Emotional Eating, Control & Drinking: What You’re Really Avoiding

Emotional Eating, Control & Drinking: What You’re Really Avoiding

What drives someone to seek a life without using food, drink, or control as a crutch? This RAW CHATTER! episode with Vicky Midwood, "The Addiction Eliminator", takes a straight-talking look at emotional eating, drinking and overthinking after a heavy bank holiday weekend. Speaking from experience and science-based practice, Vicky challenges the idea that alcohol, food or even other people are the real problems. She explains that, "It's not pleasure that you're really looking for.

It's relief" – relief from tension, anxiety, inner chatter and that sense of "I don't know what to do with myself." Whether it’s a glass of wine, a binge, endless scrolling or trying to manage someone else’s mood, she frames them all as different versions of the same pattern: avoiding discomfort. Rather than blaming willpower or hunting for the next quick fix, Vicky invites listeners to look honestly at their own weekend: When did you eat when you weren’t hungry?

When did you drink to take the edge off? When were you replaying a conversation in your head or trying to steer someone else’s reactions? Then she nudges you to go one layer deeper and ask, what feeling were you trying not to feel? Vicky also talks about our struggle with silence, the pressure to feel good all the time, and how many of us were never taught as children how to handle uncertainty or disappointment.

She points out that patterns like over-drinking or emotional eating may feel manageable on the surface, but the long-term toll on body and mind quietly builds. For anyone in alcohol or addiction recovery who keeps thinking, "Why do I keep doing this when I hate it?", this episode offers a fresh angle: learn to handle discomfort, and the grip of those habits starts to loosen.

So what might change for you if, just for a moment, you stopped running from those uncomfortable feelings and simply noticed them?