When Food Becomes Your Companion

Have you ever replaced companionship with food? At some point, I think we all have done this. I suspect, it is because food makes no judgments, require no accountability and it doesn’t talk back. It’s also non-threatening and rather dependable.

When we don’t regularly invite family and friends into our lives, something will inevitably replace them. Food is one of the convenient substitutions that we sometimes use to fill that void.

Isolatation

We isolate with food for various reasons. Usually, it’s because we don’t want to deal with our emotions, fears, loneliness, and hurts. So, we use food to medicate and to push down those feelings we don’t want to deal with. Our world becomes smaller, which hinders our emotional and mental well-being.

Connection is the Answer

Sharing our feelings with a good friend can be intimidating, but it’s time to take a risk and do something different! Get out of the spin cycle of isolating with food and make the choice to connect with others, instead of reaching for a bag of something. Pick up the phone instead of picking up a spoon of ice cream.

Let’s be willing to talk to a friend about what we are struggling with. Friends or family can offer a good listening ear, pray with us, and may offer some good advice. Just talking to someone can help us get out of a funk and into a better mood.

Another idea is to make a list of activities (not eating!) that we enjoy doing.

Think about the things that we enjoyed while growing up, like bike riding, painting, drawing, skating, and dancing. Those are activities that we can participate in with friends! Call and invite them to do something fun. Get out of the house and go play!

We need people to help us feel heard, accepted, acknowledged, and alive.

Food is never a good substitute for companionship. It will stab us in the back because it won’t solve our issues, it just adds to it with weight gain and all of the consequences that come with it. This counterfeit friend will betray us and end up controlling us!

Every day that we turn to food, instead of God, family or friends, we are digging ourselves into a big hole. By the time we realize that we are in trouble, we are at the bottom of a hole, looking up; wondering how we got there.

We are not meant to experience life alone. It’s time to choose a better way to live. Ditch the fake friend (food) and spend time with the people who care about you. They will help you feel supported, acknowledged and alive.

Have you ever used food as a substitute for companionship? Leave a comment and share your experience with this topic.

Cynthia