Food: A Gourmet Meal or A Bowl of Emotions

On the flip side, technology is no doubt a double-edged sword and has taken the world by storm. Thus, bombarding our headspace with a gazillion sensory inputs from the external environment, consequently mounting to sensory overload, which results in the hijacking of the noetic functioning. This sensory overload outpours stress and dismantles the coordinates of the inner engineering of humans. Thereby, we phase out our efforts to blanket judgments and apocalyptic views about life Events. Stress distracts the ABC framework of thought pattern where an Antecedent/Activating Event is perceived as irrational and defeating accompanied by negative feelings and eventually tailed by impulsive actions. Thus, In the face of trepidatious triggers humans' resort to addictive, undesirable behavioral patterns and disorders like an increase in screen time, binge-watching, Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), Doom Scrolling, eating disorders like Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia and so on.  

One of these psychological disorders is Comfort /Emotional Eating in which a person eats in response to stress to Numb, Escape, tweak, and soothe negative emotions. In the wake of a psychologically distressing situation, there is a spike in adrenaline that makes an individual crave sugar-dense foods and fatty and salty foods. Eventually, a person races to the pantry for sweet treats, downing brownies, and palatable foods that are less healthy and empty calories mounting a surge in blood sugar levels. Studies have shown that 70 -75 % of all our eating is emotionally driven.

As a result, people who comfort eat are eating away their emotions having hedonic hunger instead of getting interoceptive cues stemming from biological hunger are at the risk of gaining weight and posing a potential threat to their physical as well as mental well-being. Therefore, psychosomatic manifestations kick in where an individual becomes Emotional Eater and attracts medical conditions like obesity and getting stuck in the vicious cycle of EAT, REPENT and REPEAT.  

Hunger is not satisfied by the mindless intake of processed foods, and one keeps on binge. Thus, spiraling downwards an individual is not able to downplay the effects of guilty pleasure snacking and is bogged down by this emotional roller coaster ride of which he cannot get off. Tracing back to mammalian ancestry the instinct for fright / flight response as opposed to troubleshooting is gene embedded. Hence, we follow the call and turn to maladaptive coping mechanisms when having our first brush with objective anxiety. We are zillion times frozen and find ourselves cornered by ill-defined stressors like in the case of neurotic anxiety and hence employ avoidant coping styles to fight the metaphoric saber-toothed tigers. The bottom line is that we need to tie the loose ends and cope in an optimum manner rather than being caught by ostrich syndrome and relying on availability heuristic. Most individuals suffer from ostrich complex in which they are in denial mode, leading to cognitive bias about stressors by not putting Cognitive appraisal at play.

It is said When an ostrich has Its first brush with lion instead of combating it shoves his head deep in the sand hence forth putting escapism at foreground and thinking that what is out of sight is out of mind. Our approach should be analogous to that of duck who appears to glide gracefully through the water with very little outward movement. But underneath the waters it is enduring a lot with its little webbed feet pulling trigger by coming out against all odds and masking the uphill struggle. In the same way, we should try to cope with the distress calls head-on because there is no quick fix, it is a work in progress, and each of us must try to pull ourselves together with grace and gravitas.  

Moreover, we should also develop a healthy relationship with food as it said, “You are what you eat". We need to be intentional about competing behaviors and have our food mindfully instead of eating a bowl of emotions and still not attaining the satiety valence.  

Bareen Majid  

(Psychologist, scholar)

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