eating and moods

[wantneeda]

Eating behaviors and moods
Many overweight people have recognized the tendency to eat more and gain weight when they are under stress or pressure. They identify this increased eating as a response to feelings of anxiety and depression, sadness or loss, and as a way of attempting to comfort themselves that is familiar and acceptable. What most people don't understand is that the areas of the brain that regulate our emotional responses — the degree of anxiety and agitation, sadness and depression — are interconnected with the parts of the brain that regulate eating and satiety (fullness), and are under the influence of a common set of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators (chemicals which regulate function within the brain).
The urge to eat in response to emotional distress is not only a psychological pattern or habit ingrained in childhood, but may represent a physiological response to changes in fundamental brain chemistry. For this reason, treatment of the underlying anxiety and depression can often remove the urge to overeat and provide the motivation and confidence necessary to succeed in a dietary program. This is especially true with compulsive overeating or binge eating disorder.

Many people who have suffered with depression off and on throughout their lives assume that it is simply a part of their existence — something to be tolerated like one's height or eye color. In reality, however, people who tire easily, have trouble getting started, feel tired and weak, want to oversleep, or have trouble sleeping,often suffer from a medical disorder, much like high blood pressure or diabetes. Medications that are helpful in reversing these symptoms of depression can also help prevent recurrences.

Many people wonder how a pill could help with sadness or anxiety or if it is only a crutch. They are confusing the ordinary and universal human conditions, such as frustration, disappointment, adversity, job dissatisfaction, and failure in relationships with depression, an excessive physiological response to stress.

Depression in the medical sense means that certain vital functions, including eating, sleeping, energy, concentration, and activity, have been altered. When people show changes in many of these areas at the same time, they are reflecting a fundamental shift in the brain chemistry that regulates daily vital functions. This over-response to stress may eventually resolve on its own, but this process can take months or even years, leaving the person's life devastated and disrupted.

Clinical studies of outpatients with depression show that weight gain is one of the most common symptoms. Appropriate treatment with newer antidepressants significantly reduces the urge to overeat, restores normal appetite function, and improves the motivation and commitment to follow through on a dietary program. This is especially important in the acute phase of weight loss, when so many people who have had weight problems are vulnerable to failure and defeat their intense efforts.

Part of a comprehensive evaluation of obese individuals is to determine whether they are experiencing depression and could benefit from appropriate medications. Comprehensive physical examinations, laboratory tests, and sometimes endocrine tests, can be extremely helpful in identifying the patients who can benefit from antidepressant therapy.
Binge eating disorder ("compulsive overeating")
Binge eating disorder ("compulsive overeating") was initially described 50 years ago, but only in recent years has the extent of this disorder been known. It is characterized by the following diagnostic criteria:
A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:

(1) Eating, in a discrete period of time (within a two hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.

(2) A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode; that is, a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating.

B. The binge-eating episodes are associated with three or more of the following:

(1) Eating much more rapidly than normal.

(2) Eating until feeling uncomfortably full.

(3) Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry.

(4) Eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating.

(5) Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating.

C. Marked distress regarding the binge eating.

D. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least two days a week for six months.

E. The binge eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (such as purging, fasting, excessive exercise) and does not occur exclusively during the course of Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa.

Binge eating disorder is associated with obesity and usually with more severe obesity. Over 30% of individuals seeking medical treatment for obesity and (in some surveys) up to 50% of individuals being seen in non-medical weight reduction programs meet diagnostic criteria for binge eating disorder. Binge eating disorder is also frequently (50% of the time) associated with major depression. Binge episodes may result from any number of factors, but are frequently set off by stressful situations and will most commonly occur in the late afternoon or evening.

just thought i'd share this..have a great day!! \\// Wendy

[Nina Kay]

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Wendy. I do believe that this does reinforce the idea of not only seeking medical help for this depression that causes this eating disorder, but it also reinforces the importance of working the OA program to recover from the attitudes that brought on this chemical imbalance that caused this clinical depression & therefore our eating disorder. Because as we already know, OA works on our recovery by working on changing our attitudes about ourselves & our lives, therefore focusing on our emotional & spiritual recovery that will help to bring about our physical recovery. Being able to understand all of this puts it all into perspective, so that we know what is really going on with us & what we need to do about it, instead of always beating ourselves up, like we do, because we are blaming ourselves for a disorder that came from a chemical chain reaction in our physical bodies. Not because we are weak or lazy or have no self control. Again Thanks. {{{HUGS}}}