Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hi, I'm Dr. Charisse Johnson, a licensed clinical mental health therapist, mindfulness practitioner, and author. One of my primary specialties is working with individuals who want to heal and reconcile their relationship with life, food and self. Welcome to Mindset Matters.
[00:00:18] Have you ever found that over time you were an individual or someone that you recognize? You struggle with the dynamic of over consumption. You go through seasons and waves where you find yourself either fixated on particular things and this is a little bit beyond the dynamic of emotional eating. It's like this gnawing sensation, this emptiness inside that you're trying to fill with food, or if you feel like you will not be able to fill it with the specific things that you like, there's almost a little bit of anxiety. Let's get into that focus for today so that we can really understand over consumption when enough doesn't feel like enough and how you can heal the more Mentality Opening Quote when the mind fears scarcity, the body forgets sufficiency and so healing begins when we learn to trust that what we have and who we are is is enough.
[00:01:21] So let's first break down the dynamic of the More mentality. The more mentality is a psychological and biological drive that leads to over consumption of food, of things, of emotions or experiences. I always want you to take what we talk about here and really look at how you can expand it just beyond what's on your plate, but also looking at your habits and the various parts of your life where the same patterns are showing up. I want to say that again, the more mentality is a psychological and biological drive that leads to over consumption of things, of food, of emotions or experiences. Even when the body or the mind signals enough, it's often a response to things such as emotional deprivation, childhood scarcity. Yes, what you experienced as a child has wired in your nervous system the way that you think and how you respond. And that can still be showing up as an adult and also can be a response to fear of loss or lack. And I don't want you to think about loss or lack just as a person. It could be as an opportunity, a loss of a sense of self, loss of identity, a lack of a specific need in your life being met. Really expand how you are thinking about yourself. It can also be a dynamic of unprocessed grief or trauma or feeling very disconnected from your internal cues.
[00:02:59] And it's not about greed, it's about unmet needs.
[00:03:05] Did you hear that?
[00:03:06] Over consumption is not a sign that you lack discipline or that you're greedy or never Satisfied. It is more in line with a neurobiological dynamic where your needs are not being met and you're unsure how to heal that part of yourself. But I promise, if you stay tuned, I'm going to help you get some understanding and learn a few things that you can try as you work on this process. Let me always give this as a caveat. Nothing that I say is ever going to be this do this one, two, or do these one, two or three things and all of a sudden you're going to feel better. That's not reality. I think it's important to say that. But as you do these things, as you take the tips and the tools that I provide or you hear in other places and you implement them in your life on a consistent basis, you, you will find a greater level of healing emerge. So, neuroscience and a little neurobiology. The amygdala, this is the threat detector. The area of your brain that scans for danger or deprivation.
[00:04:14] Early life scarcity, whether real or perceived, can chronically activate it. So if you grew up with lack and scarcity and not having enough, or around other people who constantly spoke their, their fears about you not having enough, that wiring places your amygdala on a higher level of threat and deprivation. Then there's the dopamine dysregulation aspect. So over consumption activates dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter. And this reinforces the pattern of more equals better.
[00:04:53] So when you're in a place that you don't feel overly full and that you've overly over consumed, if there's a part of you that gets anxious, then you know that that dopamine is in a place of dysregulation. When it's centered around food. More does definitely not always equal better. And if it does, it is for a very brief moment where you flooded your dopamine receptors. And then as soon as you get to the other side of that and it starts to resolve the guilt and the shame and the frustration comes in. So it's not sustainable.
[00:05:25] Other neuroscience and neurobiology insights. Insula, cortex and interoception. So this is the area of the body and the brain that governs your body awareness. If it's muted due to trauma or stress or disconnection, people may not recognize hunger, fullness or emotional cues. So here's what this would look like.
[00:05:46] You're in this chronic state of stress that you've been experiencing and navigating all or you have just come out of, or you're in the Middle of something that has almost taken your breath away.
[00:05:59] While you're navigating that in order to protect yourself, to self preserve, you've kind of muted and blunted your ability to feel because feeling feels like a threat. Well, as you're trying to cut off the feelings of despair or overwhelm or stress or anxiety, you're also going to cut off by nature the impact and the ability to feel adequate hunger and fullness. You cannot cut off some emotions without cutting off others. So when that interoceptive awareness is blunted and muted because feeling feels like danger, then you are going to find yourself mindlessly over consuming until you get to the point that you are so full that you're almost sick or you know that you have to stop so that you will be sick. Then there's the cortisol and emotional eating. So chronic stress increases cortisol, which is your stress hormone. When that cortisol spikes, it's going to drive your cravings for high calorie foods and quick comfort so that you numb the pain through consumption.
[00:07:06] However, once that consumption resolves and digest, all of the things that you are stressed about are still going to be there. That's why we are always going to encourage you to make sure that you are getting to the root of your stress and and addressing it to help mitigate running to food and using it as a false means of coping.
[00:07:27] Sometimes we eat to protect ourselves, not to nourish ourselves. And the body becomes then a battleground for a mind that is trying to feel safe. And I think that's a really great question for you to step back and be able to ask yourself. Am I truly eating in this moment because I'm trying to nourish myself, or am I in a place that I'm trying to quit quiet my mind? Those are two very different dynamics. Physical hunger is what we want to be the primary driver of when we eat and how much we eat. And what we need to satisfy the mind is very different.
[00:08:01] So here's why. Enough can also feel unreliable. Key drivers of the more mentality. One is scarcity mindset. I better eat it now or I won't get another chance. This is you. If right before you start some new initiative with your health, you feel like you want to eat all the things because you're not going to be able to ever have it again, which we actually know isn't true. But that's kind of what you told yourself. Your brain registers that as scarcity and then you go into overdrive, you feel a little sick going in. And it doesn't mean that you're not going to want those things anymore.
[00:08:35] It's just kind of creating a brain loop that can be a challenge in the future.
[00:08:41] Number two, grief and loss. So subconscious effort to fill an emotional void is going to place you in a dynamic where you might find yourself over consuming, because that's an easier way to fill a hole, but not really right. Food doesn't actually solve anything. Three, Low self worth.
[00:09:03] Consumption can become a way to prove worthiness, mask emptiness, or punish oneself. Now I fully get that there are some of you who just heard me say that. And what? And wait. I don't see food as something that makes me worthy. Stay with me for a moment. Let's dig into that just a little bit.
[00:09:23] We often view food through the lens of morality. If we eat well and look well, then we are well, even though that may not be true. So there is this aspect of taking our consumption and our worth and value can go up or down down, depending upon how we're dealing with controlling or being disciplined in that area.
[00:09:45] There's also times in our life where we punish ourselves because we feel bad and we want to feel better, but we also don't think that we deserve to feel better. But food somehow becomes that acceptable way of plating something that brings us joy, while we are also internally beating ourselves up because we feel like we fell short in some area. Sometimes that can look like over consumption and sometimes that can look under consumption. Both of which you've heard me talk about if you've been with me for a while, are rooted in the same dynamics. And then there's neglect of interoception. So you are so busy, you are constantly doing what everybody else needs. You are burnt out.
[00:10:28] And as a result of that, you have a diminished awareness of your satiety, your emotions and your fullness, which is going to leave you in a constant dynamic where things are going to be difficult to manage. But here's something that I want you to consider. You have what's called a default mode network dmn.
[00:10:50] When this is overactive, in rumination, it's going to drive your internal narratives like I'm not enough or I will never feel satisfied. So we want to address that and I will tell you how to do that in just a moment.
[00:11:04] But neuroplasticity is the answer for us all. If you have a healthy functioning brain and have not had any traumatic brain injuries that have taken parts of your brain offline, then these patterns can be rewired, but they require two things. They require awareness and they require consistent redirection. If you were taking notes, that is the word that I want you to put in bold highlight underline consistent redirection. It's not enough to just become aware of the drivers that that are pulling our appetite and our over consumption in a specific direction. We also have an opportunity to empower ourselves through consistent redirection and realigning ourselves back into habits and patterns that are more aligned with what we value and the kind of health that we deserve and that is our birthright. So here's a few interactive reflection questions for you.
[00:12:04] When in your life did more feel like survival?
[00:12:11] Second question what does enough mean to you emotionally, not just physically?
[00:12:19] And then three can you recall a time when you felt full, satisfied or emotionally safe without overdoing anything?
[00:12:32] The need for more is often a signal of something we're missing that no amount of food or success can give us.
[00:12:44] I want to leave you with that thought.
[00:12:47] Take what you've heard today in terms of over consumption. Answer these questions for yourself. Really think about the neurobiological aspect that you may be battling and then come back soon as I get into the next part around this over consumption and give you some tangible tools that you can implement to support yourself until we meet again.
[00:13:11] Be well.
