Pay attention!

Note your thoughts and feelings when they arise. Pay attention to those that make you look for a distraction, such as overeating, overspending, excessive drinking, etc. Those self-harming behaviors only offer temporary relief. Allow yourself to feel the emotions, then to release them. It's your way to freedom.

Suppressing your feelings is never the solution. You may think those emotions have vanished, but they typically lie dormant within you. As soon as you are triggered, BOOM, those dormant feelings are awakened with brute force.

If you start to feel something and your immediate response is to go eat that leftover cake, or to add to your cart and check out on Amazon, STOP. Give yourself at least ten to fifteen minutes to examine what the thoughts were that came up for you. The thoughts that made you want to get up and do something that may not be in your best interest. Journal your thoughts and feelings if you have time. At least, give yourself the opportunity to not just to react.

If, after the allotted time, you still want to eat, or spend, or drink, go ahead. But remember, the relief will be short-lived, perhaps even replaced by guilt.

Don't suppress. Express!