STRESS CYCLES - The Warning Signs of a Binge

Today, Shelley explains the stress cycle associated with evening binge-eating. She lists recognisable signs of a stress state. Describing physiological responses to stress, she details how fight, flight, or freeze responses manifest. Listeners are guided to assess their own stress states by checking various physical and emotional markers, including breathing patterns, body tension, and irritability. Shelley explains what a panic attack is. emphasizes the importance of self-compassion in facilitating change.

Shelley also invites listeners to join her community for resources to help you overcome comfort eating and emotional struggles.

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Transcript

Shelley Treacher Underground Confidence: 0:00

today, I'm going to tell you about the stress cycle that's involved in evening binge eating. Hi, I'm Shelley Treacher from Underground Confidence. I help people to quit binge eating by understanding what's going on on the emotional side of things. If you're not sure whether your eating is emotional or if you want to find out how to stop emotional eating, You can join my free community with Underground Confidence, the app. Today I'm going to start with a client quote that's literally just happened in a session. One of my favourite people on the planet came in today saying that she's clicked, that what she really needs to focus on is her self esteem and self confidence, not her weight. Because this is where the real changes get made. And where the power of emotional eating lies. Today is the second part of a series about comfort eating in the evening. Here's a very brief summary of everything I've covered so far. Last week I talked about understanding your eating habits and your thoughts and observing what state you're in all day that might cause you to binge eat in the evenings. I asked you to be curious about what binge eating is doing for you in the evening. Today, I'm going to tell you signs to look out for with a stressed state. Because that's often what causes the binge eating in the evening. Fasting in the day and binge eating at whatever time of day often happens in the same way, with very little regard for your needs, very little pleasure, and in a frantic rush or a disassociated state. So here, I'm going to take you through some signs to know how to recognize so that you might know whether you're in a stress state in the first place. When you come to a comfort eating episode, you might actually be in a state of fight, flight, or freeze. And you may have been in that state all day as you're going about your daily business. So, the first thing to do is to assess for that threat response. You've heard these words before, fight, flight, and freeze. Fight is characterised by irritation and tension in the body, or maybe heat. In freeze, you might be numb, cold, or have a cold sweat. Or you might be very still and not moving very much. With flight, you might have a cold sweat too, and a rushing with your heart beating faster. And your breathing being shallow, up in your chest. Any of these signs might mean that your system detects a threat of some kind. And it's responding as if there were a threat, and it's going to have to take action of some kind to protect you. What happens when this system starts to kick in is other systems in your body start to shut down. Your digestive system shuts down. Your breathing starts to change. As it prepares to kick you up a gear. Your heart rate starts to speed up. And you may get an adrenaline rush. And you also get more sensitive around your eyes and your hearing. So if you ever notice that you get irritable with your co workers because they're speaking too much or too loudly, this might be your nervous system kicking in, telling you that you are starting to feel threatened and therefore very stressed. All of these symptoms, extreme as they might sound, are so normal for us to respond with. Most of us are going through our working life with these symptoms all day long. But they are signs that your body is in distress. So these are the things that you can check. As this physiological shift starts to happen in your body. Is your breathing shallow? Check your temperature. Are you having a hot or a cold sweat? Are your feet cold? Are your hands cold? Do you have any tension in your body? And you might want to check these now. For tension, check your jaw. Often we're running around our working life with a clenched jaw. And our mouths shut through gritted teeth. Check your shoulders. Are they up right by your ears? Are your legs tense as if they're holding something? Or your arms? Or your belly? Check your heart and breathing rate. Is your heart beating really fast? Are you rushing? Do you get out of breath easily and find yourself breathing shallowly? Perhaps barely at all? Are you starting to get irritated? If somebody says to you, Could you just do this little thing for me? Are you ready to bite their head off because you've got a million little things to do? I said that I'd explain what a panic attack is last week. A panic attack occurs at the very extreme end of all of this that I'm talking about. With a panic attack, you might have a pounding or a racing heartbeat. You might feel faint, dizzy or lightheaded. You might feel very hot or very cold. You might be sweating, trembling or shaking. And you might also feel nauseous or sick or have a headache. You might have pain in your chest or your abdomen. You might be struggling to breathe or feeling like you're choking. And you might be feeling like your legs are shaky or turning to jelly. Ultimately, you might feel disconnected from your mind, your body, or your surroundings. This is where you're starting to dissociate. During a panic attack, it would be common to be afraid of losing control, fainting, having a heart attack. Or even feeling like you're going to die. Isn't that such a lot for just a day's work? Going into a fight, flight or freeze response where your system detects a threat and feels it needs to protect you in order to keep you safe. That's not quite right, is it? To spend every working day that way. So you've got to start wondering what the cost of this is. And for the comfort eater, this is often the payment. But even if you don't binge eat at the end of a stressful day, how can this be good for you? But it is no wonder that at the end of such a day, you might be looking for a break and to switch off. Obviously this state can happen to people who are not at work all day, maybe you're looking after the kids all day, or maybe even you're just absorbed in something that you really enjoy but it tips over to the edge of stress as you get too absorbed in it. You could, of course, be eating all day and then be fine in the evening or at weekends. But chances are, when there's a shift, it's because your state shifted. Just in the opposite way, perhaps. It's still a good idea to work out what state you shifted from and to. And why. How were you in the daytime? And how are you in the evening? I'm going to leave it there for today because I think that's enough information to try and process and go away with. It'd be great if you let me know what you've noticed in the coming week. Next week I'll be talking more about over productivity and anxiety. Today I've talked about recognising what state you might be in before you binge in the evening. I pointed you towards looking out particularly for a stress state. And I gave you some physical and emotional signs to look out for. Ending with a description of what a panic attack is. As usual I'm encouraging you to be compassionate towards yourself about what you find there. This is really good information and you need to know it in order to change. Just like my client came in today saying, This whole subject is not about your weight. It's not about what you eat. It's about how you feel about yourself. Compassion is a powerful way to change that perspective. If you'd like to go further with this, please check out my app underground confidence, or follow the link in the show notes and let me know your thoughts. I'd love you to be the next person that I quote in the podcast. Before I go, I have one small announcement. I'm going to produce the podcast on Thursdays. I'm changing my day from Wednesdays to Thursdays to give me that little extra time to edit the podcast. Sadly, I lost my podcast editor, a while back, so I'm doing it myself at the moment. Thankfully, technology helps me with this, I still need a little time to do it. So forgive me for breaking with routine, but the podcast will be coming out on Thursdays from next week. Thank you so much for listening to the end. I appreciate it. You keep me going. Thank you. This is Underground Confidence with Shelley Treacher. I'll see you next week.