Chapter 4 - Feeling Anxious: Hungry for Serotonin
Serotonin is a key brain chemical that's crucial for many mental and physical functions. This peace-giving substance soothes, comforts, and encourages. high levels of serotonin make us feel optimistic and hopeful about achieving our goals and triumphing over challenges. Low stores of serotonin make us feel anxious, fearful, and pessimistic about what we can accomplish.
Low serotonin causes emotional ailments such as anxiety, depression, and lack of self-confidence. With melatonin, serotonin is central to our ability to fall asleep, to stay asleep, and to sleep deeply. Healthy, stable supplies of serotonin are crucial for good sleep. Low serotonin is implicated in hypertension.
Digestion relies on serotonin, much of which is manufactured in the gut. Serotonin helps our abdominal muscles contract so they can push food through the gastrointestinal tract. Serotonin is a known pain reliever.
If insulin spikes too often, your cells will eventually begin to adapt by reducing their response to insulin, which then leaves the glucose floating aimlessly in your bloodstream instead of transferring its energy to your cells. When your blood sugar is too high, your cells aren't getting enough of it. Your pancreas will initially respond by making more insulin to saturate yoru insulin reception, but over time the pancreas will start to reduce the amount of insulin it releases.
If your brain is low on serotonin, it won't understand that you're "full," and you're likely to keep eating, even when your body has had enough. Low serotonin levels make you more likely to overeat. The lethargic feeling we get when indulging in too many carbs and sweets, commonly known as "food coma."
The weight you gain from your serotonin shortage can lead to all sorts of problems; one example is sleep apnea, which in turn can lead to restless sleep and sleepiness during the daytime. The downward spiral of using food to make up for this general feeling of low energy, even as the food you choose depletes your energy further.
Gradually, serotonin pitfalls need to be replaced. The addictive sweets and starches need replaced with serotonin boosters: foods and activities that help keep your serotonin at a nice, stable level. if you don't reverse this downward spiral, you're setting yourself up for serious health problems. It's very difficult to simply feed your serotonin addiction just a little. Due to the nature of tolerance, you're going to crave ever-increasing amounts of sweets and starches, and your weight--as well as all the related health risks-- will continue to increase.
Carbohydrates cause the brain to release serotonin. Without enough carbohydrates to perform this crucial function, dieters become serotonin-deprived and may feel anxious, irritable and depressed.
Low serotonin levels produce anxiety; and anxiety and other forms of stress deplete your serotonin.
Booster mantras improve our brain chemistry by creating a positive, joyous, and confident approach to life. Pitfall mantras, which are negative, make us more likely to turn to addictive foods, alcohol, or drugs, thereby keeping us anxious, pessimistic and discouraged. A mantra is a brief but powerful statement of your core belief about yourself and the world.
The more you avoid the pitfall styles of thinking, and the more you add the booster attributes to your life, the easier it will be to move from a pitfall matra to a booster one. The more you work on transforming your mantra, the easier it will be to avoid pitfall thinking and bring booster attributes into your life. Self-medicating with food only makes a pitfall mantra worse and can lead to a downward spiral if the "medicine" you're choosing is an addictive pitfall food. The "sugar high" is inevitably followed by a "sugar low", just as the temporary calm of noodles and white bread gives way to an anxiety and hunger that are even more intense than before. You can lift your mood with booster foods--whole grains, plain yogurt, berries, and other serotonin-rich foods that feed your brain in healthy, stable ways. Understanding pitfall mantras is the key, and then replacing them with more positive changes. A positive booster mantra will allow you to feel better about yourself, your life, and your future even before you've reached your healthy weight.
Identifying Your Mantra:
If you're struggling with low serotonin, your current mantra is likely to reflect anxiety, pessimism, and a lack of confidence.Here are some common "hungry for serotonin" mantras:
* Something bad is going to happen.
* If that could happen, then anything could happen.
* I'm not okay.
* If I don't do something in one exact way, something bad will happen.
* If I'm not a complete success, I'm a complete failure.
* If I don't weigh myself frequently, my weight might baloon.
* If I don't control my feelings, I'll fall apart completely.
* If I ever let anyone down, I'm a complete failure as a person.
* If others get close to me, they'll hurt me.
Transforming Your Mantra:
* I'm a resourceful person and can handle the things that come up.
* Things will turn out okay...they usually have before.
* I'm good at many things, and if a few things aren't perfect, that's okay.
* I do what I can...and I'm okay with that.
* I've done my best---and my best is pretty good.
* Even when things are hard, I can imagine that they will get better.
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