INNER VOICES
Research of many obese and grossly overweight people suffering from depression has brought about the fact that many usually have “critical inner voices” or what I refer to as an “alternate mental messaging” that constantly hounds them making them feel as if they are unworthy and shameful because of their disorder. They constantly have to fight with their minds every single day to remain with any degree of sanity and can often cause them to lose the battle against their condition. The “demons” experienced within the mind of an individual riddled with depression can make a person get angry and lash out against themselves and others.
Researchers explain that there are two types of anger: maladaptive and adaptive anger.
Adaptive anger motivates you to take action against something that causes you pain or suffering. For example, if you recognize the harsh inner critics in your mind and express that anger through a creative outlet, you are doing something to direct the response to that anger into a proper outlet.
However, maladaptive anger can lead a depression sufferer to sulk and draw inward. Often depression, as well as obesity occurs because of a deep-rooted traumatic experiences in our past.
In other words, a person suffering from depression might become oppressed enough in their own mind to lash out in anger due to their inability to express their anger correctly. Maybe they emulate their parents or other authoritative figures in their youth or were never taught how to properly deal with their emotions and hide their emotions as an act of survival.
One 2016 study found that anger as a symptom of emotional disorders has “negative consequences, including greater symptom severity and worse treatment response.” Researchers concluded that “based on this evidence, anger appears to be an important and understudied emotion in the development, maintenance, and treatment of emotional disorders.”
Often individuals that constantly overeats is hiding or is unable to express their hidden trauma and turns to food as a way to comfort themselves and escape from the horrible experiences of their past. In most cases keeping the feelings of pain inward eventually reaches a boiling point, making the individual burst into irrational anger behavior.
©Copyright – Hector Sectzer
