Juan Muvdi, psychiatry expert, on emotional eating: “Work on the cause, not the symptom”
The psychiatrist and content creator discussed the importance of addressing the causes of anxiety and not just the symptoms.
You probably know the feeling - that quick, visceral impulse that sends you straight to the fridge, convinced that whatever stress is weighing you down will vanish the moment you eat something.
Anxiety eating, also known as emotional eating, is an issue tackled by Juan Muvdi, a psychiatrist and content creator who, in recent years, has used his platform to do what he does best - help others navigate the maze of the human mind.
In a recent post, Muvdi discussed how to deal with anxiety eating head-on, noting that it’s far more common than most people think.
“The problem is your anxiety, period”
At the heart of the problem, he says, isn’t the urge to eat itself: “The problem is your anxiety, period. And since you’re anxious, you’re soothing that anxiety with food. So logically, the only way to stop eating out of anxiety is to improve the anxiety itself.”
According to Muvdi, you can use certain techniques to “reduce the urge to eat,” but that’s not where your real effort should go.
“If we focus instead on managing anxiety as a whole, the symptom will eventually disappear on its own, without nearly as much effort.” He sums it up with a simple rule: “Work on the cause, not the symptom.”
Muvdi’s comments section quickly filled with praise, and he encouraged viewers to explore more of his videos to find specific techniques they can use to chase away that invisible, nagging phantom - one that so often takes the shape of that desire to open the fridge.
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