Food addiction rehab and support
Overcome food addiction and regain control of your life with Priory’s expert-led treatment and compassionate support.
Take the first step towards recovery by booking your free assessment with our specialists today.
Food addiction is characterised by someone experiencing a loss of control over their eating habits, causing them to compulsively overeat certain foods even when they're not hungry or in need of nourishment.
Overeating is one of the biggest risks to health today and can often be an emotional response to negative thoughts.
The difference between food addiction and binge eating disorder
When examining the features of food addiction, this condition appears to be very similar to binge eating disorder (BED), which is a form of eating disorder. However, it's important to recognise that there's a clear distinction between the two.
BED is a diagnosable and formally classified mental health condition, which often results from a combination of complex factors, including emotional, environmental, biological and psychosocial influences. Comparatively, food addiction develops because of the physical reaction that someone experiences after consuming certain foods, and as such, is more biochemical in nature than BED.
Discover Priory's new addiction services
New: Priory addiction services
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to addiction recovery. Whether you're just beginning your journey or looking for ongoing support, Priory offers a diverse range of specialist programmes to meet your needs whether:
- You're seeking treatment for the first time
- You need a safe, medically supported detox
- You need intensive inpatient treatment, with round-the-clock support
- You need something flexible or remote
- You want help after leaving rehab
Signs and symptoms of food addiction
Everyone has a different relationship with food, and while cravings and indulgence is normal, there are some signs that you could be addicted to food.
- Finding that you'll go to extreme lengths to obtain ‘junk food’ when this isn't available
- Eating so excessively that it causes you to neglect work, friends, family and hobbies
- Experiencing problems at work because of food and eating
- Finding that you need to eat to reduce negative emotions, for example, to relieve anxiety and stress
- Being secretive or dishonest about your eating behaviours
- Experiencing guilt after overeating
- Feeling as though food controls your life
- Feeling as though you're unable to stop overeating despite the negative consequences this causes
Research into eating disorders has found that emotions, particularly negative ones, can increase food consumption. Those negative emotions, particularly related to attachment, such as emptiness and loneliness, need to be further explored for us to better understand overeating.
Given the nurturing properties of food in the caregiver relationship, one interpretation is that obese people turn to food as a representation of maternal soothing, with the sufferer having a sense of anxiety, loneliness and depression and an inability to self-soothe when experiencing these states.
- Unable to stop eating certain foods even when you're not hungry
- Eating more quickly than other people
- Eating to the point of feeling physically unwell/nauseous
- Finding that you need to eat increasing amounts of food, and more frequently, in order to feel satisfied
What is the main cause of food addiction?
If we delve deeper into overeating, we uncover a likeness with substance addiction. By using the existing information about causes of addiction, we can see some similarities.
Some of these similarities include:
- Hypersensitivity to the behaviour of others
- Dissociation to relational issues, where the person is emotionally detached from those around them
These factors are thought to impact the level of tolerance people have to negative emotional states, resulting in compulsive quick fixes, such as addictive behaviours or overeating.
What happens if food addiction is ignored?
Without support for food addiction, it can result in a range of serious long-term physical and psychological problems, which may include:
- Obesity, leading to further related problems including diabetes, heart attack, cancer, bone and joint problems
- The development of other disorders relating to food and eating, such as bulimia nervosa
- Long-term depression and anxiety
- Breakdown of relationships with family, friends and romantic partners
- Intense feelings of isolation and shame
- Developing another form of addiction alongside your food addiction, such as alcohol addiction or drug addiction
Treatment for food addiction
Our addiction specialists understand that seeking help for your food addiction can be overwhelming. That’s why we offer a free initial addiction assessment, enabling you to discuss your food addiction in a safe, supportive and highly compassionate environment. We offer a range of addiction treatment services at Priory, and we'll be able to determine which one is the most appropriate for your needs during the free assessment. Treatment may consist of a combination of therapy types in order to address your unique addiction and facilitate recovery. Depending on the programme you're on, food addiction support may involve:
- 1:1 therapy
- Group therapy
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
Our approach to food addiction treatment
We understand that overeating isn’t just about food – it’s often tied to deeper emotional needs and life experiences. That’s why our approach looks beyond the surface and focuses on what’s really driving these behaviours. During treatment, we aim to:
- Explore how early life experiences and emotional coping habits may have shaped your relationship with food
- Look at how your relationships and sense of attachment to others may influence your eating patterns
- Recognise that emotional overeating is complex, and the support you need should reflect your individual experiences
- Help you build new, healthier ways of coping – because if food has become a way to manage emotions, it needs to be replaced with something that works just as well
- Challenge common misconceptions about obesity being down to poor willpower – it’s often much more complicated than that
- Understand how food can be used in a similar way to substances in addiction, and support you to break that cycle through trust-building, therapeutic relationships
- Pay close attention to how overwhelming emotions – like loneliness, anger, or even happiness – may lead to overeating, especially if it’s hard to understand or express those feelings
12-step philosophy for food addiction
Food addiction treatment and therapy at Priory is underpinned by the renowned 12-step philosophy, which is a well-known addiction treatment model, founded by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The 12-step model combines a person's food addiction with their motivation to change, as a means of facilitating recovery.
