Three ways depression is connected to food
Three ways depression is connected to food
How can our dietary habits influence depression.
Posted Jun 11, 2016
With depression often comes dissatisfaction with one’s appearance. It usually starts with low confidence present already in childhood and often with the lack of support from parents, or even humiliation
and abuse from those who should protect and nurture us. These are among
the factors that can lead to a negative relationship toward one’s body
and oneself. In severe cases, it can result in self-hatred and suicidal
tendencies. Food, the fuel our body runs on, plays a key role in this
mind-body relationship. Our diet is something we can relatively easily
change, unlike self-perception issues caused by let’s say a crooked
nose, large ears or unusual height.
Various forms of depression are often diagnosed together with nutrition-related mental disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, as an accompanying diagnosis. Some depressive patients develop eating disorders, and vice versa. Although monitoring signs of depression is an integral part of treatment in anorectic and bulimic patients, paying attention to eating habits of people suffering from depression is far from common practice – even though food patterns can play a role in all phases of depression and can influence the course of the illness.
Let’s take a look at how can our dietary habits influence depression, and conversely, how can depression trigger problems related to nutrition.
1) Lack of energy
People suffering from depression may not feel enough energy to go
grocery-shopping and cook for themselves. Interpersonal communication
also presents a problem, which severely complicates eating out. If they
live alone or in an unsatisfactory relationship, no one persuades them
to eat or cares when and what they ate. Moreover, the illness or its
drug therapy may cause the lack of feeling hunger or diminish appetite.
Food thus becomes more of an obligation or giving way to social
pressure. If a person suffering from this problem doesn’t at least use
some regular food delivery service, there’s an increased risk of the
problem getting worse. Long-term undernourishment leads to further
decline of one’s mental state and triggers a feedback loop which becomes
harder and harder to escape.
2) “I don’t deserve to eat”
If the state of depression stemmed from humiliation or abuse, it’s
frequently accompanied by strong feelings of inferiority, worthlessness
and uselessness. If one repeatedly, even for years, hears from their
closest ones that good or any food is too expensive for them, that they
don’t deserve it or take it from others who are more deserving, they can
internalize the arguments and adopt them. Such rejecting of food and
other life necessities or pleasures can remain hidden beneath other health issues and diagnoses for years.
3) Food as a substitute
Conversely, food can sometimes become the sole source of pleasure in
the sea of gloom. If one’s feeling so bad that they are unable to do sports,
go to the cinema or for a drink with friends, there are not many
remaining ways to feel some joy. However, it can lead to binge eating,
which is – not only in people with eating disorders – related to
feelings of failure and loss of control over oneself. It can further
trigger feelings that nothing matters in the end, if we can’t control
ourselves anyway. If we succumb to this notion, it increases the fear
of going out or speaking to people, so that the feedback of problems
with eating and depression goes on again: eating problems aggravate
depression, and depression complicates the chance of a healthy diet and
dietary habits.
Skipping meals, refusing to eat anything but the most basic and cheapest foods, low appetite or an irresistible desire for sweet foods can be the markers that something may be going wrong, and we should become sensitive to these cues to be able to help people around us. We’ve become used to the abundance of food and little risk of hunger. It doesn’t usually occur to us that people in our vicinity may be going hungry, even though they don’t lack the means and opportunities to eat enough. The reasons may lie hidden away in their psyche, and however difficult to understand they may seem to us, we should not overlook them.
Various forms of depression are often diagnosed together with nutrition-related mental disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, as an accompanying diagnosis. Some depressive patients develop eating disorders, and vice versa. Although monitoring signs of depression is an integral part of treatment in anorectic and bulimic patients, paying attention to eating habits of people suffering from depression is far from common practice – even though food patterns can play a role in all phases of depression and can influence the course of the illness.
Let’s take a look at how can our dietary habits influence depression, and conversely, how can depression trigger problems related to nutrition.
1) Lack of energy
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2) “I don’t deserve to eat”
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3) Food as a substitute
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Skipping meals, refusing to eat anything but the most basic and cheapest foods, low appetite or an irresistible desire for sweet foods can be the markers that something may be going wrong, and we should become sensitive to these cues to be able to help people around us. We’ve become used to the abundance of food and little risk of hunger. It doesn’t usually occur to us that people in our vicinity may be going hungry, even though they don’t lack the means and opportunities to eat enough. The reasons may lie hidden away in their psyche, and however difficult to understand they may seem to us, we should not overlook them.
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