44. Overeating and depression are linked

By Tom O'Connell

Addictive behavior can lead to depression. When we eat or drink to excess we may feel good temporarily, but then we descend into a "hangover" or depression. It's based on a fundamental law: what goes up must come down. And the body always fights for balance.

When we get "high" it will inevitably be followed by a "low." If someone takes a depressant drug like alcohol, she gets agitated or fidgety in withdrawal. When someone takes take a stimulant like cocaine, he gets depressed during withdrawal.

Food has similar effects, and many people use food as their drug of choice. It's a common form of self-medication. Many with a tendency toward depression find that food brings temporary relief. That leads to habit. And habit leads to addiction.

It's natural to want to feel better when we're in a slump. And it's natural to want to repeat any behavior that makes us feel good for a while. So whether the remedy is a shot of whiskey or a piece of chocolate cake, we're talking about the same addictive process.

In our quest to feel better, the problem is that the temporary fix doesn't remedy the underlying problem. Neither does repeating the behavior to the point of addiction. The underlying problem that has to be dealt with is the human condition itself. To be human is to sometimes feel restless, sensitive, vulnerable, anxious, and depressed. But addiction isn't the solution. It only makes us more restless, sensitive, vulnerable, anxious, and depressed.

Using food to feel better is an attempt to cope with life. But the Rader Institute in Los Angeles points out that overeating leads to depression, lack of control, guilt, feeling worthless, embarrassed by one's body, eating alone to conceal how much one is eating, loss of interest in activities that once gave pleasure, difficulty falling asleep, oversleeping, eating until feeling uncomfortably full, repeated attempts to lose weight by dieting, eating when not hungry, and avoiding social situations.

Eating disorders were described at the 10th Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders as "the plague of the '90s" by Dr. Edwin Sause, an eating disorders specialist from Riverhead, New York. He reported that many eating disorders are triggered by traumatic events. And one of the effects of trauma is depression.

Since we're all exposed to trauma, we're all candidates for food disorders and depression. Trauma can happen at any time in life, through accident or disease. And it happens to many in their homes. For example, when people in treatment for eating disorders are asked to describe their early family life, they commonly report physical or sexual abuse.

Dr. Sause says a man who weighs 450 pounds may have a history of physical or sexual abuse that has led him to identify size and weight with power. So, to gain power he has gained weight. Symbolically, the weight means he can't be pushed around.

For either sex, overeating is a common response to traumatic events. Compulsive overeaters use food to cope with feelings, and binge eating temporarily relieves the stress. The catch is that the binge brings guilt, shame, disgust, and depression. "Then the compulsive overeater binges to relieve the depression and begins the destructive cycle."

This cycle closely resembles alcoholism. But fortunately, overeating and alcoholism are treatable conditions that can be managed by skilled therapists. Mutual support groups help too. AA for alcoholics. Overeaters Anonymous for food addicts.

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