How the capacity to withstand discomfort affects eating behavior.
What the evidence says
- Distress tolerance is the capacity to experience and withstand negative emotional states without reacting impulsively[1]
- Low distress tolerance linked to emotional eating and loss-of-control eating[2]
- Distress tolerance moderated the link between emotion-regulation difficulties and affective lability — lower tolerance strengthened it, higher tolerance attenuated it. The moderation was measured at that link, not directly on eating; eating sat further down the modelled path[2]
- Read as a buffer, that is the shape of the result — but it is an association in one sitting, not an observed buffering; the authors’ own summary is that the findings ”suggest an influence” which ”in turn may affect” loss-of-control eating[2]
- Distress tolerance is a core skill in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)[1]