First of all, let me be clear that I’m not talking about an actual eating disorder here. While stress eating is something that most of us deal with on occasion, an eating disorder (such as anorexia or bulimia) is a serious, possibly life-threatening psychiatric issue that requires professional care. If you think that you might be dealing with that, please talk to a doctor or a therapist.

For the rest of us, stress eating can be a way of responding to situations that evoke anxiety or otherwise make us feel helpless. It’s a normal response to chronic stress – we often have elevated cortisol levels and find ourselves craving comfort foods, which often means lots of sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.

While devouring a container of Ben and Jerry’s or a bag of chips may help us feel better in the short term, in the longer term (15 months and counting of a pandemic, anyone?), this habit may end up making us feel worse – we may feel uncomfortable in our clothes or have trouble sleeping. Here are a few suggestions I found on the Internet to help deal with those late-night urges. Again, this is not for people who are inclined to eating disorders as it can make things worse for them.

1. Be aware. Stress eating can devolve into so-called fog eating – we sit down with that container of ice cream or that bag of chips and don’t even taste what we’re eating. We look down and they are empty, and we don’t remember how we got there. Many people find it useful to journal their food, just to improve their awareness of what goes in their mouth. Even healthy foods can be an issue in excess – I personally need to be watchful of those handfuls of walnuts.

2. Do not restrict. One way many people react to the realization of their stress eating is to swing to the opposite extreme – they try to restrict their calories so as to get rid of that new and annoying bulge as quickly as possible. While it’s a good thing to be aware of excess calorie consumption, if you try to starve yourself, you will only make matters worse. That’s when the late-night munchies are caused by actual hunger, and so much harder to deal with. Make sure you get enough calories in during the day, preferably of nutrition-dense foods. If you are wondering how much much you should be eating, talk to a nutritionist.

3. Get off social media. Doomscrolling is definitely a time when many people will indulge in fog eating – one hand on their phone and the other in the bag of cookies. Social media feeds are designed to make you feel bad, whether you are comparing your life to fake Instagram perfection or following the latest disaster on Twitter (that’s me). Chances are, if you are doing that, it’s probably time to go to bed. That is certainly the case for me, more often than not.

I hope this was helpful – I’d love to know what you do to control stress eating. It’s a hard time for everyone, and we all need to be gentle with ourselves and each other.