How Chain Analysis Can Help You Understand and Change Emotional Eating

If you’ve ever reached for food in a moment of stress, sadness, boredom, or overwhelm — and then found yourself wondering, “Why did I do that again?” — you’re not alone.

Emotional eating isn’t about weakness or lack of willpower. It’s often a patterned response to difficult emotions. And one of the most powerful tools we can use to unpack those patterns is a DBT technique called chain analysis.

What is Chain Analysis?

Chain analysis helps you slow down and examine what really happened before, during, and after a behavior — in this case, eating when you weren’t physically hungry. Think of it as detective work for your habits. You’re not looking for someone to blame (especially not yourself), but rather trying to understand how the pieces connect.

Once you see the chain clearly, you can begin to break it.

How to Do a Chain Analysis for Emotional Eating

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Identify the behavior.
Start by naming exactly what happened. For example:

“Last night I ate an entire bag of crisps while standing in the kitchen, even though I had already eaten dinner.”

2. Describe the prompting event.
What set things in motion? Maybe it was a fight with your partner, a hard day at work, or a sudden wave of anxiety. This is the moment before the craving began.

3. List vulnerability factors.
These are the things that made you more likely to turn to food — like being tired, feeling lonely, skipping meals earlier, or not having used any other coping tools that day.

4. Track the links in the chain.
What happened next, moment by moment? What were you feeling, thinking, or doing?

“I walked into the kitchen. I thought, ‘I just need to shut my brain off.’ I opened the cupboard. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I grabbed the crisps. I kept eating even when I wasn’t hungry.”

5. Note the consequences.
What happened afterwards — physically, emotionally, mentally? This isn’t to punish yourself. It’s to learn from the full experience.

6. Ask: Where could I have used a skill?
This is the heart of chain analysis. Maybe the moment you stepped into the kitchen, you could have tried STOP. Maybe you needed to ground yourself or use a self-soothing strategy. Every link in the chain is an opportunity for change.

Why It Helps

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s awareness.
When you can see your patterns with clarity, you can start to shift them. Chain analysis is about giving yourself space — not shame — and creating more options for how to respond to discomfort.

Next time you catch yourself in the middle of an emotional eating moment, see if you can pause and ask,

“What was really going on here?”
That question alone can be the beginning of something new.

By Dr Michelle Beukes-King