Sugar: Emotions

What we eat, good or bad, has an effect not only on our physical health but also our mental health.  For example, a hungry individual is more likely to be irritable and easily frustrated.  Refined sugar is especially devastating due to it’s effect on insulin.  Insulin imbalance is associated with depression, anxiety and frustration.  Less talked about are the effects of food on emotions.  It is obvious that emotions affect the way we eat if we aren’t aware of whats going on.  How many times were you stressed and thought a donut or soda would lift your spirits?  My personal favorite was Oreo’s and milk.

Isn’t that why we are addicted to sugar anyway- to regulate or change a mood?  This is an incredibly dangerous practice as it sets up the groundwork for a cycle of sugar addiction.  Stress –> response: eat for comfort –> Insulin surge –> response: physical fatigue –> eat for energy (usually more sugar) -> let down as sugar effect dissipates -> More stress -> and on and on.

The Limbic system is the most primitive part of the brain.  This is where emotions are both stored and generated.  When addiction is present it is no longer reacting clearly.  “For instance, when we eat chocolate, notes the National Institute for Drug Abuse, we may feel a noteworthy amount of pleasure (via the limbic system), leading us to repeat the behavior. Unfortunately, repeating this action for the sake of pleasure and using this habit to cope with daily life can create a cycle of not only crashing blood sugar, but frustration.”  Click here for complete article.

Giving into addiction is essentially allowing the substance you are addicted to take care of the uncomfortable emotion for you.  Stress, anger, anxiety – all emotions typically avoided by addicts.  It is my belief and experience that if you want to overcome an addiction, you have to face your troubles.  You can no longer run from what is upsetting you.  Negative emotions can be very frightening because they are usually associated with mental thoughts and ideas or perceptions.  If I perceive that my boss is a real jerk to me, naturally my thoughts instruct my brain to feel either anger or fear.  If I don’t feel capable of dealing with the anger or fear what happens in my body?  The chemicals (hormones) that my brain generated in response to the stress are stored in fatty tissue or the body attempts to eliminate the excess through the waste process.  If my body is already in overdrive trying to compensate for sugar overload then eventual illness will result.  All because I chose to allow sugar to deal with my boss instead of being responsible for myself.  Sadly, when anger or fear isn't dealt with it often becomes shame and self loathing.

I believe (from my own experience) that emotional dependence on a substance facilitates an inability to see life as it really is. I feel that it makes problems worse, not better or easier because it keeps us from growing through an experience.  A problem rarely goes away if we choose not to deal with it.  Usually the problem is always there and more problems start to heap up when we choose to ignore or hide from them.  (In a future post I will talk more about emotional intelligence).

It's actually easier to cope with emotions when an outside chemical isn't influencing hormones and the brain.  As sweet as sugar is, it does not make life sweet.  The only thing that can make life sweet is what comes from within us.  Self respect, positive attitude and a desire to do what's right.

Stress

STRESS

stress [stress] n

1.	strain felt by somebody: mental, emotional, or physical strain caused, e.g. by anxiety or overwork. (Microsoft Word Dictionary)

Money. Relationships. Work. People. Responsibility. Worries about the future. So many things in our lives can cause stress. How we cope with stress is essentially important to the health of our whole being. I personally believe that most addiction comes from an inability to cope with stress. I feel that my own addiction to sugar started subconsciously as a way to calm my body and mind by taking it to a happier place. All because I couldn't (or wouldn't) comfort myself in stressful times.

Unfortunately, while sugar may have superficially calmed down my mind and mellowed my nerves, my body endured the physical side effects. Lowered immune system, lost nutrients, insulin imbalance, poor health and eventual physical dependence. Stress is a powerful factor in addiction and leads to habit forming actions if not coped with properly.

So how do we properly cope with stress? It seems to boil down to learning to respond, not react. I am starting to understand that stress comes from within, not without. How stressed we are is closely linked to our outlook on life. How we feel about ourselves, about others and about God or the 'Universe'.

I like the simplicity of these sites. I may not agree with everything they say about stress management but they are pretty helpful. Really all you have to do is Google 'stress management' and millions of hits come up.
Understanding Stress
How To Deal With Stress

Below is an excerpt from the 'How To Deal With Stress' link
"Stress symptoms include mental, social, and physical manifestations. These include exhaustion, loss of/increased appetite, headaches, crying, sleeplessness, and oversleeping. Escape through alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behavior are often indications. Feelings of alarm, frustration, or apathy may accompany stress."

Below is an excerpt from the 'Understanding Stress' link.
Things that influence your stress tolerance level

• Your support network – A strong network of supportive friends and family members is an enormous buffer against life’s stressors. On the flip side, the more lonely and isolated you are, the greater your vulnerability to stress.
• Your sense of control – If you have confidence in yourself and your ability to influence events and persevere through challenges, it’s easier to take stress in stride. People who are vulnerable to stress tend to feel like things are out of their control.
• Your attitude and outlook – Stress-hardy people have an optimistic attitude. They tend to embrace challenges, have a strong sense of humor, accept that change is a part of life, and believe in a higher power or purpose.
• Your ability to deal with your emotions. You’re extremely vulnerable to stress if you don’t know how to calm and soothe yourself when you’re feeling sad, angry, or afraid. The ability to bring your emotions into balance helps you bounce back from adversity.
• Your knowledge and preparation – The more you know about a stressful situation, including how long it will last and what to expect, the easier it is to cope. For example, if you go into surgery with a realistic picture of what to expect post-op, a painful recovery will be less traumatic than if you were expecting to bounce back immediately.

I personally feel the above items are excellent things to strengthen in our lives. Ultimately it seems like when we are stressed we need to just step back and bring a little logic into the situation and a little prayer, meditation and gentle personal confrontation. I'm just a babe in the woods when it comes to stress management, but I'm determined to get better at it. And it's the first step to beating an addiction to sugar.

In my own experience, recognizing that I was comfort eating because of stress was half the battle to overcome the sugar addiction. I had never considered myself to be a high strung or stressed out person until I tried to live without sugar for the first time. Life overwhelmed me and I didn't last long. It became very apparent that I was stressed and not dealing with it at all. It was a rude awakening. There will always be stresses in life that we can't change, but the harmful effect is lessened by our attitude.

Meditation will be discussed in tomorrow's post. Until then, chill out! :)

Why Sugar Addiction?

ad-dict-ed /e'diktid/ adj. 1. dependent on; unable to do without. (dk illustrated oxford dictionary)

Why do we get addicted? Especially to something like sugar. There isn't a simple, one sentence answer. I believe that addiction is much more than a physical need. I believe that every facet of our lives affects our behavior toward a substance or activity that we have a weakness for. Addiction isn't just physical. It's chemical and hormonal. It's mental and subconscious. It's emotional. It's habitual and neurally driven. It's genetic. And probably more.

My personal experience seems to be mostly geared around 6 main elements (not in order of influence):

1. Stress
2. Hormonal
3. Habit
4. Emotions
5. Physical Dependence
6. Spiritual Health
   

This is why I believe addiction is so difficult to help. One element, when out of balance, stressed or affected, influences the other elements. For example, hormones can absolutely lay waste to emotional health and logic. Too much negative emotion effects us physically. Habit creates neural synapses that lead to physically perceived need for substances and activities. Ineffective coping with stress leads to too much output of chemicals from glands in our bodies and can create hormonal imbalance. And on and on they cycle goes. If we are going to fight an addiction to something there must be a holistic approach.

In the next few posts I will expand on each element and how it affects and is effected by addiction from my personal experience and perspective.