Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 4, issue 9 1 March 2020 | Page 24

We recognise five distinct triggers that stimulate a person to
overeat. Social, Emotional, Situational, Thinking and Physiological. Let
us now take a look at the first two of these five – Social and Emotional.
Social
Food and eating has had a marked social significance for most of
man’s history. This dates back to prehistoric times when people banded
together as hunters and gatherers in small groups. Mealtimes around the
evening campfire were a time for socialising after the activities of the
day were done. The social significance continues to our present day with
some certain modifications reflective of modern society.
Arguments and conflicts with others may be cues for some to reach
for food. These people are usually stress eaters but in this case food
becomes a vehicle to circumvent the anticipated stress and its
psychological or physiological symptoms before they have an
opportunity to manifest themselves.
For some, the simple act of being with others who are eating
stimulates their urge to eat. As we’ve seen, food is often equated with
sociability in our society. To abstain from eating while others are
indulging may be construed as impolite – or unsociable. In an effort to
enforce this social aspect, people are often urged to eat by others. The
overeater may give into this either covert or overt pressure to indulge in
order to cover conscious or unconscious feelings of inadequacy, feeling
that by eating they will be more acceptable to others and more likely to
be accepted by them - to be one of the crowd, so to speak.
A high score in this category signifies that one is especially
susceptible to influence from others. They’ll need to develop skills in
communicating more assertively, handling conflict and managing anger.