region of the brain and that's the hypothalamus. And the limbic will impact the hypothalamus when it comes to the, the degree of severity of the pain, and then what the response is by the brain. So the hypothalamus controls hunger and controls thirst and it controls body temperature. And it gets impacted because when pain increases, pain first increases in the limbic system, because the limbic is directly related to emotions, so that's the first thing that gets hit. So pain receptors, pain receptors are all all on fire, they're all firing. Limbic system gets kind of jazzed up for that and because it it's related to emotion. But then it spills over into the hypothalamus because in the limbic region and in the hypothalamus, all of these, these two regions, are very, very heavily impacted by stress.

Speaker 1:

And so when stress becomes an important factor and it changes how a person is feeling, and that stress is not only stress from the outside, but we are talking stress from pain, stress and the stress that goes along with being in pain. And I will tell you I I know exactly what they're talking about when they talk about it. It's not just emotional stress, it's not just physical stress, it is emotional stress because there is a a huge component of when we know we're not feeling better, when we know we're still in pain. We also know that we're not able to do what we usually do, and for most of us, doing what we usually do means working. And when you can't work because you're in physical pain and you so, that stresses you out, because the physical pain is uncomfortable and you don't like it. When you can't work, it also affects you emotionally and financially, and that will also cause more pain, not physical pain, but it will cause more emotional and mental pain. It will cause more emotional and mental pain. And so all of those things contribute together and they contribute together to really frankly, mess up the balance that exists within your brain, and that is really where a person can really kind of get into trouble.

Speaker 1:

And so then the third area where the um that's impacted by pain is the prefrontal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex, as we know from past past episodes on the podcast I talk a lot about the prefrontal cortex is that's where a decision-making is done, as we're planning is done, and it's also where emotional regulation is done, and so pain and emotions impact a person's functioning of their decision-making area of the brain. And so when you can't make good decisions, one, you're not going to feel good about yourself. You're also going to start making more impulsive decisions because you're not going to take the time. Impulsive decisions because you're not going to take the time to stop and think about what's going to be best for me, what's the long term, what's my long-term goal, what's the long-term thing going to be? We just want what we want, what we want, and when you're in pain, you want to be out of pain, and so it is the perfect storm for someone to. And so it is the perfect storm for someone to look to overeating or unhealthy food choices as a way of soothing themselves, and impulsive behaviors are oftentimes the things that people do that lead to overeating and lead to unhealthy food choices.

Speaker 1:

Now we have these three regions of the brain again the limbic region, hypothalamus and the prefrontal cortex and all of those regions are also impacted by what are called neurotransmitters. And neurotransmitters are hormones that our body naturally produces. That impact and are associated with pain and pleasure, and I don't want to say good and bad, but they're. But they're associated with all of our responses and our reactions and so those are also influenced by pain when we are in pain. So the neurotransmitters that will go off when the limbic, the hypothalamus and the prefrontal cortex have been activated as a result of pain, is that dopamine, which is associated with pleasure and with reward. When that, when a certain amount of pain and the negative emotions that go with pain, those things can decrease dopamine levels.

Speaker 1:

Dopamine is the feel good hormone. That's the one that makes you feel good. So when your dopamine starts to drop, you can easily start to fall into a kind of a depression and a desire to um, a desire to increase. It's not a desire to increase your pleasure, it's just your brain's natural reaction to. I don't feel like seeking pleasure, but I know I need it because my mood is going dark. And so it leads to what would make someone feel better if they're not feeling good eating something really good. So you start to increase the amount of cravings that you have, and your brain does this automatically. You're not doing anything wrong. Your brain does this as a result of the increase in these neurotransmitters which are as a result of pain. So so your brain is so, so intelligent, so you have the then reward that you then seek out to get something to make you feel good, and usually what's the easiest thing and the most readily available thing to make you feel good is food. So that's what we're going to turn to.

Speaker 1:

So the second neurotransmitter is serotonin, and that regulates sleep, mood and appetite directly. Appetite, so low serotonin levels are linked to depression and anxiety, which can be affected by habits, and in increased cravings for carbohydrates. Serotonin, again, when you are in pain, the amount of serotonin that's going to be released into your system, into those three areas of the brain, is going to be reduced because you're in pain. And there's another focus, and the last one is cortisol. And cortisol is a stress hormone and it's released in response to pain and in response to emotional distress, and pain can be both the physical pain and then the emotional pain as well. So elevated levels of cortisol. So if you are someone who's in chronic pain, your body's pumping out cortisol all the time, and elevated cortisol levels can increase your appetite, especially for high fat and sugary foods. It could also create what is termed as a cortisol belly, which can also be called a stress belly, which could also be called a pain belly. All of those things are associated with these hormones that are directly created in your body in relationship to how much physical pain you are actually experiencing. So it is. It can be the. The changes that can happen can be a change in in appetite, can be a change in food cravings and also a uh, an increase in your desire to seek a reward, because sometimes just getting through the day is the most important thing for you, and so that is really, really important.

Speaker 1:

So how can a person alleviate that? How can you start to? When you know that you're in pain, or someone you know and love is in pain? How can you help them? The first thing you can do is validate their pain. Don't dismiss it. Make sure that you seek to understand and acknowledge that it's real and that you understand that it's impacting them. And if it's, you acknowledge for yourself yeah, this really sucks, I don't like this. And then make sure you're always seeking the appropriate medical care that you need, because we really need to make sure. And if you aren't getting the answers from one person, go and seek those answers someplace else. Next, like we always need to do as an emotional eater, differentiate between physical hunger and emotional hunger and ask yourself honestly stop, pause and ask yourself honestly, stop, pause and ask yourself and reflect am I physically, do I really need this or do I just want it because it's going to make me feel better? And then we absolutely need to find better coping mechanisms. So, having some sort of relaxation technique, taking deep breaths in, getting whatever kind of physical activity you can get, even if you are in pain, but also doing something creative like writing or playing music or painting, making social connections, seeing friends all of those things are great supports.

Speaker 1:

And the next thing is figuring out what's the root cause. What is the root cause of the pain? Because oftentimes we're dealing with symptoms. We're not really dealing with the actual root cause. So, determining what the root cause is and then seeking professional help to create an action plan to be able to address that directly, an action plan to be able to address that directly. And really important things to remember are what triggers your pain and also what are the thoughts that you're having, because thoughts negative thoughts that go along with pain are going to exacerbate your whole situation.

Speaker 1:

And then, lastly, is really be mindful with your eating.

Speaker 1:

When you are in pain, know that you have to be extra sensitive, you have to be extra careful and you really have to hone in on what's going to be the best thing for you, both in the immediate and also in the long term.

Speaker 1:

So remember it's important again to address that underlying pain, to acknowledge it, to allow yourself to feel the pain, but know that it's temporary and that eating is only going to be a very temporary relief and that it is not going to be something that is going to take the pain away and it will also have a long-term effect that you're not necessarily really up for having as well.

Speaker 1:

So I hope that this has kind of laid things out for you and given you some ideas about how you can deal with your own personal physical pain, as well as help others and support others with their management of their pain as well. I know that I will be taking a lot of this to heart and doing the same things for myself as I continue to recover from the airbag injury that I sustained. All right, y'all have an amazing, an amazing rest of your week and I look forward to seeing you next week on our podcast. All right, take care, thank you, and understand and manage your emotional eating. Sign up for my free Stop Dieting 5-Step Guide. Go to wwwKristenJonesCoachingcom that's K-R-I-S-T-I-N JonesCoachingcom and click the Stop Dieting Guide button.