Gabe1980 and saoutchik, for me, it boiled down to not being able to get important needs met and self-sedating for relief because I did not know how to problem solve.
8 years ago on 10-17-2012, I began to blog about why I overate to begin with. Searching for answers, I learned a lot and am putting together a blog post about that.
I'll post it here on SR once it is ready to go. I hope it helps others how it has helped me.