Depressed? Ask experts to explain eating ‘disorder’

I do not know why your friends have concluded that you are depressed, but I can confirm that some people with depression eat too much and put on much weight. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Let me start off by telling you what you almost certainly do not have, and then we will move to the conditions that may explain your condition better and are more likely.
  • It is most unlikely that you have an insulinoma.
  • This is a rare disease of the pancreatic gland that leads to the massive release of insulin by the beta cells.
  • High amounts of insulin in the blood lower the blood sugar, and your body ‘thinks’ that you are hungry and, therefore, must eat.

There are very many possible explanations for what appears to be a simple problem, and only an expert will tell you what the real cause of your excess eating might be.

In the last five months I have been having an eating disorder. I have a huge appetite and I’m worried about my weight. Problem is that I wake up feeling so hungry and worked up.

My friends say I am depressed. I am a single mother of two. Please help.

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Let me start off by telling you what you almost certainly do not have, and then we will move to the conditions that may explain your condition better and are more likely.

It is most unlikely that you have an insulinoma.

This is a rare disease of the pancreatic gland that leads to the massive release of insulin by the beta cells. High amounts of insulin in the blood lower the blood sugar, and your body ‘thinks’ that you are hungry and, therefore, must eat.

The body’s response to low blood sugar is a demand for more food, in particular carbohydrates (sugary foods).

The more insulin produced by the gland, the greater the need to eat, just as you describe.

Though rare, (less than four cases per million people per year), it may be worth your while to see a doctor, because as with all medical conditions, early diagnosis and treatment is most encouraged as it has better results.

Because it is so rare, and in spite of the fact that your symptoms bring this possibility to my mind, this line of thinking is not going to help you much.

I do not know why your friends have concluded that you are depressed, but I can confirm that some people with depression eat too much and put on much weight. There are, however, many other reasons for an increase in appetite and body weight.

How old are you? Depending on your age, you might be at a point in your life when your body is responding to biological imperatives of preserving body fat.

LOOK AT YOUR OLD PHOTOS

Just to give you some comfort, look at photographs of yourself taken when you were, say, 20 and compare them with those taken at 50.

If you look at the distribution in body fat, you will find (in most cases) a gradual loss of body curves around your hips and abdomen, replaced by growing body fat around your tummy.

In the alternative, go to any wedding and see how (in most cases), the bride’s mother has more body mass than the bride. The older one gets, the more difficult it becomes to lose weight. Most first-time mothers lose weight more quickly that after the sixth child.

The biological explanation for this observation is the fact that as one grows older, the body “knows” that one is less able to search for food and hence the need to conserve fat for longer. Younger people do not need to store so much fat.

The need to store fat, however, may not explain why you have a huge appetite, and you wake up feeling so hungry and worked up. Indeed older people do not have to eat too much to get bigger. Perhaps it is the latter point that has led your friends to consider you depressed.

As you might know, being worked up or irritable is a common symptom of depression.

The depressed person could also eat a great deal as you describe, much as has been described in the concept of “comfort eating”. To understand why a human being might eat too much when under psychological stress (or depression), one has to look at the behaviour of mothers and their babies.

In traditional society, (and in some current ones as well), when a baby cries, the mother instinctively pulls out her breast, and ever so gently puts it into the wanting (and waiting) mouth of the baby.

Either because the baby was hungry or because the breast is a source of such great comfort, the baby soon goes silent. Peace and quiet are restored, and mother and baby are united in tranquillity.

Oral contact between baby and breast leads to gratification, comfort and safety. Some experts postulate that it is this same type of reflex that leads distressed adults (like you) to either eat or drink too much.

Others are known to increase their rate of smoking. This theory holds that like the baby, depressed adults get comfort from putting things in their mouths.

It is perhaps for this reason that your friends (who might be students of psychology) have concluded that you are depressed.

Stress from your job, children, finance, or even relationships might be the reason for your eating too much in the last few months. It does not matter what is causing the stress or indeed the depression.

Comfort eating can and does occur.

As you can see, there are very many possible explanations for what appears to be a simple problem, and only an expert will tell you what the real cause of your excess eating might be.

This article was first published in the Business Daily