Psychology of why people starve. Why do people starve? How to distinguish physiological hunger from psychological

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Have you ever felt like you started getting angry when you were hungry? Or maybe even run into conflict?

If so, then at these moments you experienced an attack of “nakedness” - a mixture of hunger and anger.

But what causes this to happen, and why do only some people experience these attacks?

Physiology of hungry anger

It's all about the processes occurring inside your body. Proteins, fats and carbohydrates are broken down into simple saccharides (such as glucose), amino acids and free fatty acids, which enter the blood, from where they are distributed to organs and tissues and supply us with energy.

The more time passes since your last meal, the fewer nutrients circulate in the blood. If your blood glucose level drops enough, your brain interprets it as a life-threatening signal. As you can see, the human brain is critically dependent on glucose levels to remain functional.

You've probably noticed this pattern before: when you're hungry, simple things become complicated, you find it difficult to concentrate, and you make stupid mistakes.

You also grumble and bully others, and you can easily lash out at your loved ones. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Why is this happening?

The answer is simple.

When your blood glucose levels drop, your brain sends signals to certain organs to release regulatory hormones. One of these hormones is adrenaline, a known stress hormone. It stands out at a time when you are afraid or think that something threatens your safety. Along with the adrenaline rush, you can also easily experience a fit of anger or aggression.

Nature and nurture

Hunger and anger are controlled by common genes. The product of one of the genes causes excessive gluttony and affects brain receptors, and also makes us more impulsive.

The upbringing and level of a person’s culture also play a certain role. We are all different, and therefore it is not surprising that some people cannot restrain their emotions at all (especially when they are hungry).

How to overcome hunger anger

The easiest way to deal with hunger anger is to eat something before you get too hungry (and too angry). However, remember that chocolates or chips will cause your blood glucose level to be too high, which will crash too quickly.

You will only get hungrier, so try to choose something more natural and nutritious that will not only satisfy your hunger, but will also not harm your health.

The conclusion is this: before you take on a difficult task, be sure to eat!

People have collected many ways to strengthen and develop spiritual and physical health. Every religion has many rituals that would be useful to non-believers. In our time, it is no longer possible to perceive everything religious as dogma, and there are no explanations that would allow us to understand and, therefore, accept these rituals. You can believe in God, you can not believe, but you can’t just throw away thousands of years of folk experience, centuries-old folk wisdom, which, undoubtedly, created these rituals, in particular, fasting.

Our grandparents were healthier, if only because they had a food system that had been established for centuries, which included fasting. There is not a single religion in the world that does not have one or another system of fasting or dietary restrictions.

Many modern authors speak in favor of fasting and fasting, for example, P. Bragg, Yu. Nikolaev, G. Shelton. According to modern theory, nutrition should be balanced, that is, you should consume proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and microelements in the required quantities. At the same time, for some reason, it is not assumed that not everything that we load into the stomach is absorbed by our body. The metabolic system, I mean not only the system of excreting unnecessary substances, but also the absorption of substances necessary for the body, constantly receiving refined, “balanced” food, begins to fail over time, with age, because nothing needs to be obtained through labor; everything enters the stomach almost ready-made. With the metabolic system without load, the same thing happens as with a person in space: the astronaut’s muscle volume decreases, since the musculoskeletal system is not loaded. In the same way, without constant load, the metabolic system begins to become lazy and malfunction. An untrained metabolic system can be compared to an inept builder who, even with first-class materials, still builds a crooked, lopsided house. This is how the metabolic system that has forgotten how to work builds our body. Hence the diseases, I think, including cancer.

Of course, there can be many reasons, but the main one is obvious: the cell has forgotten how to leave behind healthy offspring. This is where fasting would help, fasting, which trains the metabolic system, forcing it to work more efficiently. After fasting and fasting, the metabolic system begins to better satisfy the body's needs for vitamins, microelements, proteins and carbohydrates, and better remove toxins and harmful substances. Therefore, the aphorism “Our body consists of what we eat” should be changed to: “Our body consists of what we assimilate.”

The same can be said about the human thermoregulation system. If a person hardens himself by swimming in cold water, then his thermoregulation system maintains the temperature of his internal, vital organs within the required limits. The constancy of the temperature of these organs is necessary to maintain the chemical reactions occurring in them at a certain level, and in a hardened person these organs do not become overcooled. All kinds of colds recede before a seasoned person. That is, again, training and load are needed, but this time a thermoregulation system. After all, no one denies the benefits for a person of physical activity that trains the muscular and cardiovascular systems? By analogy with the muscular system, all human systems need constant training. Fasting and fasting were introduced into religion precisely for this purpose as a result of thousands of years of experience, which is gained through trial and error. But we must not forget that fasting is for man, not man for fasting. You can tear your muscles and tendons by lifting weights without training, just as you can ruin your body by doing all kinds of training without a sense of proportion. Therefore, you need to start gradually, gaining your own experience.

Our medicine is engaged in trying to remove the consequences, the results of an incorrect lifestyle, that is, disease. But it would be very good if she also took up eliminating the causes of diseases, that is, studying a way of life in which diseases would not arise or would be minimized. This new direction seems very important to me, and, in my opinion, entire research institutes should do this, and not individual enthusiasts. In this matter, the study of folk experience, the religions of all peoples, in which their enormous experience and wisdom are concentrated, would undoubtedly help.

Very often, what irritates us in other people is what we do not recognize in ourselves.

What irritates us in those around us is what we do not recognize in ourselves: if a person hates deputies, it means he does not want to take responsibility; if rich people annoy him, it means he himself wants to be rich.

WHAT IS IRRITABILITY?

Let me start with the fact that people very often suppress their emotions. The reasons for this may be different: shame, guilt, social condemnation, moral prohibitions, religious beliefs and much more.

When we talk about irritability, we are dealing with suppressed anger

When it comes to irritability, we are dealing with suppressed anger. Anger arises in response to a threat to a person’s physical and/or mental health.

Often we are not aware of these threats, but emotions work flawlessly and the corresponding mechanisms are launched automatically (that is, bypassing consciousness).

There are situations when a person understands what makes him angry, but cannot change anything: for example, one spouse cannot openly express his complaints to the other - then he begins to restrain his anger and becomes irritable.

If a child is not taught or allowed to express anger correctly from childhood, he will gradually develop a passive-aggressive type of behavior. Expressing anger correctly means releasing it immediately. The child can be very angry, but over time he learns to control his emotions, including anger.

He begins to release it as appropriately as possible: express what he doesn’t like, influence an unpleasant situation, stand up for himself, etc. Controlling emotions, by the way, is not the same thing as suppressing. Rather, on the contrary: suppression of emotions is precisely a child’s mechanism, when a child does not feel that he has no right or that adults are forbidden to him to openly express his feelings, he keeps them to himself, he is not allowed to demand and set aside his point of view. Then this carries over into adulthood. Having matured, such a person will endure and remain silent for a long time, and at certain moments he will throw out anger on others. To family, friends, friends. Or on strangers:

Sorry, grandma, I stepped on your foot.

It’s okay, grandson, I’ve already spat on your back.

It is very easy to throw out anger on strangers - on the subway, on the bus, on the street, at work (if you have subordinates); on deputies, businessmen, neighbors, men, women. The accumulated aggression must be discharged, otherwise the person simply begins to get sick. The thing is that emotions are inextricably linked with hormones.

If a child is not taught to express anger correctly from childhood, he will gradually develop a passive-aggressive type of behavior.

Depending on what emotions a person experiences, different hormones are produced, which in turn cause certain reactions in the body: muscle tension, rapid heartbeat... If we do not release emotions, tension builds up inside. And in order not to suffer, a person, consciously or subconsciously, looks for a “victim” on which to expel anger.

ANGER VS ANGER

Anger should not be confused with anger. Anger is a fair reaction to an external threat. Anger is accumulated, “overexposed” anger.

If I feel threatened and express it at this particular moment, it is not anger - it is anger that protects me. If I endure, my anger will turn into anger, rage and even hatred. Or, on the contrary, into apathy and powerlessness.

SHADOW

Suppressed aggression turns into a “shadow”.

“Shadow” (in psychology) is those emotions, thoughts and knowledge about ourselves that we do not want to admit. A person makes a lot of effort not to notice his “shadow”. He projects into the outside world what he does not want to see inside himself. Therefore, in other people we are irritated by what we do not recognize in ourselves.

RICH PEOPLE, POOR PEOPLE, DEPUTIES, ALCOHOLICS

Thanks to our projections, we can become aware of what is happening to ourselves. Our emotions are triggered in response to certain triggers: if a person hates deputies, it means that he does not want to take responsibility. If rich people annoy him, it means he himself wants to be rich.

If a person constantly says that people are lazy and don’t want to work, it means that he himself is lazy, but for some reason he doesn’t allow himself to be (perhaps he doesn’t allow himself to rest normally, he doesn’t relax). If he accuses the arrogant, it means that he himself would like to be arrogant. And most importantly, he has this arrogance inside, but for some reason he does not allow himself to have it.

Stuffy transport, long lines, rush

There are situations that we cannot control directly, but we want to. The result is anger. And if we suppress anger, we begin to experience irritation.

Let’s say the father of the family says: “We’ll leave in half an hour.” Meanwhile, the family has two children - they can’t get together in half an hour. But for some reason the father wants to control the situation, wants to show his power. As a result, the family does not have time to get together, the father is seething, screaming, swearing, anger.

Thanks to our projections, we can become aware of what is happening to ourselves.

The same goes for queues, stuffy transport, and rush. If a person cannot control something, it is highly likely that he will begin to experience anger. The most interesting thing is that sometimes he Maybe somehow influence the situation, but for some reason does not do this.

For example, the father could give the family not half an hour, but an hour to get ready (more adequate time). But he refused this, and then takes his anger out on his household. Or a person is standing in an inappropriately long line: he can complain to the boss, he can ask to be let ahead if he really needs it. But he doesn’t do this, it seems to him that he is powerless. He is not trained to use his aggression. Instead, he endures and endures and endures, and then explodes.

CONSEQUENCES

Constantly suppressed aggression and a passive-aggressive type of behavior poison our body, negatively affect our thoughts and behavior, and teach us the position of a victim, passivity, aggressiveness, and reprehensibility. A person does not just waste his energy in vain. This leads to various diseases, primarily cardiovascular diseases. Statistics show that most heart attack patients are either passive-aggressive or very irritable people.

Therefore, learn to express your complaints here and now, do not accumulate negative psychological energy. It is also important to try to distinguish the true source of aggression. And don’t take your anger out on your family, because in fact your boss made you angry, but you endured it. Otherwise, it will destroy your life and relationships, and feelings of guilt will accumulate.

To get rid of passive aggression and irritability, you need to first admit that you have this problem. In other words, take responsibility for this part of your life: if a person steps on your foot, and you are not just in pain, unpleasant and want to reprimand him, but to kill him, then it’s time to admit that the problem may be with you. Then it’s better to sign up, for example, for a boxing section to let off your steam there, and not with other people who will fall under the hot hand. In general, it is advisable to work through such conditions with a psychologist.

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There are many different addictions that people find difficult to get rid of: alcohol, shopping, watching erotic videos, gambling, work and others. Among all the bad habits and obsessive needs, food addiction is also distinguished. What causes psychological hunger, what its consequences are, and how to deal with it, we will look at in this article.

The organs of the human endocrine system produce a large number of hormones that affect physiological, chemical processes, behavior and the human psyche. Nervous breakdowns, outbursts of emotions, moral exhaustion, anger, and feelings of strong resentment contribute to the production of cortisol, which is called the stress hormone. With excess hydrocortisone in the blood, the feeling of hunger increases and, at the same time, metabolic processes are disrupted, which causes the accumulation of fat in problem areas.

After an emotional outburst and an unplanned snack, there is a distraction from unpleasant thoughts and calmness due to the satisfaction of the desire to eat. This pleasant feeling is short-term, and the feeling of satiety disappears.

With frequent stress, anxiety, and worry, the need for food turns into addiction, which can result in excess weight and other serious health problems.

How to distinguish physiological hunger from psychological

There are physiological and psychological hunger. The first is a natural state of the body, signaling the body's need to be replenished with nutrients for its continued functioning. The feeling of hunger, which appears at the psychological level, has nothing to do with natural processes in the body and differs in its manifestations and consequences from the physical need for food.

To distinguish which type of hunger is caused by appetite, you need to know about the main signs of manifestation of both types:

1. The natural need for satiation with food is manifested by a gradual increase in the feeling of hunger. First, a feeling of emptiness appears in the stomach, then the desire to eat intensifies and after a few hours develops into a strong need for food. Psychological is characterized by the sudden emergence of an uncontrollable desire to eat.
2. With a physiological need, a person is content with any food, since the main goal is to replenish the body with strength and energy. When you are psychologically hungry, you crave certain foods.
3. Natural processes in the body originate in the gastrointestinal tract, while psychology influences consciousness and draws pictures of desired products before the eyes. The problem that appears as a result of stress creates an urge to consume food in the head and forces you to satisfy your inflamed appetite.
4. The appearance of hunger at a physiological level is influenced by the length of time between meals. Psychological dependence is subject to emotional outbursts and appears in parallel with experiences, regardless of the interval between breakfast and lunch.
5. A person driven by emotions does not control his appetite. When stressed, he is able to eat a pack of cookies, a bowl of cutlets or a whole cake. Satisfying the physical feeling of hunger, a person clearly understands what and how much he consumes.
6. A hungry person enjoys eating, clearly feels full and understands when to stop eating. Emotional arousal does not allow you to recognize the taste and enjoy your favorite food. In addition, the understanding that the feeling of hunger is satisfied is blurred, and this provokes overeating.
7. After eating enough food, your mood improves, irritability and fatigue disappear. When overeating as a result of psychological hunger, regret, self-flagellation and a feeling of guilt often arise for another breakdown and incontinence in the face of the desire to eat.

How to get rid of psychological hunger

If you are able to distinguish physical hunger from psychological hunger, you need to learn to control impulses against an emotional background and overcome the unbearable desire to eat stress. Self-control is important for overall health, since frequent overeating has serious consequences and sometimes leads to irreversible processes in the body. Impaired nutrition can lead to disorders in the functioning of organs and systems, and the psyche. As a result of disorder in food intake, the following diseases develop:

• obesity;
• diabetes;
• bulimia;
• anorexia;
• compulsive overeating.

Each pathology has additional problems that affect psychological and physical health. It is important to recognize in time the presence of a mental factor in the desire to eat and to distinguish it from a natural phenomenon of human physiology.

At the first signs of psychological hunger, it is possible to cope with the problem on your own. If regular overeating, as a correction of the emotional state, has led to metabolic disorders, treatment of the disease should be carried out under the supervision of specialists.

To get rid of the problem you need:

1. Understand the reason that provokes constant snacking. Having noticed what exactly drives the desire for food, you need to learn to avoid these situations and cope with emotions.
2. Distracting attention to other activities will help you overcome severe psychological hunger. The activity should promote the production of adrenaline, which is also a stress hormone, but is produced with pleasant sensations, strong admiration, and delight.

Adrenaline helps accelerate lipolysis and inhibit the formation of fat deposits. To get rid of the obsessive desire to snack, you can distract yourself with:

• interesting communication with an old friend;
• watching an exciting movie;
• listening to incendiary music;
• playing on a computer;
• roller skating.

This list can be supplemented with other interesting items that can help overcome the effects of anxiety and overcome food cravings.

1. Eliminate the possibility of eating a lot and often. Compounding the problem is the availability of products. It is worth emptying the kitchen of everything that provides quick satisfaction of hunger. Instead, you need to stock up on fruits, nuts, berries, dried fruits, yogurt, the consumption of which will not have a negative effect on weight and health, but will promote weight loss and health, saturating the body with oxygen and nutrients.
2. You can fight spontaneous appetite by drinking a glass of water.

What happens to the nervous system during fasting?

Having determined the reason for regular overeating and, as a consequence, excess weight, some go to extremes and go on a hunger strike. Healthy eating, diets, sports are effective ways to lose weight. Proper fasting is a radical method of cleansing the body, which has a strong impact on the psyche and mental abilities.

Dry fasting, which involves a complete refusal of food and water for a certain period, as well as wet (wet), which allows you to consume water, are types of therapeutic fasting that effectively rid the body of toxins and excess weight. Reviews from users of this technique indicate that it is able to free the body from harmful substances, positively influence the psychological, physical and spiritual state, and clarify consciousness.

Experts say that fasting helps to cope with mental disorders, get rid of obsessions, and the consequences of stress. This occurs due to biochemical changes in brain cells and relaxation of the nervous system.

Motivation options

You can tune in to long-term fasting with strong motivation. It is important not to force, but to tune in to achieve the desired result. It is impossible to force yourself to starve without a conscious, deliberate goal. An optimistic attitude, the strength to withstand and overcome the temptation to relapse will ensure an understanding of the value of the result.

If it’s difficult to persuade yourself and believe in the changes that will happen in the future, but at the moment you want to give up everything, then thinking about how the transformation will make your friends and people admire you, allowing you to make caustic remarks and jokes about excess weight, will help you not to break down during fasting. . It is easier to tune in to overcome difficulties, guided by the principle: “there is nothing more pleasant than observing the defeat and failure of the enemy.” In a few weeks or days, you will be able to surprise your opponent or foe with your new body, convincing your consciousness of imminent victory, good luck, internal and external transformation.

The whole world knows the human drama that takes place in Somalia. Somalia, which is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years, continues to receive international aid, but UN officials note that the situation in the Horn of Africa has not yet been brought under control, warning that the famine that has led to the death of thousands of Somalis could spread for the entire region. Noting that the situation in the region is alarming, UN representatives point out that tens of thousands of people are dying on the way to refugee camps, and thousands are dying directly from hunger. Famine is also observed in Kenya, neighboring Somalia. The UN estimates that 3.5 million people in Kenya are in need of urgent food assistance. Things are a little better in Ethiopia. The UN says the international community has so far provided $1 billion in aid to the 12 million hungry people in the Horn of Africa, indicating they need another $1.4 billion.

The biggest and saddest drawback of the modern global world, which we, on the one hand,

sometimes we are proud, and on the other hand, for various reasons we express dissatisfaction, undoubtedly the fact is that until now 2/3 of the world's population lives in poverty, conditions of corruption and bad governance. According to reliable sources of information, 500 million people in the world live on the brink of hunger, and 15 million children die every year due to poverty. For several weeks we have been watching what is happening in Somalia. Can humanity live in peace when so much suffering is being experienced in some part of the Earth? No matter how one part of the planet develops, there cannot be peace and prosperity in the world as long as this deep drama exists. As we know, hunger and lack of water have the greatest impact on children. The infant mortality rate is striking with new figures. There is an indisputable fact: every day at least 2 thousand Somalis die, and most of them are children. Look at the clock and watch the 6 minutes pass. During these 6 minutes, one child died in Somalia. At the end of this article you are listening to now, two more children will be dead. And this is reality, death, this is what makes all words meaningless. Photos published by news agencies reveal the most difficult choices facing Somali mothers. They are forced to make a choice between their children, choosing those who are more likely to survive, because the food they can get is only enough for one child. No one can remain indifferent to this human drama.

However, this begs the question: Why do people in countries with large agricultural areas, such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djubouti, go hungry? Why did these countries find themselves in such a deplorable situation? There have been droughts in these countries before, but never before have such large masses of people mixed in search of food. For example, in Ethiopia, thousands of hectares of land are planted with corn and grains. Why were the inhabitants of this country doomed to starvation when there is so much agricultural land in the country? The current state of affairs is the result of a long process. This was caused by poor agricultural policies, poor management and tyranny. These lands were bought or leased by foreign investors in order to obtain biofuel. Experts characterize this circumstance as “agricultural imperialism.” For example, the Ethiopian government hopes by doing this to increase the country's foreign exchange and expand technical skills in the agricultural sector. Most of the fertile land in the country is still unused. The Ethiopian government last year offered 3 million hectares of farmland for lease. Many African governments sell or lease agricultural land to foreign investors. Large investors come here from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China. They sow the land to obtain biofuel or food for their countries. The sale or lease of fertile land by foreign investors is considered one of the causes of famine in the Horn of Africa, because the people of these countries cannot consume food obtained on their own lands. At the same time, understanding the causes of hunger in Africa is not at all easy. Droughts and floods are caused by climate change and extreme weather conditions. Meanwhile, Somalia is a country with the most egregious political situation; there is no state system, no government. There is a civil war in the country, it is divided into two parts. There is no security at all. Residents of Somalia are fleeing to northern Kenya or Ethiopia in search of food, and thousands of Somalis are filling refugee camps in neighboring countries and threatening famine there. If the governments of African countries, which generously lease out their lands, do not change their agricultural policies in the near future, an even more serious situation may arise in the future, because lands are leased not for 1.2 years, but for 80-90 years .

Many countries of the world, and primarily Turkey, are sending food aid and medicine to Somalia. One of the leading countries in the region, Turkey, is extending a helping hand to Somalia. Aid collected by the Turkish government and Turkish institutions and citizens is being sent to Somalia. Political circles, like the people of Turkey, are closely following the human drama in Somalia. The Prime Minister of Turkey paid a visit to Somalia. The purpose of his visit was not only to deliver aid to this country, but also to draw attention to the problem of many countries in the world that turn a blind eye to what is happening in Somalia.