In the last 6 months.
Do you feel out of control when you’re eating?
Do you eat in secret?
Do you eat until you cannot eat anymore?
Do you eat extremely fast?
Do you eat food even when you are not hungry?
Do you feel guilty, ashamed or disgusted after eating?
Do you feel powerless to stop eating?
Do you have episodes of suddenly eating large quantities of food, followed by a phase of guilt?
Do you think extensively or plan about what you want to eat?
Does eating help you escape from worries, stress, mental restlessness and give you comfort and sense of control?
If you have more than 6 “yes” from the above questionnaire than your LOVE FOR FOOD, has become an obsessive behavior that's coming out of your decrease love for life. The following is a guide to help you regain your happiness.
1. NO, You are not Mad!
Unfortunately whenever a psychiatrist or any other emotional/behavioural healer gets up to speak of a disorder most people shut their brains with the psychological banner “I am not Mad, I don’t need to listen to this” pasted all over their senses.
So before we start I would like to guarantee you that you’re not MAD, but your brain/mind complex is reacting in an extreme sensitive way. Its crying for help through physical actions.
2. Such a great Love for food or obsession for food is called Compulsive Overeating?
· Compulsive overeating is a maladaptive behavior pattern.
· It normally starts within late adolescence and early adulthood ( between 18-24yrs) and continues to adulthood if not controlled or treated for.
· It’s higher in females than males.
· As the name suggest a person develops a pattern of overeating. What starts with occasional extra nibble of food, slowly grows into a behavioural pattern where eating become uncontrollable.
· A person might eat even if not hungry.
· Even thou the affected person promises himself/herself to stop eating from next day. The very site, smell or thought of food triggers an uncontrollable desire that is satisfied by over indulgence into food.
3.Why Me?
· The most common question people suffering from this problem as is, “why me?” Why have I developed this when none of my family or friends has it.
· Remember I mentioned above that it’s a maladaptive behavior pattern.
· As you know all behaviors are triggered by a thought.
· A thought is produced in the mind, from where it travels and ends by stimulating the brain. Depending upon the area of the brain stimulated a particular behavior is seen.
· When the Mind is exposed to high levels of negativity, stress or restlessness, by natural instinct it tries to counter it by generating positivity.
· Since generation of happy thoughts is not possible without will power, the Mind tries to create this positivity by triggering actions or behavior patterns.
· Of all the 5 senses, the ones that bring greatest satisfaction and happiness are touch and taste.
Henceforth what starts with occasionally eating high calorie food to feel happy, slowly over months becomes the only way to fight negativity, stress and restlessness by the mind.
4.Symptoms of Compulsive Overeating?
Once triggered this disorder creates negativity in mind and brain. This is experienced by an individual as:
oEmotional symptoms ( 3 or more of the following are present)
- Feeling stress or tension that is only relieved by eating
- Embarrassment over how much you’re eating
- Feeling numb while eating or doing other activities - like you’re not really there or you’re on auto-pilot.
- Never feeling satisfied, no matter how much you eat
- Feeling guilty, disgusted, or depressed after overeating
- Desperation to control weight and eating habits
oBehavioural symptoms ( 3 or more of the following are present)
- Inability to stop eating or control what you’re eating
- Rapidly eating large amounts of food
- Eating even when you’re full
- Hiding or stockpiling food to eat later in secret
- Eating normally around others, but gorging when you’re alone
- Eating continuously throughout the day, with no planned mealtimes
5. I tried to Control on my own, but I end up worse?
Once triggered, if tried to control in an unprofessional way, the compulsive overeating leads to withdrawal effects.
The commonest behaviour applied is to stop eating even when the urge arises.
Such behaviour pattern leaves the mind completely perplexed on how to vent out the large flow of thoughts. Eventually leading it to trigger random areas of the brain.
This is experienced as severe emotional and behavioural manifestations as anxiety, anger, mood swings, suicidal thoughts, depression, lack of emotional connect, decreased concentration, decreased sleep, excessive restlessness, etc.
6 6. Cure?
Professional way of handling such a problem:
- A complete analysis of the personality to find out the areas of stress, negativity and restlessness.
- A complete analysis of reasons for generations of such negativity.
- Treatment of withdrawal effects
- Treatment of any clinical problems like diabetes, high bp, obesity, depression, anxiety that has been triggered by this condition.
- Once medically fit Mind Training- a guided process to re-train the mind to use less harmful ways of expressing stress and negativity.
- regular feedbackm to prevent any relapse.
As a medical professional in the field of emotional and behavioural health, I have already helped hundreds of people detoxify from this problem.
If you want any further help to battle this problem, feel free to contact me at the following,
Dr.Hemant MittaL
(MBBS, PG.DPM, M.D.(Mind Mantra Wellness Concepts - Mumbai))
For any further query, especially regarding Stress, Depression, Emotional, Behavioural, Sleep, Memory, Concentration and Sexual Health feel Free to Contact me at:
9. Smiling Makes You Seem Successful
