How my childhood was ruined… by my fear of peas
Maddy Alexander-Grout, 39, thinks her fear stems from when she was force fed peas at school
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Anxiety and Eating Disorder
For three years I denied my body the nutrition it needed. My teeth broke, my hair thinned, my periods stopped. But, in that too-small body I was praised…
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting since 2020. Most of that reflection is done in the mirror, incidentally. For more than three years I had denied my body the nutrition it needed to function. My teeth broke, my hair thinned, as I did, and then it fell out in loud clumps in the shower. My periods stopped as my body tried to distribute the few calories I was giving it to my vital functions. My blood pressure plummeted. My social life disintegrated as I turned down offers of gatherings out of fear there would be food I couldn’t avoid. My feet bled in my shoes from excessive walking. I ruptured a tendon in my fist from over-exercising. I was constantly cold and miserable. But I was beautiful. They said.
Classic Psychedelic Use and Mechanisms of Mental Health: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Spirituality and Emotion Processing on Symptoms of Anxiety, Depressed Mood, and Disordered Eating in a Community Sample
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Ahead of Print. A resurgence of research has begun to systematically examine the relationship between psychedelic use and mental health and well-being. Although preliminary findings examining the therapeutic value of these substances show promise, the mechanisms through which psychedelic use may predict reduced mental distress remain poorly understood. To this end, we surveyed a community sample of individuals (n = 159) who endorsed lifetime psychedelic use to examine relationships among psychedelic use and self-reported spirituality, difficulties in emotion regulation, and symptoms of mental health issues. Results revealed a pathway through which classic psychedelic use predicted greater spirituality, which in turn predicted better emotion regulation, ultimately predicting lower levels of anxiety, depressed mood, and disordered eating. These results contribute to our understanding of potential mechanisms of change with respect to psychedelics and mental health. They also add to the growing body of literature pointing to the healing effects of the cultivation of spirituality and emotion regulation as separate and related constructs.
Exposure therapy to feared foods may help kids with eating disorders
Whether you’re afraid of dogs, needles or enclosed spaces, one of the most effective interventions for this type of anxiety disorder is exposure therapy in which you confront your fear in a safe environment. A new study finds that exposure therapy is also a promising treatment for adolescents with eating disorders. They found that exposure to feared foods — such as candy bars and pizza — helped kids who were in a partial hospitalization program for eating disorders experience decreased anxiety toward food.
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