doctor, psychosomatologist, neuropsychologist
We all want to look good. At the same time, each has its own “good”. Some people like bright makeup, others – its complete absence. Someone considers long hair an indicator of beauty, while someone trusts a fashionable short haircut. And so everywhere. Also in the body everything is ambiguous. Either thinness is in fashion or shapes. What to hold on to in this world of changing trends? The answer is unequivocal: for health.
The body can be different. If you do not conform to generally accepted beauty standards, this is normal. However, there are points that you should pay attention to not from the point of view of visual aesthetics, but from the point of view of health. There is nothing more beautiful than feeling healthy.
Let’s delve into the topic of excess weight in more detail. What’s behind this? How does the psyche affect its presence in the body?
What is excess weight?
In short, the weight called “extra” is nothing more than body fat in an amount that exceeds the normal value.
Being overweight in itself is not a disease, but weight is a factor that causes a considerable number of problems associated with the body (autoimmune diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, etc.).
It is important to note here that everyone has body fat. Their presence is dictated by nature itself. Without them, the body simply cannot exist qualitatively. Looking ahead, I will say that this is why “crash” diets don’t work. Since the body needs “fat storage”, why does it happen that it accumulates in excess?
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Psychosomatics of excess weight and dangerous age.
Undoubtedly, when adjusting body weight, first of all, we pay attention to systematic physical activity, sufficient consumption of drinking water every day and proper nutrition. Why is sometimes not enough? The health formula, according to scientists, consists of the sum of a person’s physical, material, social and spiritual well-being.
If we know and understand the first three terms, what do they mean? “spiritual well-being”? Here we are talking about the internal state of a person – awareness of oneself and one’s place in the world, the ability to distinguish needs from those imposed by society, as well as to understand and feel one’s own body.
Working with the psyche is sometimes the key to weight problems, but this is not a “magic pill” that will do it all for you, but the key to discover your new facets.
Now let’s talk about age. Why should you consider? The fact is that extra pounds, which are now difficult to “lose”, when they began to gain … There was a tearing point, a “drive” that caused the body to store more and more fat deposits.
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Each case is unique, but the predisposition to the psychosomatics of excess weight (to the psycho-emotional causes of fullness) usually forms in the following stages:
in childhood (from three to 10 years); in adolescence – youth (from 11 to 18 years); in maturity (from 19 to 40 years).
The age outside the classification, as a rule, is not a period when excess weight is fixed in the body, therefore experts consider it less of a provoking factor.
However, regardless of age and the specificity of the problems, the appearance of overweight in psychosomatic patients is always associated With lack of love and warmth, damage to inner support. Metaphorically, the body stores what it lacks. The psyche, on the contrary, tries to make up for what is lacking either with nutrition or by looking for secondary benefits from the accumulated kilograms.
On the topic of proper nutrition:
The nutritionist called a low-calorie product that speeds up metabolism.
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 get to know the world. This moment is also dangerous because it is difficult for the child to resist the influence. Parents, family members, friends, teachers, and even complete strangers can greatly change and distort your image of the world.
Take a look at these lines:
“Finish, I said!”; “Until you finish eating, you won’t go for a walk!”; “What do you mean you don’t like it? Eat what they give you!”; Eat, leave your strength on a plate!”; “A spoon for mom, for dad! You mean you don’t want to? Don’t you think about your parents at all?”; “Eat soup and I’ll buy you a cake”; “Come on, you’re so skinny: skin and bones!”
If everything shrinks inside, surely you have heard it from your mother, your grandmother or your kindergarten teacher.
Sometimes such attitudes can cause a refusal to eat. There are eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia. Sometimes they cause weight gain. Here and overeating and emotional hunger. A person can succumb to “religious” manipulation. This is from the category: “Not eating or throwing away food is a sin.”
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Children learn the world, even through associations. Can you guess what attachments will form in the mind of a child who is faced with previous instructions from authoritarian adults every day? For example:
food as punishment misbehaved – you will not receive sweets; she dabbled in the table, now she eats grits that she doesn’t like;food as a reward: was diligent – you will get sweets or even a delicious cake;Food as a way to pay: “Have ice cream, leave me alone, I’m tired!”, “Have a chocolate bar, but don’t yell at the whole store”;Food as manipulation.: “I tried, I cooked, but you didn’t even ask me for supplements!”, “Eat, she said, I don’t like thinness”.
What about children who have lost or never regained contact with their bodies and emotions? They grow up with it. They get older, graduate from school, get a job, but still can’t find a connection between health problems and their psyche.
A person either “carries with him” into adulthood unresolved childhood traumas, or because he has not learned to defend personal boundaries, to experience positive and negative emotions, creates the basis for the emergence of new traumatic situations.
For example, it’s common for a guy or girl to gain weight after breaking up in a long-term relationship. At the right time, no one suggested that you can and should live the negative, and not try to avoid it in every possible way. Gaining weight here is an attempt to hide, to isolate yourself from suffering.
HERE Ekaterina Tour discusses in detail all the psychological attitudes that lead to weight gain.
When such a person becomes an adult, any shock (parting, loss), sudden change (loss of work, expulsion from the university) and, conversely, his absence (life like “Groundhog Day”) can trigger in your body not only the accumulation of body fat, but also its safe retention. After all, this is a kind of armor from the outside world, and sometimes from oneself.
Thus, we have analyzed the most dangerous age, when destructive mechanisms can be initiated that will later control a person’s eating behavior throughout their lives. Now you need to figure out what to do with it.
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Psychosomatics of excess weight. How to find out the reasons?
I go on to highlight the main psychological causes of excess weight and give myself advice to overcome them. How to help yourself? What to pay attention to? Where to start?
Reason #1. An attempt to satisfy emotional hunger
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish which hunger is psychological and which is physiological, because it really seems to a person that he is hungry. Thus, frequent snacks between the main meals or the presence of a large amount of sugar in the diet lead to excess weight.
But still, its root cause must always be sought in the psyche. “Disruption” of emotions, suppression of negative feelings, as well as your own dark side, the prohibition to be yourself, longing, disappointment – any event or phenomenon can cause a desire to eat more than the body needs.
How to help yourself?
Keep track of what you consume. This applies not only to food, but also to information. Does your TV work with background noise? Do you browse social networks to “kill time”? Every time you’re about to eat, ask yourself, “Am I really hungry or am I just bored?” Keep a food diary (excluding KBJU) to analyze all the circumstances of how you organize your “snack time”. When, at what time and in what quantity?
Perhaps you will notice interesting features for yourself. For example, that you reach for food only when you are not doing anything. They also tend to eat only “for company.” Listen to your body. He is your friend and helper.
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Reason number 2. Being in a state of internal conflict.
Often it is intrapersonal conflicts that cause weight gain. It is not surprising, because our body and our psyche work and strive to solve it. Negative emotions consume twice as much energy as positive ones. To cope with the wave of experiences, the body needs more and more calories, especially from fast carbohydrates (sweet carbonated drinks, chocolate, sweets, etc.).
How to help yourself?
Pay attention to the deficits / surpluses of macro and microelements in the organism. It is important to balance them. It is also necessary to seek help from a specialist, because the state of the conflict, no matter what it is due to (low self-esteem, doubts, frustration, guilt, etc.), in a careless form, can lead to even more serious disorders. Both bodily and mental.
Read and learn from the experience of others:
“I ate half a cake and a hamburger at the same time.” Personal story about the fight against overeating and analysis of the doctor.
Reason number 3. Higher level of anxiety
Anxiety, the feeling of fear, phobias (more serious and obsessive fear), panic attacks can prompt you to eat. This is because the psyche, having survived a storm of panic or anxiety, needs to unload. The easiest way to relieve nervous tension is to eat something. By the way, not necessarily sweet. Here, too, spicy, salty and fatty may be necessary.
How to help yourself?
It is important to deal with anxiety. One of the most effective tools for working with the subconscious and the internal state is meditation and neurography.
Reason number 4. Feeling lonely, empty inside
The need for love, protection, understanding and communication is one of the natural needs of a person as a social individual. Alas, sometimes it happens that there are no common interests with work colleagues, friends have left for different cities, they have not yet met a loved one …
The feeling of being lost and broken is drowned out by your favorite delicacies. Very often, such people do not just “snack on the run”, but prepare a whole table for themselves: they serve dishes slowly and elegantly, they like to cook varied and high-calorie foods. This is how love is compensated.
There is also the opposite situation, when outwardly a person does not need excessive communication, he is already in the spotlight, but there is one “but”. He has an emptiness inside. Which is the reason? Keep up the good work!
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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 just adapts to the situation, because “it is necessary” … The emptiness inside begins to feel like an emptiness in the stomach over time. Such a person constantly eats something, as if he is hungry literally all the time.
How to help yourself?
Answer the questions: what do you miss? What are you really satisfied with in life and what makes you uncomfortable? Do you really need what you are doing now? Maybe it’s time to turn in on yourself.
Reason number 5. self-punishment
In this scenario, the person deliberately eats poorly and does not exercise. Excess weight is a kind of excuse for his failures, failures. It is easier for such a person to give up and give up than to fight and break the emotional connection between extra pounds and the presence of negativity in life. It’s much easier.
It’s much harder to say, “I can’t find my other half because I’m overweight.” Also recognize a lack of empathy or the presence of insufficiently developed communication skills with the opposite sex.
How to help yourself?
We need to face the truth. Overweight people do not get worse because of their kilograms. One writer said: “A loser is not someone who is unsuccessful, a loser is a person who calls himself a loser.” You have charisma. You are interesting to people not only because of your appearance, but also because of the type of person you are.
To get inspired and start working on yourself:
Exclusive
“You should always have a plan” B “: para-athlete Yaroslav Svyatoslavsky – about self-improvement and motivation
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