Dear Laura:

Yes, I am familiar with overeating, with reaching out to food so to feel better, very much so.

Here are a few suggestions based on my personal experience:

1. Select your current relationships, eliminate the relationships that have been distressing you for a long time, and that includes relationships with parents. I finally ended any and all contact with my mother in 2013. I regret not having done so a few decades earlier.

2. See to it that in your interactions with people you are assertive, not aggressive and not passive. Assertiveness is a skill that needs to be learned, practiced and improved. It will serve you very well.

3. Practice relaxation best you can, slow breathing, guided meditations (theme: mindfulness), responsible aerobic and other exercise (avoid over exercising), practice  Mindfulness and Moderation in (almost) all things. Slow yoga and tai chi are excellent in moving from the overthinking/ abstract existence, to here-and-now, body existence.

4. Practice gentleness with yourself as  you eat and as you overeat, watch for that inner critic who beats you up for mistakes, for departing from (impossible) perfect performance. Be patient, this is a long term goal.

I will be glad to communicate with you further on the matter, if you want. Will be back to the computer n about fifteen hours.

Have a Merry Christmas!

anita