Psychological causes of overeating

Overeating refers to the consumption of an energy intake that is inappropriately large for a given energy expenditure, thus, leading to overweight. By many accounts, obesity now ranks as one of the greatest and most preventable global threats to public health.

The prime cause of being overweight is an energy imbalance resulting from chronic excessive caloric intake coupled with a deficit in caloric expenditure—in other words: too much food and too little exercise.

Overeating can be active and passive. Active overeating can be induced by a number of conditions: a cognate drive to consume above one's natural appetite (driven by either internal or external cues), a constitutional defect in appetite regulation (as occurs in many of the rare monogenic forms of human obesity), an inappropriate psychological response to stress, or a physical or pharmacological disruption of the hypothalamic satiety centre.

Links have been reported between psychosocial stress and the drive to eat, consumption of palatable foods, and fat gain, while individuals with higher cortisol levels report more frequent snacking.

Interestingly, the foods individuals choose when eating in response to stress tend to be hyper-palatable foods with a high energy density which are consumed even in the absence of hunger or homeostatic requirements.

In clinical practice, stress, depressed mood, anger, and irritability are the most commonly reported triggers of overeating. Negative “everyday” emotions are also more prominent in those with overeating compared to obese control participants.

The response to stress appears to have a highly individualised effect on food intake, though the degree of stress may impact on this with mild stress being more likely to prompt increased consumption.

Impulsivity or tendency to act without thinking has also been implicated in overeating and obesity. Study shows that 0verweight/obese individuals score higher on self-reported and behavioural measures of impulsivity, whereas those high in self-control have been shown to be less likely to give in to temptation and are more likely to maintain a healthy diet and engage in physical exercise.

Certain emotions can also lead to hedonic eating. In response to negative emotions such as grief, distress or reduced mood, for example, many people turn to food for comfort. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is often associated with negative emotional states, including mood disorder and depression, thus individuals with Type 2 diabetes mellitus may be more likely to eat for emotional reasons.
Psychological causes of overeating

Emotional signs of stress

Stress can be defined as a real or interpreted threat to an organism in a biological or a psychological sense. It results in physiological or behavioral responses When faced with a threat, whether to body physical safety or emotional equilibrium, the body's defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” response.

The specific signs and symptoms of stress vary widely from person to person. Some people primarily experience physical symptoms, such as low back pain, stomach problems, and skin outbreaks. In others, the stress pattern centers on emotional symptoms, such as crying or hypersensitivity.

Emotional signs of stress
• Fear
• Depression or general unhappiness
• Anxiety and agitation
• Hopelessness
• Helplessness
• Moodiness, irritability, or anger
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Impatience
• Nervousness
• Guilt
• Loneliness and isolation
• Other mental or emotional health problems

While awareness about the impact stress can have on emotional and physical health seems to be present, many Americans continue to report symptoms of stress: Americans report irritability or anger (42 percent); fatigue (37 percent); lack of interest, motivation or energy (35 percent); headaches (32 percent); and upset stomachs (24 percent) due to stress. A smaller percentage report having a change in appetite (17 percent) and sex drive (11 percent).
Emotional signs of stress

Emotional eating due to depression

Emotional eating refers to the tendency of overeating in response to negative emotion. Emotional eating typically is linked to stress, depression, anxiety, or frustration. The major issue with emotional eating is that people tend to overeat, consume too many calories, and choose foods that are nutrient poor.

A recent qualitative study found that female college students believed that stress was the trigger of their emotional eating behaviors. Both self-report and experimental studies also showed that greater stress levels were associated with greater amount of food (Torres, S., & Nowson, C. (2007). Relationship between stress, eating behavior, and obesity. Nutrition, 23, 887–894).

Stress is a general term for any stimulus, either psychological (affecting the mind) or physiological (affecting the body), that requires a response or adaptation. The human body faces stress daily and even requires a certain amount of stress in order to thrive.

Traumatic events such as losing a job, divorce, the death of a loved one, health problems, and stress at work can lead to emotional eating. Since some foods trigger the release of mood-elevating hormones (chocolate), the body craves these foods when the mind feels down in the dumps.

Emotional Eating affects millions of Americans, including many individuals struggling from depression and bipolar disorder. Emotional Eaters come in all shapes and sizes, ages, races, both males and females.
Emotional eating due to depression

Psychological stress

“Stress” has come to be used as an explanation of altered psychophysiological states. The American physiologist, Walter Cannon (1935) was among the first to use the term stress in a non-engineering context, and clearly regarded it as a disturbing force, something which upset the person’s equilibrium, disrupted the usual balance.

Stress may be biological (a disturbance in bodily systems), psychological (cognitive and emotional factors involved in the evaluation of a threat), and even social (the disruption of a social unit).

Psychological stress involves interpretation of the meaning of an event and the interpretation of the adequacy of coping resources. In short, the psychological perceptive on stress assumes that stress arises totally out of person’s perceptions of their relationship to their environment.

Psychological stress can be broken down into three categories:
*Harm - A damaging event that has already occurred
*Threat – Feeling stress because apprehensive about the possibility of the negative event
*Challenge – treat as opportunity rather than an occasion for alarm
Psychological stress

Helplessness can cause depression

Helplessness is a feeling that is hard to ignore because it feels so believable - one feels helplessness physically, emotionally and mentally. The basic idea underlying learned helplessness is that people may learn that they have no control over what happens to them in some situations.

This learned helplessness has motivational, cognitive and emotional consequences. Learned helplessness can lead to an ability to learn that new response are available that do affect outcomes. Learned helplessness can lead to lower self-esteem and depression.

The individual who has developed learned helplessness is a position to experience more stress. Research indicates that it is this stress that determines or results in depression.

Therefore, learned helplessness does not directly cause depression, but instead, it is results in the stress that causes the depression.
Helplessness can cause depression

Exercise Reduce Stress

Exercise Reduce Stress
Exercise returns your body to its normal equilibrium by releasing natural chemicals that build up during the stress response.

Exercise can improve your resilience to stress in various ways. Some of its benefits are listed below. Exercise performs the following functions:

• Releases endorphins into your bloodstream creating a sense of well being.
• Decrease muscle tension caused by emotional stress and produces a relaxation response in your mind a well as in your body.
• Increases alpha-wave activity in the brain, thus allowing you to clear your mind so you can focus and concentrate more easily.
• Rids your body of toxins.
• Improves your overall flexibility and posture, thus decreasing any spinal stiffness or pain caused by stress.
• Relieves indigestion and chronic constipation caused by stress.
• Lessens fatigue and improve overall energy level.
• Combats insomnia caused by stress and produces more restful sleep.
• Provides natural outlets for your daily pressures and enables you to better cope with the stress of modern day busy life.
• Strengthens your heart and lungs, thus improving your overall physical fitness level and health.
• Increases your resting metabolism or energy expenditure and help you to lose weight thus, you both look and feel good and can shed a negative self image caused by stress.
• Helps you realize that if you can change your attitude and behavior toward exercise, then you can change you ability to manage the stress in your life.
• Improves blood flow to the brain that nourishes it with needed oxygen and helps eliminates waste products.

Exercise Reduce Stress

Is adolescence really a Period of Storm and Stress?

Is adolescence really a Period of Storm and Stress? Are adolescents really more likely to experience psychological problems than either children or adults? The conclusion is that adolescents have a far worse reputation than they deserve. 

It is simply not true that most adolescents are emotionally disturbed or that most develop significant problems such as drug abuse and chronic delinquency. Instead, significant psychopathology characterizes only in a minority of adolescents, and many of them were maladjusted before they reached puberty and continue to be maladjusted during adulthood. 

In a comprehensive survey of mental health researchers discovered that about 10% of a sample of 14 year olds appeared to have serious psychological disorders and another 10% could be described as very miserable and negative about themselves. Rates of diagnosed psychological disorder were slightly higher in this population of 14 year olds than among a group of 10 year olds or among the parent of the youngsters studied. 

Yet adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to some forms of psychological disorder. After all, adolescents must cope with physical maturation, the emergence of new cognitive abilities, dating, changes in family dynamics, moves to new and more complex school setting societal demands to become more responsible and to assume adult roles, and more . 

Most adolescents seem to cope with these challenges remarkable well and undergo impressive psychological growth, although it is not unusual for them to feel depressed, anxious, and irritable now and then. For a minority, the stresses of adolescent can precipitate serious psychological disorders. 

Is adolescence really a Period of Storm and Stress?