A doctor has named the root causes of why you can’t deny yourself a burger

physician, psychosomatologist, neuropsychologist

We all want to look good. At the same time, everyone has their own “good”. Some like bright makeup, others – its complete absence. Someone considers long hair as an indicator of beauty, and someone bets on a fashionable short haircut. And so it is everywhere. With the body, too, everything is ambiguous. Skinny is in fashion, then shapes. What to cling to in this world of changing trends? The answer is unambiguous – for health.

The body can be different. If it does not fit into the generally accepted standards of beauty, it is normal. However, there are some points to which you should pay attention not from the point of view of visual aesthetics, but health. There is nothing more beautiful than feeling healthy.

Let’s dive into the topic of overweight in more detail. What is behind it? How does the psyche affect its presence in the body?

What is overweight?

If briefly, the weight called “overweight” is nothing but fat deposits in an amount that exceeds the value of the norm.

Overweight itself is not a disease, but weight is a factor that provokes a lot of problems related to the body (autoimmune diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, etc.).

It is important to note here that everyone has fat deposits. Their presence is dictated by nature itself. Without them, the body simply can not qualitatively exist. Looking ahead, I will say that this is why “aggressive” diets do not work. Given that the “fat reserve” is necessary in the body, why does it happen so that it accumulates in excess?

Psychosomatics of overweight and dangerous age

Undoubtedly, when correcting body weight, first of all we pay attention to systematic motor activity, sufficient consumption of clean drinking water every day and proper nutrition. Why is it sometimes not enough? The formula of health, according to scientists, consists of the sum of physical, material, social and spiritual well-being of a person.

If we know and understand the first three components, what does “spiritual well-being” mean ? It refers to the inner state of a person: awareness of oneself and one’s place in the world, the ability to distinguish one’s needs from those imposed by society, as well as understanding and feeling one’s body.

Working with the psyche is sometimes the key to weight issues, but it is not a “magic pill” that will do everything for you, but the key to discovering new facets of yourself.

Now let’s touch on the topic of age. Why is it worth bringing it up? The fact is that the excess pounds that are now difficult to “drop” when they started to gain… There was a breakaway point, an “impulse” that made the body store more and more fat deposits.

Each case is unique, but the predisposition to the psychosomatics of overweight (to the psycho-emotional causes of fullness) is usually formed at the following stages:

• in childhood (three to 10 years of age);
• in adolescence – adolescence (from 11 to 18 years);
• in adulthood (from 19 to 40 years of age).

The age that is outside the classification is generally not the period when excess weight becomes fixed in the body, and therefore is least considered by specialists as a provoking factor.

However, regardless of age and specific problems , the appearance of excess body weight in psychosomatics is always associated with a lack of love and warmth, damage to the inner support. Metaphorically, the body stores what it lacks. The psyche tries to compensate for what it lacks either by eating or by searching for secondary benefits from the accumulated kilograms.

Everything comes from childhood

Childhood and adolescence is the period when a person is most vulnerable, the body and psyche are just beginning to form. We are learning about the world. This time is also dangerous because it is difficult for a child to resist influence. Parents, relatives, friends, teachers and even unfamiliar people can greatly change and distort his picture of the world.

Run your eyes over these lines:

• “Finish your food, I said!”;
• “You can’t go for a walk until you’re done!”;
• “What do you mean you don’t like it? Eat what you’re given!”
• Finish it, you’re leaving your strength on the plate!”;
• “A spoon for mom, a spoon for dad! What do you mean, you don’t want to? Don’t you think about your parents at all?”
• “Eat your soup and I’ll buy you a cake.”
• “Eat up, you’ve gotten so thin: skin and bones!”.

If everything shrunk inside, you definitely heard it from your mother, grandmother or kindergarten teacher.

Sometimes these attitudes can provoke refusal to eat. Here come eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia. Sometimes they become the cause of weight gain. Here both overeating and emotional hunger. A person can succumb to “religious” manipulation. This is from the category: “It is a sin not to finish or throw away food”.

Children learn about the world through associations. Can you guess what attachments will form in the mind of a child who every day faces the above-mentioned attitudes from authoritative adults? For example:

• food as a punishment: misbehaved – you will not get a sweet; spoiled at the table – now you eat unloved semolina;
• food as a reward: if you were diligent, you will get candy or even a delicious cake;
• food as a way to pay off: “Have an ice cream, but leave me alone, I’m tired!”, “Have a chocolate bar, but don’t shout at the whole store”;
• food as manipulation: “I tried, I cooked, and you didn’t even ask for more!”, “Eat, I said, I don’t like thinness”.

What happens to children who have lost or never gained contact with their bodies and emotions? They grow up with it. They get older, pump up schools, get a job, but still can’t find the connection between their health issues and their psyche.

A person either “takes with him” into adulthood unprocessed traumas of childhood, or due to the fact that he has not learned to defend personal boundaries, to live positive and negative emotions, creates the ground for the emergence of new traumatic situations.

For example, it is common for a guy or girl to gain weight after the breakup of a long relationship. At the right time, no one suggested that it is possible and necessary to live the negative, rather than trying to avoid it in every possible way. Gaining weight here is an attempt to hide, to ward off suffering.

When such a person becomes an adult, any shocks (separation, loss), sudden changes (job loss, expulsion from university) and, on the contrary, their absence (life as “Groundhog Day”) can trigger in his body not only the accumulation of fat deposits, but also their reliable retention. After all, it is a kind of armor from the outside world, and sometimes – and from himself.

So, we have analyzed the most dangerous age, when you can start destructive mechanisms that will then control the food behavior of a person for the rest of his life. Now we need to understand what to do about it.

Psychosomatics of excess weight. How to work through the causes?

I am going to highlight the main psychological causes of overweight and arm myself with tips on how to work through them. How to help yourself? What to pay attention to? Where to start?

Reason #1. An attempt to satisfy emotional hunger

Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish which hunger is psychological and which is physiological, because it really seems to a person that he is hungry. Thus, frequent snacking between the main meals or the presence of a large amount of sugar in the diet leads to overweight.

But still, its root cause should always be sought in the psyche. “Eating” emotions, suppression of negative feelings, as well as their shadow side, the prohibition of being yourself, longing, frustration – any event or phenomenon can provoke the desire to eat more than required by the body.

How to help yourself?

Track what you consume. This applies not only to food, but also to information. Do you have a TV running background noise, do you leaf through social media feeds to “kill time”. Every time you’re about to have a snack, ask yourself: “Am I really hungry or am I just bored?”. Start a food diary (without taking into account PBMC) to analyze all the circumstances of how you organize your “snack time”. When, at what time, in what quantity?

Perhaps you will notice interesting peculiarities. For example, that you reach for food only when you are not busy with anything. Also often eat just “for company”. Listen to your body. It is your friend and assistant.

Reason #2. Staying in a state of internal conflict

Often it is intrapersonal conflict that causes weight gain. No wonder, because our body and psyche work and make efforts to resolve it. Negative emotions take twice as much energy as positive ones. To cope with the wave of worries, the body requires more and more calories, especially from fast carbohydrates (sweet carbonated drinks, chocolate, candy, etc.).

How to help yourself?

Pay attention to macro and micronutrient deficiencies/deficiencies in the body. It is important to balance them. It is also necessary to seek help from a specialist, because the state of conflict, whatever it is caused by (low self-esteem, insecurity, frustration, guilt, etc.), in a neglected form can lead to even more serious disorders. Both bodily and mental.

Reason #3. Increased level of anxiety

Anxiety, feelings of dread, phobias (more serious and intrusive fear), and panic attacks can prompt binge eating. This is because the psyche, having experienced a panic or anxiety storm, needs to be unloaded. The easiest way to relieve nervous tension is to eat something. By the way, it doesn’t have to be sweet. Also here can be a need for spicy, salty, fatty.

How to help yourself?

It’s important to deal with anxiety. Some of the most effective tools for working with the subconscious mind and inner state are meditation and neurographics.

Reason #4. Feeling of loneliness, emptiness inside

The need for love, protection, understanding, communication is one of the natural needs of man as a social individual. Alas, sometimes it happens that there are no common interests with colleagues at work, friends have left for different cities, you have not met your favorite person yet….

The feeling of loss and brokenness is drowned out by favorite treats. Very often such people do not just “snack on the run”, and set up a whole table for themselves: leisurely and delicately served dishes, like to cook a variety of calorie-dense food. This is how compensation for “love” occurs.

There is also an opposite situation, when outwardly a person does not need excessive communication, he and so in the center of attention, but there is one “but”. Inside he has emptiness. What is the reason? It’s all good!

If you dig deeper, it turns out that a person spends time with the wrong people and in the wrong environment that suits him. He simply adjusts to the situation because “that’s the way it is”… The emptiness inside eventually begins to feel like an emptiness in the stomach. Such a person is constantly eating something, as if he is hungry literally all the time.

How can you help yourself?

Answer the questions – what are you missing? What are you really satisfied in life, and what brings you discomfort? Do you really need what you are doing right now? It may be time to turn to yourself.

Reason #5. Self-Punishment

In this scenario, the person is consciously eating incorrectly and not exercising. Being overweight is some kind of excuse for his failures, his lapses. It’s easier for such a person to give up and give up than to fight and break the emotional connection between excess pounds and the presence of negativity in life. It’s just so much easier.

It’s much harder to say, “I can’t find my other half because I’m overweight.” Also recognize for yourself a lack of empathy or the presence of underdeveloped communication skills with the opposite sex.

How do you help yourself?

You need to face the truth. Overweight people are not made worse because of their pounds. One writer said, “A loser is not someone who fails at something, a loser is someone who calls themselves a loser.” You have charisma. People are interested in you not only because of the way you look, but also because of the kind of person you are.