Posted by Llurpsie_Noodle on January 28, 2007, at 14:19:36
In reply to Re: My relationship with food. Messed up., posted by Poet on January 27, 2007, at 12:10:57
Hi Poet,
sorry you've got a bad cycle going on right now. I think I neglected to include a few of my triggers.Oh well. forgive myself and move on from right NOW.
take care of you, okay? The purge thing must be really hard. I bet these behaviors are very very associated in your mind and it must require such extraordinary control to interrupt it once it's in progress.
I think of these things in terms of animal behavior. Tinbergen studied animal behavior as Piaget studied children's behavior and wrote about Fixed Action Patterns.
I think that humans have an ancient brain that operates on many of the principles of ethology, such as Fixed Action Patterns. Then we've got this giant neocortex sitting on top, constantly trying to impose conscious control over maladaptive automatic behaviors.
Some of the characteristics of a Fixed Action Pattern are
1) once initiated will continue to completion
2) cannot be modulated (in terms of the amplitude, duration, etc of the behavior)
3) seems to be "hard-wired" in all members of a species, although the specific form of the behavior may be specific to an individual. Also note that the FAP may require a trigger (such as seeing the momma goose on day 3 after hatching) that not all individuals will be exposed to.Maybe this helps you think about your struggles a little better. You've probably trained yourself to react to certain kinds of anxiety using the binge and purge (just as I have trained myself to react to certain kinds of anxiety with overeating). Now we have to EMPOWER our conscious choice. We have to give ourselves an opportunity to work on changing our patterns. UNLIKE baby birds (who may "imprint" on any moving thing they see at the right time!) WE have a neocortex (YEAH!!!! go BRAIN!!!). We can fight our urges, and eventually set up better habits.
the old ones will always be there. If you've gone for some period without these behaviors (I have... briefly, I think?) then we have a NEW pattern TOO. We just have to rediscover it.
Okay. I'm going back to knitting now. I taught myself how on Friday, and I'm already doing quite well, if I may say so myself. Note: hands busy. Note: eyes busy. Note: no opportunity for cuticle picking. aha!
Racer, somewhere, out there-- the fiber artist in you has inspired me. I wish I could show you my lumpy little creations. you might even say "wow!" And I'd be good enough to pretend that it was a "wow you are so clever!" not a "wow, I'm SO glad I'm not expecting a Christmas present for 11 more months"
-Ll
poster:Llurpsie_Noodle
thread:726717
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/eating/20061124/msgs/727487.html