|
Email can be sent to:
let@transparencynow.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Truth About Mental Illness
How Knowing About the Hidden Connection Between
Food and the Unconscious
Could Set You Free
1. What Is the Real Source of Mental Illness
As we all know, millions of people receive psychotherapy to deal with
psychological problems and free themselves from emotional suffering.
Typically, they will sit in an office with a therapist who is a member of a
profession such as psychology or social work, and try to talk their way to
an improved state of mental health. The therapist, in turn, will use widely
respected techniques such as helping them see the truth about their
irrational beliefs or delving into the depths of the unconscious to reveal
their hidden motivations.
Unfortunately, people who seek out this
kind of therapy often find that the therapy itself involves emotional
suffering, evoking difficult feelings such as vulnerability, anxiety and
sadness, and forcing them to interact with therapists whose role
automatically gives them the upper hand. Many people go through it anyway
because they hope the truth will set them free, and they see the therapist
as an expert who knows how to get at the truth of the mind.
And it
does appear that this kind of therapy can help some people deal
with their problems. It especially seems to help when the therapist is good
at bonding with patients, giving them the sense she is on their side. But an
honest assessment of psychotherapy will reveal that its power to heal is
limited, and it can’t set most people genuinely free, no matter how good the
therapist is, because the truth it offers is so incomplete.
Many
people can confirm this for themselves by looking at the society we live in,
which is filled with people who have psychological maladies, from anxiety
and depression to extreme anger, emotional vulnerability, addiction and
other self-destructive behaviors. These problems are so widespread, it is
safe to say that virtually everyone is afflicted by psychological disorders
and, as studies have demonstrated,
a
significant number have a serious mental illness. If psychotherapy could
fix these problems the way a doctor can fix a broken arm, large numbers of
people would have already been cured, and we would be living in an age of
mental health. But, as we all know, nothing like that has taken place.
The good news is that science is beginning to give us information that can
get us a lot closer to genuinely setting people free, both from everyday
psychological disorders and from severe mental illness. What it is revealing
is that the primary cause of many psychological problems isn’t anything
psychological at all, like irrational thoughts or childhood fears we never
outgrew. It is the biochemistry of the brain and body, including the state
of neurotransmitters and hormones, that determines whether we will be calm
and focused, and have a rich enjoyment of life, or be basket cases on a
roller coaster of emotional suffering. It is the neurotransmitter serotonin,
for example, that can help give us a feeling of contentment and well being,
while low serotonin in the brain is associated with depression,
obsessive-compulsive disorder and other problems.
Our understanding
of how these chemicals help create the framework for who we are is still
rudimentary, but it goes a long way toward explaining why conventional
psychotherapy can’t do more for its clients, even when it is practiced well.
The explanation can be expressed with a simple analogy: you can’t fix a
broken arm by giving a medical patient insights or by asking him to work
through his feelings about his arm. Well, it turns out, you can’t fix a lot
of broken brains using this approach either, except in limited ways that
will be described presently.
But it should be possible to fix
broken brains if we can come up with more effective interventions. So how do
we change the brain and the rest of the body in a way that will produce
mental health? A lot of psychiatrists will tell you that prescription drugs
are the best answer we have today for many people. They prescribe hundreds
of millions of them as part of what has become a lucrative industry
dispensing pharmaceuticals, such as the antidepressant Prozac that keeps
serotonin in the brain for a longer period of time, or beta blockers, a
class of drugs that has a number of uses, including counteracting stage
fright by blocking the physical effects of stress hormones.
And
drugs can help some people, including people who are seriously
depressed. Someday, drugs (and other medical interventions) may even fulfill
their promise and make people psychologically whole. But the drugs that are
now available have their own limitations: they can only alleviate the
symptoms of mental illness; they can’t help people with most of their
problems; and they often have side effects. So both drugs and psychotherapy,
whether they are used separately or together, can only go so far when it
comes to setting people free.
Fortunately, there is another answer,
and it‘s been right in front of us all the time because a lot of mental
illness is caused by the damage people do to their own bodies every day. It
is a result of the foods people eat, which can alter their biochemistry and
fail to give them essential nutrients. It is also caused by the drugs people take, the daily exercise and sleep they get, their overall
degree of physical fitness, the amount of belly fat they have (especially
what is known as visceral fat, underneath the visible belly fat, and
adjacent to internal organs), the diseases they suffer, the addictions they
are hooked on, and the toxins and contaminants they are exposed to.
This has been true, with all kinds of variations, throughout history. But in
our own time, what is driving the psychological suffering probably of
hundreds of millions of people is an addiction to sugar and processed foods,
combined with sedentary lifestyles (often looking at electronic screens),
and the weight gain that often results, along with addiction to alcohol, and
both prescription and illegal drugs. In fact sugar, obesity and sedentary
lifestyles have already been implicated in what are sometimes referred to as
the “diseases of civilization,” that kill millions of people, such as heart
disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. If what is being said here
is correct, it means that a lot of the mental illness that exists today is a
disease of civilization, as well, brought about by the way people live. It
may also mean that when many people suffer maladies such as diabetes or
hypoglycemia-like symptoms, they will be more vulnerable to psychological
problems, as well.
In an age of growing affluence, when sugar and
refined carbohydrates are consumed in large quantities, this way of life is
clearly a global problem. We can see how much of a problem from
statistics revealing that, as of 2008, almost 1.5 billion adults
worldwide were overweight and about another half a billion more were obese,
largely from this style of living and eating. The good news is, this also
gives us a way to alleviate mental illness now since, if many people will
live in a healthier way, both their bodies and minds will work better, and
give them a richer experience of life.
But it should be said right
off that this isn’t the cure for everything psychological, or for everyone.
The way the brain functions -- and malfunctions -- is significantly
determined by genetics, as well as by influences in each person’s past. As a
result, there are undoubtedly many people who can’t be healed by adopting a
healthier way of life. The good news once again is that there are also a lot
of people with normal brains that have a kind of plasticity, who will get
better or worse depending on the way they live. What they are suffering from
is a repeated exposure to injurious substances they are vulnerable to, such
as sugar, or to a lack of something their body needs, such as nutrients. At
the other extreme, there are enviable souls who are less vulnerable to these
difficulties and suffer less serious negative effects.
Unfortunately, we also don’t know most of the mechanisms in the brain that
are responsible for these problems. But one thing that seems to be going on
is the following: physical inputs such as sugar are affecting the brain’s
biochemistry, and altering the balance of neurotransmitters essential to its
functioning and internal communication. These changes somehow release parts
of the brain responsible for mental illness, resulting in damaging disorders
such as depression or extreme emotional vulnerability.
What is
particularly intriguing is that this problem with neurotransmitters appears
to activate primitive parts of the unconscious brain connected to fears and
motivations from childhood. If so, it would mean that Freud was half right
after all -- the unconscious is real and it can drive us crazy --
but only if we make ourselves vulnerable by having ice cream for dessert
after a fast food lunch. Unfortunately, once these dysfunctional processes
in the brain are active, vulnerable individuals can suffer from an
intensification of the kind of problems described by Freud and his
successors, including inner conflict, self-destructive acting out, denial,
and self-reproaches. Most notably, they will manifest a debilitating form of
what psychoanalysts refer to as transference, so they keep reenacting
an imagined version of childhood situations involving parents, in disguised
form. At the same time, they may also be subjected to an intensification of
the kind of irrational beliefs that cognitive behavioral therapy helps
people deal with.
It is almost as if a dysfunctional
sub-personality, driven by irrational fears and desires, is lurking in the
brain. When it is released by an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, people suffer
a reduced self that is emotionally vulnerable, spaced out, vengeful,
self-destructive or aggressive, or whatever mosaic of dysfunction is buried
in each person’s brain.
The effect that unhealthy food and other influences have on hormones may
exacerbate these problems further. In fact, the combination of
out-of-balance neurotransmitters, such as low serotonin, combined with the
release of stress hormones (which can be a result of eating sugar and
carbohydrates in some people) may be a particularly damaging combination for
mental health.
This explains why patients in psychotherapy can
reveal apparently relevant information about their irrational beliefs and
unconscious motivations. What these patients are dredging up really is part
of their mental functioning, and dealing with it in therapy can help them to
some degree. Among other things, it can strengthen rational aspects of brain
functioning and help patients control their symptoms. As psychoanalytic
theory has revealed, it can even help patients see through the need to
reenact an imagined version of childhood situations with parents in their
adult life.
But conventional psychotherapy can’t get at the driving
force behind many people’s symptoms because the therapy they really need
comes from changing their diet and adopting a healthier way of life. Then
their vulnerability to psychological symptoms will be lifted, and they will
have a new lease on life, while they lose interest in dwelling on disturbing
thoughts and memories. All of that disturbing psychological material will
still be encoded in their brain somewhere, but it will no longer be
activated, and the individual will no longer be vulnerable to it in her
daily functioning.
This also explains why an individual’s mental
health can get better and worse over time. It is because of changes taking
place in the biochemistry of the body, including the brain, from various
sources, such as stress, diet, and menstrual cycles.
But two
important caveats need to be added to this. First, many psychological
symptoms that look like a reenactment of something from childhood may not
be. Instead, they may just be an expression of dysfunction in the brain and
body, without intervening psychological causes connected to an individual’s
past experiences. In other instances, issues from an individual’s past may
play a role, filling in some of the details of psychological symptoms that
are purely physical in origin, without a psychological component.
There are a lot of adults, for example, who are plagued by
self-reproaches. These people are stuck in an emotional
slump, repeatedly berating themselves and finding fault with the things they
do.
It is commonly said that people like this have internalized the
critical voice of their parents, and are repeating criticism inside their
minds that they were subjected to as children. But what these people are
really suffering from is a dysfunction in the brain that involves
neurotransmitters. Maybe the dysfunction is causing them to repeat some
version of things they were told as children or maybe their biography has
very little to do with it. In either case, the treatment is the same -- find
the physical cause. If the individual is lucky, it will be something he can
change, such as diet, weight and amount of exercise.
The second
caveat takes these ideas in the opposite direction. It is also possible that
disturbing childhood experiences can be the cause of some biochemical changes in the brain
that are responsible for mental illness. After all, we know that traumatic events, such as
being a victim of a violent crime, can affect the brain and result in the
mental illness of posttraumatic stress disorder, with symptoms such as
hyperarousal, flashbacks and insomnia.
If so, it is possible the
right kind of psychotherapy can offer insights or corrective emotional
experiences that can change the brain back in a healthier direction. But
there isn’t any way that talk therapy by itself can repair the daily
onslaught from unhealthy food and way of life that now afflicts so many
people, and sets many psychological disorders in motion.
2. How Manufactured Food Was Turned Into an Addictive Substance
If changes in nutrition and lifestyle are indeed the solution for many
people, it raises some important questions. Why, for example, isn’t this
widely known when the truth has been right in front of us all along? And why
would people allow themselves to be damaged this way? More to the point, why
is it so hard for people to get healthy, even when they are motivated to do
so?
There are actually a number of answers to these questions, and
they combine to form a complex picture that we can only catch a glimpse of,
given the current limitations of science. One answer is that, until
recently, humanity only had a rudimentary understanding of the mind and
body, combined with a great deal of misinformation. Among other things,
people haven’t known about nutrition or had much of an ability to avoid
diseases and toxins. And there weren’t many choices when it came to food. So
for most of history, people haven’t had the ability to protect themselves or
even know what was making them sick. Even today, what science knows is
limited, and the truth about the cause of mental illness isn't yet widely
recognized.
Another reason we are stuck in this situation is that
millions of people suffer from a physical vulnerability: they easily become
addicted to sugar, alcohol, and drugs, which can damage the body, including
the brain. They literally can’t help themselves, although many people also
use addictions to try to heal uncomfortable feelings, in which case the cure
is actually part of the disease.
But there is also a specific
history that helps explain how our current situation came about. As various
people have argued, modern human beings and their predecessors evolved
during the Paleolithic era, with bodies that are largely adapted to the
foods and way of life generated by hunting and gathering. That means the
human body was shaped by circumstances in which it received only small
quantities of sugar and other carbohydrates -- and getting more could be a
good thing because it provided energy. As history moved forward, a number of
changes took place at various times and places, including the introduction
of agriculture, which added carbohydrates to the diet, and the growing role
of sugar as a sweetener and refined flour, expanding humanity’s exposure to
carbohydrate diets it wasn’t designed to thrive on. It is also possible that
some people had a greater tolerance for higher carbohydrate diets even
before the introduction of agriculture, somewhere around 9500 BC. And it may
be that, since the agricultural revolution, more people have survived and
reproduced who are better adapted to diets high in sugar and other
carbohydrates, resulting in a world population that has varying degrees of
tolerance for this style of eating.
But the crucial change we are
concerned with took place in the modern era with the development of economic
systems in America, and elsewhere, in which large companies market
manufactured foods. These companies are in the business of creating food
products that are delicious, addictive, and hard to resist, including junk
foods filled with sugar and refined carbohydrates that can induce a craving
in many people for more. And these are many of the foods that are making
people physically and psychologically sick.
What is particularly
noteworthy is that companies are driven to sell these products by the
“logic” of the marketplace, since this is a way they can appeal to customers
and increase profits. And if one company doesn’t do it, a competitor will,
and it is the competitor who will then dominate the market. So the
marketplace in many countries drives companies to hook consumers on whatever
products can be made hard to resist, and physically or psychologically
addictive, including not only sugar and other kinds of unhealthy foods, but
also alcohol, cigarettes, pharmaceutical drugs, electronic screens, and the
various forms of sensationalism offered on those screens.
One is
tempted to resort to a Marxist analysis here and note that this is a new
kind of exploitation, not of workers, but of consumers. That would mean
people who addictively snack on Twinkies and ice cream are the new
proletariat, in love with their chains.
In his book,
The End of
Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, the
former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David Kessler,
reveals something about the science behind this exploitation. He says that
manufacturers have become expert at stimulating our brains with food
products full of sugar, fat, and salt to create a state of “conditioned
hypereating” in which we keep seeking more because it is rewarding.
“Chronic exposure to highly palatable foods changes our brains, conditioning
us to seek continued stimulation. Over time, a powerful drive for a
combination of sugar, fat, and salt competes with our conscious capacity to
say no,” he writes (on page 145 of the 2009 hardback edition).
The
fact that regular consumption of these manufactured foods changes our brains
is particularly interesting. It means that food companies are altering our
brain chemistry to addict us to their products. But there actions also have
unintended consequences, resulting in a dysfunctional brain, so that
millions of people end of suffering from psychological disorders.
Kessler also describes how foods can be packed with sugar, salt and fat to
trigger people’s “bliss point,” which is the point at which a food will give
people the most pleasure. As more of these ingredients are added to a food,
Kessler says (page 14), it becomes more pleasurable. But after the bliss
point is reached, the addition of more of these ingredients becomes too
intense and the pleasure starts to drop off.
As part of the
empirical evidence backing up his arguments, Kessler describes a telling
experiment conducted by a professor at the New Jersey Medical School (page
15). He says that rats were bred to overeat when a high calorie diet was
available, so they became obese. A second group of rats were resistant to
obesity: after a period of eating extra calories, they would cut back their
food consumption more quickly than the obesity-prone rats. But when the rats
were fed “a rich, creamy liquid high in sugar and fat,” even the
obesity-resistant rats gorged themselves and got fat. Kessler says
increasing the fat content of the diet alone won’t get obesity-resistant
rats to overeat; it is the combination of sugar and fat that does it.
Unfortunately, many of us are trapped in a global experiment being conducted
by the giant food companies. And we find overeating all the harder to resist
because we are surrounded by sugar, fat and salt, in high calorie foods and
oversized restaurant portions. In America, and undoubtedly in other places,
when we shop at the grocery or drug store, when we eat at a restaurant, when
we watch TV, or even when we walk down many commercial streets, we have to
deal with efforts to sell us something full of sweeteners or other unhealthy
foods. Even standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, we are stuck
inside a “snack and sugar trap,” surrounded by packages trying to lure us
into giving in to our desires. The grocery stores know we’re a captive
audience, and they take advantage of their opportunities. Unfortunately,
many of us are now being raised in this kind of orally dependent food
culture, where this is the norm. The life we are familiar with is one in
which we addictively consume sweet and processed foods throughout the day,
even as we also “consume” what is on television and other electronic
screens, which often try to sell us the same foods.
In fact, the
manufactured foods described here are a lot like what is offered by
television, which is designed to hook us all at once with manufactured
entertainments -- and keep us watching. Television also seeks out our bliss
point, in sitcoms that keep the jokes coming, in visual spectacles and forms
of sensationalism, and in commercials that are designed to make us feel good
or stoke our cravings, while much of the content is reduced to very brief
segments that come at us, one after another, and have a lot going on, to
hold our interest.
Of course, some of what TV offers is
entertaining, just as many of these manufactured foods taste good. But the
end result of these marketing-driven trends is that many nations are filling
up with people who are overweight, largely sedentary, and addicted to
unhealthy foods, and who suffer from diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart
disease, and other diseases of civilization. According to a recent letter
sent to President Obama by a group of prominent experts, primarily in the
field of health, two billions dollars a year in food advertising is aimed at
America’s children -- and about one in three children are now overweight or obese.
In the
summary to an August 27, 2011, article titled, “The global obesity
pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments,” the medical
journal, The Lancet, describes the epidemic of obesity worldwide.
It says these changes can be seen throughout the world, and that they are “a
predictable outcome of market economies predicated on consumption-based
growth….In low-income countries, obesity mostly affects middle-aged adults
(especially women) from wealthy, urban environments; whereas in high-income
countries it affects both sexes and all ages but is disproportionately
greater in disadvantaged groups.”
The plot thickens when we realize
that the global pandemic induced by this style of life also includes
psychological disorders, such as anxiety, depression, addiction,
out-of-control anger, loss of motivation, and emotional vulnerability. And,
as noted, the damage starts early, as kids are hooked on foods that can
damage their growing bodies, including their brains.
In effect, what
we are witnessing is a situation in which big companies are using forms of
rationality -- involving science, statistics, manufacturing and marketing --
to lure consumers into addictions that consumers can’t control with their
own rationality. The result is a system that is trapping humanity in a kind
of prison, with mesmerizing advertising images of pleasure and ideal worlds
projected onto surrounding screens. More practically stated, it is a world
in which a growing number of people have lost control over their health and
their eating and, as a result, they are also losing control over their
lives.
It is almost as if modern societies have a limitation built
into them, caused by a pathology of the marketplace: as they become more
affluent, they develop a food system that makes them more dysfunctional,
unless government regulation or other factors come into play to stop it. In
fact, it even seems likely that this is one factor bringing about the loss
of civility in American life, since America had a head start in this
downward spiral. Ultimately, this pathology of the marketplace is a system
based on manipulation, in which the limits are what people can get away
with, creating a disturbing sense that society is turning into a war of all
against all.
Addictive capitalism also damages the economy, as
millions of people lose their edge, as workers become sick, and as society
spends more resources dealing with the medical and social costs of unhealthy
lifestyles. Ironically, in the end, the profit motive that created the
addictive system will end up robbing countries of a substantial share of the
profits they need to maintain their affluence.
This also means
countries that do a better job controlling these problems will likely have
an advantage over those that don’t do as well. Thus, it is countries willing
to put the brakes on addictive marketing that will profit the most, both
economically and in better lives for their people.
3. Self-Interference as a Cause of Psychological Disorders
But there is another reason some people are vulnerable to the kinds of
psychological harm described here. It seems that a significant number of
people unconsciously damage their own mental health by engaging in
self-destructive behaviors such as eating too much sugar and junk food or
abusing alcohol and prescription drugs. Although it seems to defy common
sense, they engage in what can be termed “self-interference,” to keep
themselves from becoming healthy and whole, while food companies lure them
into using sugar and other addictive products as a way of sabotaging
themselves.
People are able to engage in these acts of
self-interference because they routinely gather information about their own
physical state, using their experience and behavior as a guide. Then they
manipulate their biochemistry in a destructive way, and fall back into a
lesser self. In fact, if some people seem to be getting too healthy or life
is too good, an alarm goes off in their brain -- and they screw things up,
so they can fall back into a half-broken state. But most of this takes place
outside of conscious awareness, so people don’t realize they are doing it.
Widening the scope of this idea, we can speculate that in everyone
-- or virtually everyone -- there is a battle between the desire to be
accomplished and healthy in mind and body, and the urge to be limited and
damaged. And people monitor themselves and their surroundings so they can
achieve their own unique mix of health and illness. In some people, the will
to health has the upper hand, and efforts at self-interference play a minor
role. In others, self-limitation or even self-destruction reign supreme. Or
there may be a stand-off or an odd state of affairs in which the urge to be
healthy and sick alternate, each enjoying a victory for a limited period of
time.
We need only follow celebrity news to confirm extreme cases
in which people do harm to themselves, and even commit slow-motion suicide,
often through addictions. And the remarkable thing is, many of them don’t
consciously realize they are killing themselves, even though their lives are
filled with self-induced crises -- and other people are warning them about
the danger. The existence of self-interference can also be seen in the way
many people free themselves from addiction and then take that fateful bite
of a jelly donut or that sip of beer or drag of a cigarette, even though
they know from bitter experience that it will lead back into the suffering
of addiction all over again. Of course, people engage in other forms of
self-sabotage, as well, such as damaging their relationships with other
people, starting fights with a spouse or insulting the boss because they
unconsciously need to worry about being fired.
The obvious question
is, why would anyone sabotage themselves, when human nature is based on our
desire to advance our own self-interest? I think the most likely explanation
is that people who self-interfere have an unconscious fear there will be a
threatening consequence if they become too healthy and happy. Maybe they are
concerned that, if they are okay, they will feel or think or do something
that will invite retaliation. Or maybe they believe it will somehow damage
them inside.
Psychiatrist Harris Stratyner of the Mount Sinai
School of Medicine in New York, is
quoted in Newsweek at thedailybeast.com as saying something that is
relevant here. According to the quote, he said that some people, “get
addicted to feeling anxious because that’s the state that they’ve always
known. If they feel a sense of calm, they get bored; they feel empty inside.
They want to feel anxious.”
I would expand on that by saying that a
significant group of people eat and live in ways that are designed to
generate anxiety, and the fears that go with it, because they find it
reassuring. People similarly induce a sense of hopelessness, emotional
numbness, vulnerability, or low self-esteem because they are unconsciously
afraid to feel robust and healthy. They may even feel the need to
demonstrate their acts of self-damage to imagined observers in their mind,
in order to feel safe, acting out this psychological drama without
consciously realizing they are doing so.
As for the origins of this
fear, it may be something that is passed on from parent to child in
interaction, perhaps as a result of a built-in vulnerability. Or perhaps the
fear of being healthy and whole arises purely from a defect in the brain.
In the latter part of his career, Freud offered a different kind of
explanation for destructive and self-destructive behavior. He said that it
is motivated by a drive for death, which seeks to break things down and
return to an earlier inorganic state of things. As Freud saw it, this death
drive is at war in all living things with Eros, the drive for
self-preservation, and life and love, that builds things up into greater
unities. Freud’s vision of a cosmic battle between the drive for life and
death is brilliantly poetic, with a philosophical pedigree in the West that
goes back to ancient Greece. But it isn’t very useful, here. Instead, what
is offered in this essay is a less poetic theory of human nature in which
people have a desire to be psychologically healthy that is interfered with
by various factors, including physical imperfections in the brain and body,
a lack of information about food and health, limitations in medicine,
poverty, social exploitation (for example, by food companies), and
addiction.
But one part of this theory is based on the
idea there are two forces in conflict, pitting the desire to be healthy
against urges to self-interfere and engage in self-harm. The theory
similarly sees society as a network of interactions that both advance and
interfere with people‘s desire to be whole, with each society coming up with
its own unique balance between these opposing forces.
But whatever
society people live in, the end result of these factors is that people can
end up trapped in vicious cycles. Most notably, their dysfunctional
biochemistry causes them to use bad judgment and do things that unsettles
their biochemistry further. So, in our own age, super-sweet manufactured
foods don’t only create a craving for more sweet foods. They also make many
people more prone to making bad choices, such as eating unhealthy foods to
escape painful emotional states or get some rewards from a damaged life,
or because they feel the need to self-interfere. The end result is a self-perpetuating system that
feeds off its own motion.
All of these issues take on a
particularly disturbing quality when we see how they now affect children. In
fact, children can be damaged by the following multiple sources of
dysfunction:
* Parents pass on genes that make children vulnerable to
addictive eating and to having psychological problems from physical
“inputs” such as unhealthy food.
* Parents (along with the larger
society) then teach children addictive ways of eating and other unhealthy
habits that induce these psychological problems.
* Many of these parents
are already be suffering from psychological problems caused by this way of
life. This causes them to interact with their children in ways that do
additional psychological damage, especially since their children have been
made even more vulnerable by such factors as unhealthy diet and lack of
exercise.
You can end up with a situation in which parent and child
are stuck in damaging interactions. Years later, adults may continue to
reenact a variation on these interactions because they are still vulnerable.
But if they can remove whatever they are vulnerable to, such as unhealthy
food, many will be freed from these disorders and have a new lease on life.
4. How Can We Stop This New Threat to Society
So how do we change the direction of history to protect humanity from this
growing danger? The answer is there are a lot of things we can do, if we
have the will. A number of changes will be mentioned here; reinventing
psychotherapy and health care; accelerating scientific progress; carrying
out an education campaign, and imposing restrictions on addictive marketing.
Many of these changes will take place at a national and local
level. But we will also need a global effort because the marketplace for
food and drugs is now global, and the problem is global, as well. The good
news here is that the United Nations General Assembly approved a declaration
in September on fighting non-communicable diseases, which includes a call
for just such a global effort against unhealthy foods and other sources of
harm such as tobacco. Whatever practical effect this declaration ends up having, it
makes clear that we are at the beginning of a new era in which addictive
marketing is seen as a threat to humanity, alongside other dangers as such
as malnutrition, communicable diseases, nuclear war, and environmental
destruction.
We now need other powerful institutions, from the
local to the global level, to similarly ally themselves with people’s desire
to be healthy. At the local and national level, we need the media, doctors
and schools to educate the public and help parents design a healthier
lifestyle for their children. We need it to become common practice for
doctors to inform patients about addictive marketing and the dangers of
addictive eating, as well as about the kinds of help that are available. And
we need them to post information about this issue in prominent places such
as waiting rooms, offering patients written materials and website addresses
when it is practical to do so.
We will also need to make changes to
health care, so psychotherapists and doctors are more informed about the
role that nutrition and lifestyle play in the health of mind and body. In
fact, it may be useful to develop “teams,” that include doctors,
psychotherapists, and nutritionists, to help people repair mind and body.
That means there is a significant role that a reinvented form of
psychotherapy can play to help some people overcome addictions and make
changes that will help repair mind and body. Participating psychotherapists
would use many of the same approaches they use now. They would offer
insight, emotional support and information, helping some patients overcome
fears of getting better and tendencies to engage in self-sabotage. Some
patients may even need help developing the ability to tolerate feeling okay,
or taking constructive action, without falling back into behaviors that feel
more emotionally safe.
Of course, many patients will need assistance
dealing with psychological symptoms that, for whatever reason, can’t be
fixed through nutrition, lifestyle changes and medical interventions. These
are just the kind of tasks that cognitive behavioral therapists, as well as
therapists who use a modified psychoanalytic approach, can excel at, if they
have a reasonable degree of empathy. But this time the therapy will have a
better chance of genuinely setting people free.
The goal of this
kind of therapy will be similar to Freud’s goals for psychoanalysis: to make
what was unconscious conscious, and replace irrational functioning with
reasonable decision-making and behavior. This would include replacing the
vicious cycle of self-destructive actions with a virtuous spiral toward
health, and enhancing unconscious self-monitoring with a new awareness, as
people develop a greater ability to influence brain and body for maximum
health. For lack of a better term, I refer to this as integrated life
therapy (or just life therapy) because it integrates so many domains of
life and requires modifications in the way people live. And also because it
has the capacity to change people’s lives and bring about biochemical
changes in the brain that are conducive to having a deeply authentic
experience of life and a greater sense of personal
integration.
There are undoubtedly therapists who do something
like this now, including therapists who deal with weight loss and
addictions. The field of therapy may find some of their insights useful if
it is to reinvent itself to deal with the true roots of mental illness in
many people.
Two other notes, before leaving this subject. In the
kind of reinvented therapy envisioned here, people will also need to be able
to contact somebody by telephone, email or texting, when they are in danger
of engaging in an injurious action, such as overeating sweets or just
overeating. This is a role that can be filled by professional long-distance
helpers, friends or family.
Second, when people embark on a project
to get well, they may need a “coordinator” who helps guide them through it.
A psychotherapist might fill that role, although others can fill it, as
well.
But in addition to the changes mentioned so far, we also need
science to begin a decades-long project to understand the interactions
between diet and lifestyle, on the one hand, and mind and body, on the
other. This will require a lot more studies on the effect that foods have
on us -- including the effect of overall diets, individual foods, nutrients
and ingredients -- paying particular attention to whether there are groups
of people that are affected in different ways. For example, what is the
effect of dairy products, artificial sweeteners, vitamins and minerals, and
individual spices? It would be nice to be able to say to people -- “Eat
healthy, and don’t be afraid of the foods you’re eating.” But the reality
is, individual foods can act like drugs, and some may be acting on the body
in ways we don’t understand.
Science will also need to develop a
more precise vocabulary for describing how our behavior is influenced by
food and lifestyle. This is no easy task since the elements of who we are --
our feelings, thoughts and motivations, and our outward behavior -- are
produced by different parts of the brain, as well as by other parts of the
body. As a result, each of us is a confusing mix of psychological elements
that can seem to blend together, coexist, conflict, and respond to each
other.
Let me give a hypothetical example, to demonstrate how this
works. Imagine that a compulsive eater who feels anxious and emotionally
vulnerable has “absentmindedly” wandered into an ice cream parlor. Now that
he’s in there, seeing people enjoying their ice creams, he feels a powerful
urge to order one himself, as physical changes take place in his body in
anticipation. But, at the same time, he experiences self-reproaches,
berating himself mercilessly in his own mind for his destructive desires. As
all this is happening, he begins to feel more anxious and a little bit
spaced out, but that remains below the threshold of his awareness.
Meanwhile, a more rational side of his brain realizes that he didn’t just
wander in absentmindedly, and urges him to leave without ordering. Having
resisted his urges, a half hour later there is a happy ending. The feeling
of anxiety, which he is now aware of, seems less compelling because it is
contained by a feeling of emotional strength and stability.
This is,
in fact, an example of how people function. At each moment, various things are going on as different
parts of the brain and body each make a contribution.
It will be
the job of science and psychology to figure out how all of this works. They
will have to come up with a sophisticated vocabulary for describing people’s
shifting mental states and behaviors, including the symptoms of mental
illness. And they will need to correlate that with what is going on in the
brain and body, as well as figure out how it is influenced by the kind of
factors referred to here, such as genetics and food. The rest of us will
need to learn some of this vocabulary if we want to more clearly
identify our own psychological states and figure out how to fix what is
broken.
But in addition to the improvements referred to above, we
are also going to have to put some brakes on the marketing efforts that play
a central role in addicting people to unhealthy food. There will need to be
new
restrictions on advertising food to children, that go well beyond the
voluntary restrictions the food and beverage industry wants. We also need
new laws that mandate better food labeling in grocery stores and chain
restaurants -- including easy-to-see warning labels on packages and
containers of harmful foods, that include a website address where consumers
can get more information. That means all the chocolate candies, the
pastries, the ice cream cartons, and the big bags of chips will sport labels
that say something like, “Warning: this food may be
addictive or result in obesity or damaged health if eaten frequently.” Of course, warning
labels like this are
of limited usefulness if shoppers are immersed in an environment that
tries to manipulate them into eating foods that will make them sick. But if
the warnings are clearly stated, visible, and part of a larger program to
change society, they
will make a difference. We also need increased public pressure on the food industry,
including chain restaurants, to devise healthier meals with fewer calories.
But there is also an approach to regulating food that would take things
in the wrong direction by interfering with people‘s right to make their own
choices. Most notably, some would impose sin taxes or so-called fat taxes on unhealthy foods to
discourage consumption, or they might even ban some foods outright.
Denmark’s new tax on foods that pass a certain threshold when it comes to
saturated fat is a good example of how laws like this can go wrong. The tax
punishes people with limited incomes who are trying to buy staples such as
meat and butter, and it is aimed at the wrong target since the primary
foods that are endangering health are those high in sugar and carbohydrates.
At the time this is being written, France is planning to impose a new tax,
as well, on sugar-based soft drinks.
Restricting fast food restaurants in low income neighborhoods is another
example of this same approach.
Unfortunately, laws like this
may be the wave of the future in some places, infringing on people‘s
freedom, and doing a combination of good and harm, when as much good could
probably be done without the harm. There is also a danger that policies like
this will result in a loss of support for government efforts to improve
health, which will look like a way of interfering in people lives -- and, in
some instances, of
generating new tax revenues. In fact, intrusive government policies could
play into the hands of those who want to protect food company profits by
avoiding regulation.
But the proposals offered here intentionally
avoid these difficulties. They don’t depend on tax increases, banning foods
or restricting sales. Nor do they involve unwelcome government intrusions on
childrearing, to help overweight and obese children. Instead, these
proposals rely on health care professionals, the media, and schools to
educate the public, and provide services where they are welcome. It uses
warning labels to give consumers the information they need. And it depends
on science to give us the knowledge and tools we need to fix the problem.
Using this approach, we can help free people from the manipulation that has
lured hundreds of millions into a way of life that can cause obesity, heart
disease, and diabetes, as well as depression, anxiety, addiction, and other
disorders. It may also free at least some young people from ADHD, which may
be caused in part by sugar and junk food.
But it should also be said
that every nation will have to come up with its own mix of solutions. That
may include dealing with difficult circumstances that aren’t foreseen here.
There is also another important exception to what was said above, since
government should eliminate dangerous food ingredients that can
easily be replaced. For example, we need tough new laws against the
trans-fats used in fast foods and processed foods.
Given the importance of this issue, it would make sense for President Obama
to put the power of the federal government behind proposals like these. In
fact, if he wants a signature issue that won’t cost much, and that will
dramatically improve people’s lives, here it is. Since the threat to
physical health (if not to mental health) has already been well documented,
a program like this would have the support of a majority of the American
people, even though there are special interest groups that would oppose some
of these steps forward.
The Obama administration is already taking
some action. For example, First Lady Michelle Obama’s fight against
childhood obesity, titled “Let’s Move!” is a good first step.
And the president has created a task force on childhood obesity. But it’s
going to take an extensive nationwide effort to stop the damage that is
being done to both children and adults.
Of course, many of these changes would cut into the profits
generated by addictive marketing. But that’s a good thing. The big food
companies can get ahead of the game by finding ways to manufacture healthier
foods now that are reasonably priced, convenient, and good to eat. These
foods still won’t be as nutritious as many whole foods, but they will be a
big improvement. Unfortunately, the changes they are making when it comes to
producing healthier food, reducing sugar, and limiting advertising, aren’t
enough. And no action they take will undo the harm these companies have
already done to America and the world.
5. How Can Individuals Try To Get Better Now
Unfortunately, the kind of advanced medical care people need to repair these
problems doesn’t exist today because there is so much we still don’t know.
That means people who want to figure out if their psychological (or other)
symptoms are caused by diet and aspects of lifestyle will need to come up
with the best resources they can, using the Internet, books, friends and
health care professionals. In effect, people will need to create their own
support network. Given the limitations of scientific knowledge, they will
also need to become “scientists” and study their own lives (and the lives of
their children), in an effort to identify what is influencing them for good
and ill.
I should note before continuing with this part of the
discussion that what is being said in this essay isn’t intended as health
advice, since I’m not a health care provider, a psychotherapist or
scientist. This also isn’t an argument for people to prematurely terminate
psychotherapy, especially if their problems involve issues of safety. And
people should always consult qualified health care providers, including
their doctors, and know that what they are doing is safe, before making a
reasoned decision to act in ways that could affect their health.
With this in mind, many people will find that adopting standard
recommendations for eating a better diet filled with whole foods; cutting
out the sweets and junk food; losing weight; and exercising will make them
feel considerably better. Some people will need to reduce the number of
carbs and sugar even from natural sources, such as bread and potatoes;
others won’t.
A key technique for many people will be adding or
eliminating foods and other physical “inputs,” and then seeing if it changes
the way they feel, for better or worse. Things that might be profitably
eliminated (or in some cases reduced) include alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine,
all kinds of coffee, fast food, prescription and nonprescription drugs (with
a doctor‘s approval, when appropriate), and unnecessary supplements
(which are most of the supplements people take), along with addictive foods that
evoke cravings and are hard to resist. Other actions that might help are
eliminating foods with artificial ingredients, and reducing mold and other
toxins from indoor environments.
Where possible, it may be
particularly useful to do moderate aerobic exercises such as walking or
running, with a doctor’s approval, as well as doing strength training and
stretching exercises.
Things that can profitably be added by many
people include essential nutrients such as vitamin D, from the
sun when possible, along with omega three fatty acids, ideally from
uncontaminated natural sources such as wild salmon; vegetables and fiber; and
probiotic bacteria, also ideally from foods since it is
possible that gut problems have a connection to psychological difficulties.
Getting enough sleep is also important.
But for many people the
most important thing they can do is either reduce or eliminate sweets and
junk foods, including sweeteners with sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup,
and anything with artificial or natural sweeteners, while also reducing the
overall glycemic load of meals. When people embark on an effort like this,
they will also need to decide how to deal with starches such as potatoes and
bread. As Gary Taubes describes in
the New York Times Magazine, Robert Lustig, an expert on
neuroendocrinology, says these are metabolized by the body differently than
sugar.
But people have different responses to carbohydrates, so one
size won’t fit all. The Internet health advisor, Dr. Joseph Mercola, who
believes extensive consumption of grains as well as sugar is part of the
problem, says that, when it comes to sugar and carbohydrates, there are
three nutritional
types. According to Mercola, “Carb Types normally feel best when most of
their food is healthy carbohydrates. Yet, there are major differences
between classes of carbs such as vegetables and grains….” Meanwhile, protein
types “operate best on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein and relatively
high-fat diet (healthy fat that is).” Then there are the mixed types who
“require food combinations somewhere between carb and protein type groups.”
In addition, Dr. Arthur Agatston, who designed the South Beach Diet
as an effective way to lower sugar and carb intake, and eat healthy
carbohydrates, has books that can be a helpful resource.
Other
possible strategies include taking action to avoid catching preventable
diseases, avoiding unnecessary antibiotics and medical treatments, and
practicing dental hygiene. Those with a motivation to go further can adopt a
simple healthy diet to see if physical and psychological symptoms are
reduced. Foods and other “inputs” can then be added back in one at a time to
determine how the individual feels.
Keeping a diary that precisely
records actions and results can also be helpful, for people who are
motivated to do so. One way to format it is as a table, with four
categories:
* time and date;
* physical inputs such as foods
eaten, exercise and sleep;
* information on symptoms and improvements,
and on how the individual is feeling;
* interpretations of what is going
on.
Having people who can be called, emailed or texted when there
is a danger of going off the plan can help, as well.
If people want
to understand their own functioning, they will also need to identify their
psychological states and behaviors, and figure out how these are correlated
with diet and the other factors described here. This will require some
self-observation. For those who are motivated to do so, reading up on the
following subjects on the Internet or in books may be helpful:
neurotransmitters, hormones, psychotherapy, mental illness, and mental
health. A sourcebook for identifying psychological symptoms and disorders is
the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
(DSM-IV or the most updated version, DSM-IV-TR), of the American
Psychiatric Association. Consulting a professional and undergoing
psychological testing can also yield useful information, as can keeping a
psychological diary, in parallel with the diary referred to earlier, on
eating and other actions.
Since this list is only intended to give
readers an idea of strategies that may be effective, more details won’t be
provided here. There are, however, physicians who offer detailed action
plans for body and mind that include all kinds of targeted interventions
using nutrition and other treatments. One approach that seems to have
promise is described in The UltraMind Solution, by Dr. Mark Hyman,
who says there are seven keys to good health, which are presented here in
words close to his own: optimize nutrition, balance hormones, cool off
inflammation, fix digestion, enhance detoxification, boost energy
metabolism, and calm the mind. The book’s subtitle makes the game plan
clear: Fix Your Broken Brain By Healing Your Body First. Another
prominent health writer, Dr. Eric Braverman, in The Edge Effect and
Younger You, talks about correcting the functioning of four key
neurotransmitters: serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and acetylcholine. Dr. Daniel
Amen uses brain imaging to correlate people's psychological symptoms with
activity in parts of their brain, and says he can diagnose which of
seven types of anxiety and depression people have, with targeted
treatments for each type. He says, for example, that what he calls pure
anxiety manifests as increased activity in a region of the brain known as
the basal ganglia.
Writings like these may prove useful, although
many people will probably get good results from simple and natural
solutions. It is also important for people to keep in mind that taking any
action can result in unanticipated side effects. The more extensive the
interventions (especially interventions based on something artificial), the more this may become an issue.
Unfortunately,
embarking on a path of change of the kind described here can be difficult.
It takes time and discipline, requiring that the individual conquer powerful
urges to indulge in addictions and also have the will power to start up
again in the face of the inevitable failures along the way.
There
is also another problem: there are so many things going on in each person’s
life, it can be hard to figure out the cause of many symptoms. Thus, an
individual can eliminate Food X from her diet, wake up the next day, feel
good, and think it must have been the elimination of Food X. But the real
cause may be any of a host of other things that also happened. This problem
is exacerbated by the fact that dysfunctional parts of the brain may be
motivated to fool us about causes in order to maintain ill health because
of a fear of the alternative.
Scientists try to eliminate the
confusion over causes by carrying out tightly controlled experiments and
studies, and recording the results using precise statistics. For example,
two groups of (all-suffering) rats may be treated identically, except for
one change. Maybe it is the introduction of a food in their diet or exposure
to light. Scientists can then try to determine the effect of this one
change. But even many carefully constructed experiments end up producing
incorrect information, with results that can’t be replicated by later
experiments.
Good scientific studies of preexisting situations
similarly use rigorous statistical methods to determine if one thing is
correlated with another -- if consumption of a particular kind of diet, for
example, results in a higher incidence of certain symptoms. But studies
still end up producing all kinds of false information (which is why results
from many experiments and studies should be taken with caution). Science does
ultimately figure things out, but the process is messy, with all kinds of
false starts and misinformation along the way. Given these limitations, you
can imagine how much harder it is for individuals to identify causes in
their own lives, which are filled with obscure and uncontrolled elements.
Then there is another complicating factor: an individual can react to
the same foods in different ways, depending on the state of the body at that
time. For example, for people who complain of hypoglycemia-like symptoms
(and probably for other people, as well), it is possible that extra visceral
fat or being sedentary can heighten their vulnerability to sugar, so when
blood sugar drops there is a release of stress hormones. And symptoms may be
worse earlier in the day. So vulnerabilities are one of the things the
individual will need to identify and take into account.
Despite
these, and other, limitations many people will find that they can improve
their psychological health and feel better, using elements of this approach.
This is particularly true since the general outlines for how people can be
physically healthy often apply to psychological health, as well. It may take
time, and require that people try a lot of different things, even repeating
“experiments” with food and lifestyle, while keeping track of the results.
But given the stakes, it is worth it. And even though people change
physically over time, and progress in science can make information outmoded,
a lot of what people learn about themselves could turn out to be useful for a
lifetime.
6. The Healthy Mind and Body -- and What Is Beyond It
Individuals who are successful at repairing mind and body will, hopefully,
witness a number of results. First, they will experience the lifting of
mental illness from the inside. In order to understand what this is like, it
is important to recognize that mental illness has a way of taking over
people’s personalities, driving their behavior, and distorting who they are
in the inner sanctum of the self. Even when people recognize what is wrong
they are helpless to free themselves because their suffering is something
that is happening to them, just like other physical illnesses and injuries
such as the flu or a broken arm can happen to people. The individual who
suffers from low self-esteem, for example, suffers from a painful
psychological state in which she is plagued by the kind of self-reproaches
described earlier, repeatedly berating herself, and paralyzing her ability
to accomplish tasks and enjoy life. Another part of her brain may tell her
the self-reproaches are a symptom of a disorder, but she will still be
unable to stop them, creating a sense that she is trapped in a psychological
prison. Similarly, the paranoid will be
plagued by fears that he is being spied on and plotted against, so that he
feels compelled to try to protect himself in irrational and often
self-destructive ways.
When the brain begins to function more
correctly, and these symptoms disappear, either temporarily or over the long
term, it is also something that happens to people, like getting better from
the flu or a broken arm. But instead of the body’s temperature going down or
a broken arm ceasing to hurt, individuals are no longer plagued by
self-deprecating thoughts and no longer believe that a plot is afoot. To the
great relief of many of these people, their mind will have been set free. It
is like the oppressive weight of a brutal dictatorship that infiltrated
every aspect of life has been overthrown, while people dance for joy in the
streets because of the return of hope.
When this happens, the
individual is then freer to deal with situations because she isn’t stuck
repeating the same dysfunctional behaviors. She will experience far less
psychological suffering and be a lot less self-destructive. She will also
have a greater capacity to enjoy more positive emotions, if other life
circumstances allow it. This state of mind is the fulfillment of what
conventional psychotherapy typically aims for.
But the lifting of
oppressive symptoms that has just been described is only part of what the
successful seeker of health can expect. If the normal brain and
neurotransmitters truly begin to
function correctly, along with other aspects of physical functioning, people will also have a new sense of wholeness and
stability. There will be a greater calm and equanimity in the face of life’s
travails, along with a robust sense of humor, and a capacity to enjoy the
moment. In addition, there may be a newfound ability to authentically feel
healthy emotions, to love and care about other people, and enjoy life. The
chronic divisions in the mind will largely be healed, so that what the
individual desires, and what he thinks and feels he should desire, become
the same thing.
This state of mind is the fulfillment of the dream
of humanistic psychology, which refers to it with various terms such as
wholeness and integration.
But for some people -- and perhaps for
many -- there is also something else waiting for them, beyond the cessation
of symptoms and the achievement of a sense of wholeness. These people will
begin to have extraordinary experiences that have a spiritual quality. They
may feel imbued with goodness and have a sense of awe at the beauty of
nature. There may be feelings of deep compassion, moments of intense joy or
euphoria, and even profound mystical states, which are the fulfillment of
the vision of spiritual traditions. When these states occur, they are part
of the brain’s natural functioning, and at least some of them are connected
to well-known neurotransmitters and hormones such as serotonin and endorphins.
People spend years meditating in an effort to
calm themselves and achieve states like this. But it turns out that many of
these people have a diet and a way of living that induces psychological
problems. They then turn to meditation to get better, just as people turn to
psychotherapy or prescription drugs. But trying to meditate this way, when
the functioning of the body and brain are disrupted, is like trying to
paddle against a current.
If, instead, these people will eliminate
the destructive behaviors and repair the body, some will achieve a state of
calm and even extraordinary states of mind without meditation. Others may
find it effective to combine this kind of program with meditation, which
may have the potential to become deeper and more transformative.
Of course, the existence of extraordinary states of mind at the far end of
health does suggest another reason a significant number of people avoid
becoming psychologically healthy. This is only intended as speculation, but
it is possible that people have an unconscious fear of these experiences. In
fact, if these experiences convey essential truths about our existence, it
would mean that self-interference is a flight not only from a state of
wholeness but also from important truths about life. If we want to phrase
this like pithy ad copy, we might say that sugar is a shield against
enlightenment. Seen from this perspective, society would be a conspiracy we
hide from ourselves, in which we help keep each other from creating the self
and world we intuitively know should exist.
This would also mean
that the individual and society are a battleground between the will to
health, spirituality and truth, and the will to dysfunction, constriction,
and untruth -- and that this battle is passed on from generation to
generation. The lives of both individuals and society would be compromise
formations, in which these opposing urges find partial expression.
Whatever truth there is in this idea, it is also true that not everything
which interferes with the attainment of a more profound self is a result of
unconscious fears. As described in part three, there are various other obstacles
that prevent people from attaining healthier states of mind, such as
our proneness to addiction and the actions of food companies that exploit
this vulnerability.
But I
would urge more secular-minded readers not to let these references to
spirituality (which aren’t about the theologies of specific religions) turn
them away from the essential message of this essay, which is that many
people can change diet and lifestyle to improve their psychological health
for the better, and even eliminate what look like deeply engrained
psychological complexes. These issues are too important to ignore, even if
writing about this subject right now is mostly an effort to see in the dark.
I would also urge people to fully appreciate the fact that the
decision to become healthier in mind and body can make a difference. The
point of this essay isn’t to challenge the idea that our decision-making
helps shape who we are, or that our experiences over time can change us.
Instead, the essential point is that the way our minds work is dependent on
the body, especially the brain, and many people are lucky -- they can change
the physical inputs to the body and improve the way their minds function
for the better. And insight can play an essential role in getting us
to make the physical changes that can make a difference.
Of course, the
fact that even essential characteristics of our selves are shaped by
chemicals and biology can lead us to feel like we are being robbed of our
freedom and will, and even of our selves. After all, the essence of who we
are seems to reside in what has variously been described as consciousness,
the “interiority” of mind, and our inner life, which is filled with meanings
or representations. The fact that we have unconscious thoughts and
motivations which also have a meaning is itself a challenge to our intuitive
sense that we are unified conscious selves. But the prospect that all of
this is physical, and that a change in our biochemistry can change the way
we behave and experience life, is a disturbing challenge to our sense of our
selves.
One response, which we see in the sciences, is to try to
expand the realm of our freedom by understanding and controlling body. That
is the approach advocated in this essay. Someday, not any time soon, science
may even take things to an ultimate point and make it possible to reinvent
the self so it has a completely free will, and controls the conditions of
its own existence.
But we can also look at our physical embodiment
differently and see our selfhood as a gift of the body. We can see the
world as a gift, as well, since the brain and body somehow convert the
quarks and atoms of our surroundings into those wonderful experiences of the
blue sky with a few wisps of cloud reflected on the still surface of a lake
or into our appreciation of the story in a movie. In fact, the
world of nature, and the human world we share with each other, as well as
our rich inner life, are all a gift of our physicality.
But we
receive a lot less of the gift when our lives are reduced by a disordered
brain. So millions of people need to ask themselves if they really want to
reject a gift like this in exchange for the pleasures of high sugar diets
and other forms of addictive eating. Is enjoying the bliss point of
manufactured foods really worth missing out on the bliss of life? And when
it comes to the larger social questions, how can the current system of
addictive marketing be justified, given all the suffering it is causing and
the threat it now poses to humanity?
- - - - - - - -
Notes:
Regarding all references to people's
psychology: in this essay it is assumed that everything psychological is
also physical, based on the functioning of the brain. But psychological
phenomenon have a quality that other physical phenomenon don't: they involve
conscious or unconscious intentions or perceptions of meaning, and may
involve conscious or unconscious intentions.
Section 1: There is a growing body of scientific research that will one day
put all of this on a scientific footing. For example, here is some
information on the physical basis of our psychology: - One
study that was published online by the American Journal of Psychiatry in
January 2010, offers possible verification of the dangers of the current
diet. It found that women eating a western diet “of processed or fried
foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer” were more likely to suffer
from anxiety and severe or somewhat less severe depression than women who
ate what it refers to as a more traditional diet of “vegetables, fruit,
meat, fish, and whole grains.” But the study had limitations, including the
possibility it was the depression and anxiety that caused these individuals
to eat a less healthy diet, and not the diet that caused the psychological
problems.
- Here is
information from the Washington Post by Rob Stein on a correlation found
in one study between drinking soda and violence.
10/23/2011
"Soda boosts violence among teens, study finds
"Teenagers who drink soda are more likely to carry a weapon and act
violently, according to new research.
"Sara J. Solnick of the
University of Vermont and David Hemenway of the Harvard School of Public
Health in Boston analyzed data collected from 1,878 14- to 18-year-olds in
grades nine through 12 in 22 public schools in 2008.
"Those who drank
five or more cans of non-diet soft drinks every week were significantly more
likely to have also consumed alcohol and smoked cigarettes at least once in
the previous month, the researchers found.
"Moreover, even after
taking other factors into consideration such as age, gender and alcohol
consumption, the researchers found that heavy use of carbonated non-diet
soft drinks was significantly associated with carrying a gun or knife and
violence towards peers, family and partners.
"About 23 percent of
those who drank one or no cans of soda a week carried a gun or knife, and 15
percent had perpetrated violence toward a partner. In comparison, among
those who consumed 14 or more cans a week, 43 percent carried a gun or knife
and 27 percent had been violent toward a partner, the researchers found.
Similarly, violence towards peers rose from 35 percent to 58 percent while
violence towards siblings rose from 25.4 percent o 43 percent."
There's no way to be certain now what is cause and effect here. But
it could be because of the release of stress hormones, after drinking sugar.
- There are various studies that suggest nutrients can
help psychological conditions. For example,
one study found that, in a group of test subjects at high risk of
developing psychosis, fewer went on to develop psychotic disorders after
taking fish oil capsules with omega-3 fatty acids. But the study also had
limitations, including the small number of people tested. (Here
is a list of studies on this subject) And
mayoclinic.com points out that research has shown that exercise can help
“reduce anxiety and improve mood.”
- Regarding hormones and our psychology, an
article in Slate says: "Studies show if you remove a woman’s ovaries for
medical reasons, you increase her risk of anxiety and depression. The
gradual decreases in hormone levels that come with aging can cause mood
swings, but going from youthful levels to neuter levels overnight seems to
be even worse. The Mayo Clinic studied more than 600 Minnesotan ladies who
had both ovaries surgically removed before menopause, and found they had an
increased risk of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety in later life.
Men whose testicles are amputated, or who receive another form of androgen
deprivation therapy for the treatment of cancer, may also be at increased
risk for mood disorders.
"None of that should be surprising. Sex
hormones are known to interact with the brain in complex ways, and estrogen
and androgen receptors in the hippocampus and amygdala seem to regulate
mood."
Readers can link to the article and follow the article's links for more
information.
Section 3: There may be
explanations for deliberately self-damaging behavior, other than the fear of
being healthy and whole. It may be that some people hurt themselves so they
can take masochistic pleasure in suffering, because harm has become
associated with pleasure. Or that they are burdened by a sense of guilt, and
believe they either deserve to be punished or don’t deserve better. Or maybe
there isn’t always a hidden fear, and the brain simply becomes dysfunctional
in ways that cause the person to harm himself. Although this isn't a form of
deliberately self-damaging behavior, it is also likely that some adults
often choose harmful immediate pleasures over long-term health, because they
are focused on the short term.
The website of The
Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia is filled with ideas on hypoglycemia and mental illness.
Here are
some excerpts, which are provided here to offer the reader one perspective.
Regarding psychotherapy, the site
says something relevant: "A fundamental principle in this web site is
that any medical condition having an influence on “mental health” must be
treated FIRST before considering psychotherapy. This is known as the
principle of 'BIOCHEMISTRY BEFORE PSYCHOLOGY'."
"The term hypoglycemia is an unfortunate one, and many doctors would say
that this condition rarely exists. The word means low blood sugar, but
should really mean a condition where a person’s brain does not get fed
properly when they eat sugar. Most doctors know the word hypoglycemia in
the context of diabetes, as for example when a patient accidentally
overdoses on insulin. The term as used by many nutritional doctors in one
that most doctors know very little or close to nothing about.
"In my experience hypoglycemia is as common as diabetes which means that 3-4
per cent of the general population may be suffering."
**
"Associated conditions of hypoglycemia may show up among alcoholics and drug
addicts. It usually means that starvation of the brain has driven a person
to unacceptable social behaviour. Many crimes- and let us not forget that
over 70 per cent of prisoners have an association of alcohol and drug abuse
– are the result of hypoglycemia that has gone wrong. I am of the opinion
that in most cases hypoglycemia precedes the development of anti-social
behaviour, alcoholism or drug addition. Many alcoholics and drug addicts
manifest a Type 1 sugar curve flowing glucose tolerance testing. This means
following the rise in blood sugar, there is a very sharp fall. The body
compensates the subsequent sugar starvation by pumping adrenalin from the
adrenal glands into the blood, which then raises the sugar levels. High
levels of adrenalin may cause mood swings, violent outbursts and emotional
instability. People with excessive adrenalin levels may drink alcohol – a
calming drug – in order to combat the adrenalin side effects. Alcohol is a
legal drug and helps to calm down nerves caused by high adrenalin levels in
Type1 hypoglycemia.
"Thus rehabilitation programs based exclusively on ‘psychological models’
are often found to fail as they tend to ignore the metabolic aspect involved
in behaviours. Major social issues are tied up in this condition.
"Another associated condition is hyperactivity or what is now called ADHD or
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder where the brain is not fed properly
when children eat sugary foods. The behaviour can go either way; the child
may withdraw into a corner or it may climb on practically everything. A
glucose tolerance test usually indicated which way a child will behave as in
both cases they have an underlying sugar-handling problem."
**
"Hypoglycemia is a hormonal disease, caused mainly by insulin over secretion
often associated with adrenal over secretion. Other hormonal conditions such
as thyroid and adrenal problems tie up with hypoglycemia. Typical symptoms
are; tiredness, moodiness, depression, poor concentration, irritability,
sugar cravings, nervousness, poor memory. The condition usually runs in
families and can include diabetes, alcoholism, ADD, hyperactivity, drug
abuse and behaviour disorders.
"Treatment consists of keeping off the simple carbohydrates such as sugar,
honey, glucose and having six small meals every day. The meals should be
roughly equal. Minimum size of a meal should be half a sandwich with the
equivalent of a boiled egg or a chicken wing and a packet of Smiths Crisps
(Plain). A protein breakfast made up of fish, chicken, mince or eggs is
important to provide the necessary fuel for the brain...."
-----------------
HYPOGLYCEMIA - IS IT A 'CURE-ALL' FOR MENTAL ILLNESS?
By Jurriaan Plesman, BA(Psych), Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
"It is
assumed that the causes of depression can be removed by changing a person’s
attitudes and beliefs and confronting irrational thoughts and negative
thinking styles by for instance Rational Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (RCBT).
It is believed the patient can then safely withdraw from drugs and lead a
more normal life. One important question remains unanswered; how can talk
therapy ‘cure’, what is basically a physical disease?
"No doubt there
will be ample evidence in support of this approach. But the reality is that
for many if not most depressed patients either drug therapy and/or
psychotherapy simply does not work.
"We need to find a solution for
this sub-category of patients."
***
"The brain, representing only two percent of the body, requires 75 per cent
of all available glucose (ATP) in the body as its only source of energy AT
ALL TIME, whether asleep or awake. (Stryer Page 438). Thus unstable and
wildly fluctuating blood sugar levels to the brain would have unforeseen
‘psychological’ consequences. Erratic supply of biological energy to the
brain causes it to send stress hormones to the adrenal glands in the form of
adrenaline and cortisol in an attempt to rebalance energy supply. These
internally driven stress hormones - produced in excess - are seen as the
symptoms for depression, anxiety attacks and other abnormal psychological
experiences.
"Having regard to the complexity of the biochemistry of
mental illness, it is obvious that the ‘single bullet’ remedies in the form
of either single drugs or nutrients is bound to fail in the majority of
cases. In fact, these ‘single bullets’ may be expected to further disturb
the delicate interplay and equilibrium among biochemicals in the body.
"What is needed is NOT ‘single bullets’ but a ‘shotgun’ remedy supplying
all the bullets that will target biochemical abnormalities.
"Such a
remedy could well be the Hypoglycemic Diet. This diet can be defined as a
NATURAL diet, supplying all the necessary ingredients for the body to
manufacture the right neurotransmitters. It is specially adapted to overcome
unstable blood sugar levels- common among depressed people - as well as
erratic insulin and stress hormones. This diet does not conflict with drug
therapy and may even overcome some of their side effects."
Section 3: Every society manifests
the struggle between the will to be healthy and whole, and unhealthy, in its
own way, and comes up with its own balance. Some are more life and
health-affirming. Others (such as ancient Sparta or Nazi Germany) are turned
toward constriction and death. This idea is partly based on the ideas of the
humanistic philosopher Erich Fromm who said there are conflicting tendencies
in human nature, and in societies, between the love of life and the love of
death. Fromm’s idea was partly based on Freud.
Section 3: A
psychotherapist may even see that a parent and offspring have a similar
psychological problem and incorrectly conclude the parent unconsciously
passed it on to the children during interaction, when what the parent really
passed on is a genetic susceptibility to the problem.
Section 3:
Parents and children may also suffer from genetic vulnerabilities to
physical flaws that are built in to the body, and that don’t need to be
released by unhealthy external inputs, such as unhealthy food.
Section 4: Regarding the UN declaration, there is a question about whether
saturated fat is a serious problem. But the use of fats to help make
manufactured foods addictive certainly is, and higher calories are, as well,
for many people. Salt is a heath risk only for some people. But it is also
used to make foods more addictive.
- - - - - - - -
A briefer overview of some of these ideas:
What Is the Cause of Mental Illness?
The Hidden Connection Between Food and the Unconscious That Is Changing
America
Other links:
Mental disorder or
mental illness from Wikipedia
Mental illness
at NAMI
Understanding Mental Illness
Mental
Illness
Mental Illness described by the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Mental
illness described by medicinenet.com
- - - - - - - -
The purpose of this essay is to provide information, and help point to a new
direction for medicine, psychotherapy and our understanding of mind and
body. This essay doesn’t provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor
does it substitute for help from qualified doctors and other health care
professionals. The writer also isn't a health care professional or
psychotherapist of any kind. If you need professional attention, or if your
health or safety may be in danger, you should contact the appropriate
professionals without delay. You should also consult health care providers
and other appropriate professionals before taking a course of action that
could affect your health, and be aware that actions affecting health can
have unforeseen and undesirable consequences.
- - - - - - - -
Image by Alexandre Moreau [CC-BY-SA-2.0
(www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
Go to the briefer overview on this subject.
Copyright © 1996-2012
Ken Sanes
On file with the U.S. Copyright Office
|
