Emotional detox to manage weight gain
Most people eat not because they are hungry but because it is time to eat or more often because it is comforting to eat.
Food is a great substitute for the vacuum in life, including a substitute for sex. If one has nothing to do, or if life is becoming meaningless or getting directionless one tends to gain comfort in eating.
Hence advising people with weight gain issues by telling them to do exercises and even more casually telling them to have diet control will not help. This is because the person has no clue what is meant by diet control. Understanding requirements of diet and reshaping it along with counseling will play a major role in managing long-term weight gain that the person is reeling under.
The doctor who is managing weight gain issues should peep into the emotional side of the person, especially after the medical causes of weight gain have been ruled out.
Tom Fortes Mayer, a British hypnotherapist, who prescribes the idea of emotional detox recently suggested, that by clearing any “old upsets, resentments, anger, frustration and sadness, dieters will be less inclined to ‘stuff their emotions with food’ and comfort eat.”
So, an emotional detox that is not focused on food might be a better solution to long-term weight-loss goals, reckons Mayer, adding that people under stress often ‘mindlessly graze’ yo-yo diet and suffer from periods of sadness and depression.
The role of an emotional specialist in managing issues of weight cannot be undermined. Example – a woman working as a professional engineer found herself talking about her obesity with her psychiatrist, Dr. Kersi Chavda in his clinic at Khar. While she thought that her depression was related to the kilos she piled on over the years, it was revealed during the therapy that the problem lay elsewhere. “A relationship that was going nowhere and disharmony at home made the woman seek comfort in food each time she felt she was losing control over situations,” recalls Dr. Chavda. “So we worked our way, sorted her emotional turmoil and within months she stopped mindlessly binging on junk food.”
Written by: Dr. Ajay Sati.
