Why Do I Eat?

I have been thinking a lot lately about my addiction to food and what triggers it. I know that stress is a cause of my eating but another cause is celebration. When something goes well, even something small, I have a strong desire to eat something in order to celebrate.
In my family growing up we always had a very unhealthy view of food. We used it for comfort and we used it as a way to celebrate good things. If it was your birthday you got to go out to dinner. If you received good grades, you could have special ice cream. If there was a get together it was all about what we would have to eat. We never really thought about food as only sustenance. Instead we always thought about it as being tied to some sort of emotion. I am now battling this every day as I try to break my addiction with food and start to get my body in shape for my old age.
The other thing I have been thinking about is that my body image is really skewed. I can look in the mirror, if I choose to look at all, but I don't see reality. I do not tend to think that I am as fat as I am. This came as a sad realization a few weeks ago. I received an electronic picture frame for Christmas. While I was going through pictures for the viewer I came seeing how big my belly really was. Boy was this and eye opener. I am really fat and now that I know that I am changing my behaviors to lose weight.
I dawned on me that overweight food addicts have a lot in common with under weight, even anorexic people. Both realities are a symptom of a skewed body image. I came across a blot the other day that talks about this. How to be anorexic is a blog about anorexia but a lot that is posted can also be applied to heavy weights like me who eats for pleasure and comfort instead of to fuel my body.
I really am working on my body image so I can really "see" exactly how I look. I do not want to be fat like I am. I want to be healthy and trim for the remainder of my life.