A Magical Life: Health, Wealth, and Weight Loss

Today's listener question brings us into detail about eating disorders.  There is a strong correlation between weight fluctuation and depression/anxiety.  Eating disorders can have lifelong effects on the body.

Anorexia nervosa: a refusal to maintain body weight and an extreme fear of gaining weight, as well as a disturbance in body image.  Anorexia often starts with a diet and in response to perfectionism, desire for high achievement, or high pressure situations such as a wedding, which cause the person to crave a sense of control.

Bulimia nervosa: a recurring cycle of binging and purging, using inappropriate compensatory techniques such as laxatives, induced vomiting, and enemas.  The binge eating is an attempt to raise seratonin levels, but the pleasure of eating is replaced by the pleasure of the purging. 

Binge eating disorder:  a compulsion to eat rapidly, secretly, until uncomfortable and disgusted by oneself.  Binge eating disorder can happen in response to a VLCD (very low calorie diet) and doesn't include the compensatory techniques that characterize bulimia.

Body Dysmorphia: I myself suffer from body dysphoric disorder.  I simply cannot see my body for what it is.  Before my wedding, I couldn't see how frail I was becoming.  When I was pregnant and tripling my weight, I had no concept of what my body should be like.  

Food addiction: a physical and psychological dependence to chemicals that soothe an emotional response, conditioned by psychological trauma and food as a reward.  Humans are attracted to psychological trauma.  We create it, we put meaning on it, in ways that other animals simply do not.  We need to see it for what it is before we make it mean something it's not.  Any substance that crosses the blood-brain barrier can become an addiction: food, alcohol, nicotine, chemicals, or even an emotional response.

Phases of addiction: 

1. Experimental: curiosity about trying new things, not a habit
2. Recreational: regular patterns of use are formed and integrate into social settings
3. Early dependency: regular use becomes regular abuse.  The user's relationships and work suffer, and they may withdraw and become irritable when questioned about the dependency.
4. Full dependency: self-destructive phase where the substance is more important than anything else in the user's life.

Addiction follows a reward system.  The substance provides a feeling of comfort in reaction to a stressor, which feeds addictive behavior, which creates shame and depression, which is another stressor. 

A 2008 study in rats found that sugar activates the opiate receptors in the same ways that cocaine does.

The most powerful takeaway for you today is this: even if you don't have one of these horrendous disorders, do your best to live your life with acceptance and tolerance.  You don't know anyone else's struggle.  Find something in every day that you are grateful for that you can do.  Don't base your day and your worth on how you look.


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