Psychological problems of people with food addiction
'25.07.2017'
We have heard from childhood that there are many addictions in the world. None of us doubts that alcohol, drug and tobacco addiction should be treated. If people with such addictions ask for help, they certainly want to help them, they feel sorry for them and create all kinds of conditions for comfortable rehabilitation. Recently, we have also begun to hear about food addiction more and more often, but they refuse to take this problem seriously in our society, and often, instead of understanding and support, a person suffering from food addiction only receives accusations and ridicule: they say, what is the problem - you need to eat less. The problem is that a person with food addiction cannot change their eating habits, they simply cannot! Let's see why this is happening and what can be done to overcome this hated addiction in oneself.
First you need to understand what food addiction is. Food addiction is a condition in which food is viewed not as a source of energy and physiological needs, but as a way to solve psychological problems.
People with food addiction always feel a certain "emptiness" within themselves. Moreover, this "emptiness" can manifest itself in completely different ways. The feeling of “inner emptiness” is caused by lack of self-fulfillment, banal boredom or resentment, loss or inability to achieve something, fatigue, anger, and the like. Our body perceives this emptiness as hunger, as the body tries to bring about any psychological state of a person to an objective decision. The easiest way to fill the void within yourself is food. When we eat, the psychological state improves significantly, the body remembers it and offers us food in any difficult situation. That's how we get into food addiction.
Symptoms of food addiction (if there are three or more points about you, you should seriously think about your eating behavior)
1. You eat food more than a year or half a year ago, while preferring refined products, convenience foods and fast foods.
2. You need more food to cope with stress or other conditions than before. You notice that you eat significantly more food than other people.
3. You are anxious when hungry. Sometimes hunger can even cause panic attacks, which absolutely can not be a characteristic sign of the physiological state of hunger.
4. You are too concerned that you will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and so much so that if you do not solve this problem, everything else is relegated to the background and becomes unimportant.
5. You constantly sit on diets and try to solve the problem of excess weight on your own, but this does not give any results or the result is very short-lived.
6. You continue to follow your eating habits, despite the consequences you get. For example, you may suffer from serious diseases such as diabetes or gout, but continue to persistently use foods that are contraindicated to you.
Here are the main causes of food addiction.
1. There is no purpose in life and no meaning in life. It is much easier to seize the emptiness and boredom than to look for its causes. Problem solving - help of a psychologist, psychotherapist, group therapy.
2. When we are in a state of loss or frustration. We are hurt and bad, or vice versa, too good and no longer interested - and therefore we eat to fill the resulting lack of "happiness". The solution to the problem is the control of a nutritionist.
3. Various crisis conditions: the threat of dismissal or divorce, the struggle for the love of a partner or parents, etc. ... The solution to the problem is the help of a psychologist.
4. Food - as a way to achieve what you want. The kid eats everything that is offered in order to win over his parents - and this pattern of behavior is fixed for life. The solution to the problem is to change eating habits, work with a nutritionist and a psychologist.
It does not matter what caused the food addiction, as a result, a person forms his own “food reality”, which protects him from anxiety, attacks, remorse, loneliness, and so on. That's when food becomes the meaning of life. Everything connected with food becomes important, everything that is not related to food is expelled from life, including everything that has an unpleasant content. With the help of food, a person tries to survive negative emotions, completely refusing any other ways of solving problems that arise.
New "food reality" characterized by such features
• Calmness, lack of anxiety and psychological discomfort.
• Constant search for pleasure and celebration.
• Replacing relationships with people with relationships with food.
• Erecting food to the rank of sacrament, a sense of superiority due to the possibility of a lot and beautiful to eat.
• The desire to return to childhood, especially in infancy, when food is the main occupation and goal.
• Distortion of ideas about your body. A person may not perceive signals from his body at all, exclude him from the new food reality. ”
Who is at risk?
1. Very often, food addiction affects children from difficult families with despotic, cold, inattentive and unloving parents.
2. At risk are those children where there is a ban on the expression of emotions, especially negative ones.
3. Food dependency is also influenced by the relationship that a person had with his mother. If a mother feeds a child against his will or manipulates food as a reward or punishment, then as a result we get a person with distorted eating habits.
4. The desire of parents in childhood to force "to eat everything" leads to the habit of overeating.
5. Food addiction is characteristic of women more often than men.
Signs of food addiction:
• constant thoughts about food;
• impulsive eating behavior - passing by, a person will surely eat left on the table;
• problems with self-control in relation to food - a person can not resist and not eat everything, instead of one or two pieces;
• we console ourselves with “tasty” in a difficult situation;
• if there is no favorite food, a state close to “withdrawal” occurs - irritability, unpleasant sensations at the physical level;
• desire to eat alone;
• we don’t honestly admit to ourselves or others how much and what we actually ate today;
• experiencing guilt after eating;
• do not want to share your favorite food.
If after reading all this, you understand that you have a food addiction or you assume that you are somewhere very close to it, then you should seek help from a doctor who is specialized in dietology or addiction treatment. This may be a nutritionist, psychiatrist or psychologist.
Food addiction is not a sentence, but in order to get rid of it, you need to do some work, as with any other addiction:
1. Follow a balanced diet, which you will make a nutritionist, taking into account all the necessary conditions of your life and your physiological features.
2. Eliminate all the foods that will disturb you to follow a nutritional plan. It is advisable that your family members also support you and switch to your diet at least for a while.
3. Start eating regularly, do not skip meals, do not try to reduce or increase the amount of portions eaten at one time.
4. Communicate with people with whom you share a common problem. It provides real help in overcoming addiction.
5. Keep a food diary, carefully writing down everything that ate in a day. Even minor meals should be reflected there.
6. Start consciously controlling stress. Use relaxation, meditation, music and exercise.
Coping with food addiction on your own is quite difficult. But if you decide that you no longer want to live in the captivity of food, then nutritionists and psychologists will help you. To admit dependence in oneself is not weakness, but strength. Remember, only the one who wants to be cured gets this opportunity.
