Scott Abel - The Blog: The Diet-Mentality and Disordered Eating Part 1

The Diet-Mentality and Disordered Eating Part 1

Eating disorders and disordered eating issues have become so pervasive in the Fitness Industry I have written several books on both issues. (See my 3-book project ThePhantom Menace; as well as my book on Body Image Dependency Disorder, The Other Side of the Mirror) Especially problematic for me is the Fitness Industry responsibility in inducing these issues in the first place.
But that is another Blog and I can easily explain how this happens another time.

Once ?the diet-mentality? takes hold ? life becomes something else than it used to be. I am going to do a series of Blogs now on specific ?client-types? who represent various elements of the ?diet-mentality? and suffer disordered eating problems and food issues because of it. As you will see, what begins for one earnest reason continues for another ? but the form it takes then becomes self-destructive and not self-empowering. It?s amazing to me how many people ?say? they get that ? but how they live and think within the diet-mentality illustrates a behavioral hypocrisy which is one of the ?planes of denial? of disordered eating and the mental/emotional grip of the diet-mentality. Moreover it is especially problematic and insidious to me ? how many people defend ?competing? in the physique world as such a positive experience ? when the personal ramifications and consequences so clearly point the opposite. (Again, see my book ? TheOther Side of the Mirror)
The Diet Mentality and Disordered Eating In Fitness1) The progression from using a diet for self-improvement and self-empowerment into self-destructive tendencies has many similar components. The whole ?diet-mentality? begins when a focus on ?diet outcome? produces a general sense of unease or dissatisfaction. The negative feelings can often start out as very subtle indicators ? things like diet-boredom, or emotional sadness, numbness ? even heavier emotions like anger and resentment. Of course these feelings can be brought on by day to day life-stressors or specific events ? or they may just be a reflection of the dieter?s general outlook on life. The problem manifests when these things become filtered through the ?diet-mentality? of focus on food, eating, diet, weight-control etc. And these negative thoughts can insinuate themselves into even the brightest day. Many dieters know well the experience of a day going well, that is somehow sabotaged because ?joy? is replaced by a reminder to think about ?today?s food or next meal?s diet agenda? - thus killing a moment. Over time this produces a kind of ADHD for those under the influence of the ?diet-mentality? ? because at any given moment when the mind starts to focus too deeply on anything else ? you are directed back to some kind of pending food or diet consideration. 2) Next step in the process is the intense desire and attempt to exert control over any unpleasant thoughts or feelings ? or any feelings that take you away from a ?diet/food/hunger/weight focus? for too long. While some people use drugs or alcohol for this reason and others may gamble ? those in the fitness industry are usually susceptible to using both diet and exercise as a way to control and/or hide emotional unpleasantness or general life-circumstances that require attention. When the diet-mentality leads to disordered eating ? the act of eating and thoughts of food are the drug of choice.

The potential anorexic will try to use avoidance of food and a focus on this abstinence ?as a means of not focusing on negative thoughts and feelings. The potential bulimic, overeater, compulsive eater etc. will similarly use the consumption of food (instead of the abstaining from it) to do the exact same thing. So, as you can see ? these disordered patterns, are not ?opposites? ? they share the same root progressions. People with disordered eating/food issues will almost always share this following pattern as well ? they will almost always choose specific types of foods ? and they do so based on perceptions of emotional safety, emotional relief, or emotional comfort. But trying to control feelings with a diet-mentality filter is a fleeting proposition. For those who fall into this (you will know who you are by this statement) -> self-loathing is never very far away now. As a matter of fact it becomes like a default emotional position in relation to food and diet and weight. For the person trying to deny themselves food, while at the same time the body is hungry and demanding nourishment ? a mental and emotional struggle intensifies. And since you have to eat ? when you do ? you consider yourself ?weak? and the diet-mentality kicks in the self-loathing and the whole process repeats itself.Correspondingly, for those who overeat, binge eat, or compulsively eat ? the same kind of guilt and shame kick in following the food indulgence. And for all these groups of disordered eaters ? self-hate and hopelessness become the steady mental state under the influence of the diet-mentality. What began as a diet for self-improvement quickly devolves ? because of self-measurement and self-judgment ? into a self-recriminating, repeating process of losing oneself to the diet-mentality. And instead of realizing that ONLY self-acceptance can deliver you from this abyss ? you tell yourself that self-acceptance is now a ?goal? you will accomplish when and if you can stick to the diet long enough ? to change your weight and body image.

You have now created a mental/emotional feedback loop where body image has become self-image ? and the diet-mentality ? has - as its foundation, an intense level of self-rejection ? fueled by guilt, shame, and self-hatred. As such, you create a cycle that has no solution, but an unconditional inevitability of repeating itself, over and over. The negative feelings prompt and invite the judgment of the diet-mentality and this leads to the disordered eating patterns. Then the disordered eating behavior invites the judgment ? and this leads to more guilt, shame, self-rejection, and on it goes ? over and over again. So, regardless of what ?form? or ?pattern? your disordered eating takes on ? sometimes more than one ? ?food/diet/weight control? become the shared means to attempt to control what is uncontrollable. You end up fighting a battle ? not with you ? but with a diet-mentality that has taken you over. And what you really seek is relief from that. You remember what it ?was? like to ?not? have a diet-mentality control your mind and emotion ? but you have no map for getting back to that place. Emotional HoardingAnd on top of all of this ? as if this wasn?t enough ? within the fitness industry the ?appeal? of the better body only intensifies all of these issues even further. In fact Body Image Dependency Disorder (my book ? The Other Side of the Mirror) can deepen and expand the diet-mentality and disordered eating patterns. You start to diet and exercise to accomplish a goal of perceived ?perfection? in body weight, body image, or diet compliance. And yet, perfection like this is unattainable and/or unsustainable ? so you are back to the default position of self-rejection projected by the diet-mentality onto Body Image ? and vice versa. The ?emotional hoarding? takes place both figuratively and literally.Figuratively-speaking emotional hoarding is a ?put up a good front? appearance. Watch any episode of ?Hoarders? and you learn that while a house ?seems? normal and together ?on the outside? ? inside there is tremendous clutter and chaos ? and seldom do visitors ever get past the front door to see the reality. Well, in terms of Body Image Dependency Disorder in combination with the diet-mentality ? the same ?hoarding? exists, in the figurative sense. The thinking is that if you just present a ?together Figure or physique on the outside? then people will think you got it together on the inside. When what is really happening on the inside is tremendous emotional clutter and chaos that exists on the level of neurosis. But what is important to the emotion hoarder who hides behind the pain of the diet-mentality and Body Image dependency ? is the appearance and validation of ?having it all together? on the outside ? so as to not be found out on the inside ? where emotional chaos and inner emotional clutter controls your life.And in the literal sense ? hoarders almost always share these circumstances. - ?Stressful events in life, Social isolation, Poor impulse control, and Attachment to possessions. For emotional hoarding, the stressful event is now all about diet and food considerations ? the social isolation speaks to a ?closet approach? to hiding disordered eating and food issues, and the attachment to possessions ? now speaks to the Body Image and treating the body as an ?object? you possess and are attached to, as an object ? instead of as a vessel of your consciousness and conscious awareness. Emotional hoarding as a consequence of the diet-mentality and Body Image Dependency ? means you now ?hoard? emotions like guilt, shame, self-rejection etc. And you don?t ?replace and renew them? you just keep hoarding them and adding to the pile that already exists. The self-destructive nature of this should be obvious. I could go on with other obvious comparisons to the psychological disorder of hoarding, but I want to stay within the realm of the diet-mentality and body-image dependency and the ramifications they produce.
In future parts of this Blog I will present ?common? personality types who have disordered eating issues ? and you can decide for yourself if any of them ?seem familiar.?

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Stay tuned for the next parts in this series.

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