Emotional Eating (Or Not)

I mentioned last week that I’ve been seeing a therapist on a weekly basis since last June. I also mentioned that she’s been getting on my nerves of late. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s a competent and conscientious therapist. If I didn’t feel that way, I wouldn’t meet with her.

However, she has recently annoyed me by insisting on more than one occasion that the medication I have taken to battle my depression is NOT the cause of my weight gain. She doesn’t believe that medication causes weight gain (at all) and insists that I must have been emotionally eating.

Well, three different medical doctors (my therapist is a PhD) have told me that yes, in fact the medication I took DOES cause weight gain.

While analyzing this via text messages with a friend, I pointed out that I don’t emotionally eat. When I’m stressed or upset I DON’T eat! I exclaimed, That’s while I was so underweight the entire time I was married to Peckerhead!

I was so stressed the entire 10 years I was married to my ex-husband that I barely ate. I was underweight. During both of my pregnancies my doctors urged me to eat more and gain weight and I did. I gained a healthy 27 pounds each time. But even at full-term I barely slipped into the healthy weight range for my height. I was still boney. No luscious, feminine curves.

Over the years, I managed to throw out all the photos of myself from that time period because I couldn’t stand to look at my gaunt face.

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Later that day on my drive home from work I paused and reflected.

If I was so stressed that I barely ate for 10 years, how in the world did I not screw up my children?

I sat at the red light and mentally waited for a moment. Then I decided that I didn’t want to pursue that line of questioning. I don’t want to question the How and the Why of our two totally awesome sons. Those 10 years are gone. I want to look to the future with my Sweetie and the two kids I managed NOT to screw up.

I guess I would make a lousy psychologist.

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Note: After the divorce I began to eat normally again and gained enough weight to put me in the healthy weight range and earned me some womanly curves. I maintained my healthy weight until depression smacked my upside the head and the medication made me extra plumpy.