Anxiety, depression and other mental conditions are the main causes of the problem of obesity
I used to eat with desaforo and I did it not by hunger, but by anxiety. After divorcing the father of her son and remaining in charge of the child's maintenance, Elsa Hernández found in the food the best analgesic for the anguish she felt at the idea of losing her job.
"It was a permanent anguish. And I ate and ate without realizing it, gaining and earning more pounds, "recalls this Colombian mother, who barely saw her son already graduated and organized, began to lose weight as if by magic, but facing some ill health generated for obesity, the result of their anxiety.
Emotional hunger
The psychologist Anabel Castrezana, linked to Kaiser Permanente of Santa Ana, says that emotional hunger is one of the causes or factors of the problem of obesity in this country.
"Emotional [hunger] occurs when a person is stressed and has a number of feelings and emotions that they do not want to feel, but they are there, and the [sentimental] pain is so strong and deep that instead of focusing on it, they find in the food an escape, a distraction to calm their emotional need that can be of affection, love, attention ", the psychotherapist details.
Those who suffer from emotional hunger eat unfortunately, above all, carbohydrate-rich foods that "numb brain neurons, giving a temporary pleasure that leads those affected to enter as an 'emotional coma', where they stop feeling pain."
Castrezana explains that it becomes a vicious circle, because when the person uses eating as a habit to calm their sentimental pain, he gains weight and seeing that he is gaining pounds becomes even more depressed and more anxious.