Tag Archives: Eating disorder

Sex Addiction Stress, and Stress

May 25, 2015

Stress, Sex And Addiction: Roles Of Corticotrophin Releasing Factor, Oxytocin And Arginine- Vasopressin In Sex Addiction Stress.

Sex Addiction

Sex Addiction Stress

Stress sensitivity and sex are predictive factors for the development of neuropsychiatric conditions. it has been thought stresses are the sole cause for addiction but this isn’t true since triggers can also cause relapse to drug use. Sex Addiction Stress and stress involve similar pathways.

The development and clinical course of addiction-related disorders do appear to involve neuroadaptations within neurocircuitries that modulate stress responses and are influenced by several neuropeptides. These include corticotropin-releasing factor, the prototypic member of this class, as well as oxytocin and arginine-vasopressin that play important roles in affiliative behaviors. Interestingly, these peptides function to balance emotional behavior, with sexual dimorphism in the oxytocin/arginine-vasopressin systems, a fact that might play an important role in the differential responses of women and men to stressful stimuli and the specific sex-based prevalence of certain addictive disorders.

Stress and Sex Addiction Stress

Stress generally is defined as any stimulus that challenges physiological homeostasis—that is, which alters the balance or equilibrium of the normal physiological state of the organism.

Individuals exposed to chronic stress exhibit a higher propensity to become addicts. Stress-induced relapse is also higher in addicts. In general, there is a higher prevalence of addiction in patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders and depression. Additionally, childhood trauma is associated with increased vulnerability to addiction. Exposure to high peer deviance in childhood and adolescence is among the strongest known risk factors for drug use and drug abuse. Interestingly, a very recent study has found that individuals with increased risks of drug addiction because of parental divorce or genetic liability are more sensitive to the pathogenic effects of peer deviance.

Stress and addiction are interconnected in several ways. For example, stressful life events may predispose individuals to engage in addictive behavior or relapse.

Sex Addiction Stress

Epidemiological studies have observed significant sex- specific differences among patients suffering from addiction and other neuropsychiatric disorders. The onset, severity, clinical course, and treatment response of anxiety disorders also differ significantly in women compared to men. Importantly, the sex bias in neuropsychiatric disorders, including post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), remains even after adjusting for the type of trauma, pre-existing psychiatric disorders, and sex differences in reporting. Several studies have found increased prevalence of depression in women. Similar sex differences exist for addictive disorders. For example, more adult males abuse addictive drugs than females across most drug classes, including alcohol, psychostimulants, and narcotics. However, women develop addiction more quickly. There are also critical differences in the way that illicit substances affect the two sexes.

Men and women also show different propensities to relapse, and are differentially affected by triggers for relapse to drug taking, putting women at greater risk for repeated relapses despite the higher prevalence of drug abuse in men. Interestingly, once the addiction cycle resumes, women show longer periods of drug use before their next quit attempt.

The sex differences may also be a result of hormonal and neural differences between men and women in relationship to their response to the addictive behavior.

Corticotropin-releasing factor and  Sex addiction Stress.

CRF is a 41-amino acid-containing neuropeptide. CRF orchestrates the stress response by acting at the level of the pituitary to initiate the HPA axis response to stress, as well as centrally to modulate limbic and brain monoamine systems that are important in autonomic and behavioral components of the stress response. CRF causes its effects by stimulation of corticotropin-releasing factor 1 receptor (CRF1R) and CRF2R, and displays an 18-fold greater affinity for CRF1R than CRF2R.

Physiological responses to stress involve the release of CRF from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, followed by stimulation of ACTH release from the anterior pituitary. ACTH, in turn, stimulates the secretion of cortisol/corticosterone from the adrenal glands. In addition, CRF has an extensive extrahypothalamic influence across the corticostriatal-limbic regions, and plays a critical role in modulating subjective and behavioral stress responses. Central catecholamines, particularly noradrenaline and dopamine, are involved in modulating brain motivational pathways that are important in regulating distress, exerting cognitive and behavioral control, and tempering behavioral and cognitive responses critical for adaptation and homeostasis. The hypothalamic and extrahypothalamic CRF pathways and central catecholamines target brain motivational path- ways to critically affect adaptive and homeostatic processes. CRF dysregulation has been linked to the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders. During stress, release of limbic CRF can modulate monoamine systems that have been implicated in mood and cognition. Although activation of both the HPA axis and central monoaminergic systems by CRF during acute stress is adaptive, the inappropriate or persistent activation of these systems can have adverse consequences leading to psychopathology.

Oxytocin and arginine-vasopressin in Sex addiction Stress

Sex addiction and stress

Sex addiction Stress and stress

Cells originating in the PVN have specific pathways that efficiently deliver OXY to other structures in the brain including the amygdala, BNST, septum, hippocampus, and NAc. OXY released by peripheral organs or by the posterior pituitary does not readily cross the blood–brain barrier, with only 1–2% crossing. In disparity, the local expression of OXY receptors is highly variable and explains differences in social attachment within and between species. OXY exerts anxiolytic and anti- depressive effects in various models.

OXY, in collaboration with hormone dopamine, is vital for pairing and bonding in prairie voles. When OXY is infused into the VTA, it increases dopaminergic activity in the NAc, and stimulation of oxytocinergic projections within the VTA increases extracellular DA within the NAc while concurrently inducing penile erection. OXY-induced dopaminergic release within the meso- limbic DA system may impact the attribution of incentive salience to a variety of social stimuli and ultimately influence an organism’s drive towards such objects thus causing addiction.

Sex Addiction Stress is a menace that should be fought by all means that is why we at Integrative Addiction Institute are committed to availing help to addicts and offering training to Health care providers in Integrative Addiction. Call on Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) today for assistance.

Stress And Sex Addiction Stress: Roles Of Corticotrophin Releasing Factor, Oxytocin And Arginine- Vasopressin In Sex Addiction.

Related articles
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

Eating Disorders and Poly-Behavioral Addiiction

October 23, 2014

Pathological Eating Disorders and Poly-Behavioral Addiction

eating disordersEvery living thing depends on food for survival. Without eating not only will a person be weak and unable to perform optimally but he will   die because there will be deficiency in the nutrients that the body needs to continue performing optimally. Feeding is a vital part of every living thing since foods also help in protecting the body against disease causing pathogens. Certain foods are very good at immune building and so through feeding the body is nourished and protected.

However there are also eating disorders that may cause you more harm than benefits. To begin with let’s define what pathological eating disorders are and possibly get some examples of the most common pathological eating disorders.

Eating disorders are illnesses that are caused by abnormal eating. In most cases it has to do with the amount of food taken by an individual. When a [person takes to little food that is insufficient to the needs of the body he will suffer consequences that over a time may become a full blown eating disorder. Eating too much food will also result in certain eating disorders. Eating disorders harms not only the physical health but also the mental health and therefore any eating disorder must be attended to curb its severe effects. Examples of eating disorders include:

Bulimia nervosa– it is normal to turn to food when feeling hungry, lonely, bored, or stressed. However with bulimia, overeating is more like a compulsion and a person feels out of control. When a person suffers from this eating disorder he will not eat merely to get satisfied but he will punish himself by purging, fasting, or exercising to get rid of the calories. The danger of purging and binging is that it affects the body and the emotional well-being of an individual. A person suffering from bulimia will need treatment so as to be able to overcome the feelings of shame, guilt and anxiety by developing good relationship with food.

A person struggling with bulimia is constantly in conflict with himself as he homes the battle between the desire to lose weight and the uncontrollable compulsion to binge food. After eating a person will engage in any act that will undo overeating by running or inducing vomiting. This is the major cause anxiety in those struggling with this eating disorder.

 

Anorexia nervosa

It is normal to have a desire to put your weight under control. People especially ladies have the need to have lean bodies. However in some instances the need to control your weight may interfere with your eating habit. You will begin to restrict eating some foods and this may become habitual. You may restrict food to a point of starvation all in the need to lose weight and gain that lean body. This results in an eating disorder known as anorexia nervosa. A person suffering from this eating disorder has his thoughts dominated by the urge to lose weight and this may become an obsession.

This eating disorder is very dangerous as it affects all the facets of your life. You will not even know who you really are and that is a major cause of torment in anybody. A person who suffers from this eating disorder is constantly in fear of gaining weight as they believe it will interfere with their outlook. Mealtimes are always very stressful to those who are suffering from anorexia as what they always think about is what to limit so as to keep them lean.

Today pathological eating disorders and their related diseases have become a major health concern worldwide. Many people are suffering from these pathological eating disorders than malnutrition. In fact some experts have purported that obesity which is a disease related to eating disorders has become the major health problem in the world replacing heart disease and cancer.

This thought is echoed by the World Health Organization which in June, 2005 stated that “obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with more than 1 billion adults overweight – at least 300 million of them clinically obese – and is a major contributor to the global burden of chronic disease and disability. Often coexisting in developing countries with under-nutrition, obesity is a complex condition, with serious social and psychological dimensions, affecting virtually all ages and socioeconomic groups.”

eating disordersAnother body that has shown concern on the contribution of pathological eating disorders in poor health in people is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which in June, 2005 reported that “during the past 20 years, obesity among adults has risen significantly in the United States. This claim was backed up by the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics which showed that 30 percent of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older – over 60 million people are obese. The pathological eating disorders and their consequential diseases do not affect the adults only but affect people of all ages. Today the percentage of young people who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980.

Poly-behavioral addiction would be described as a state of periodic or chronic physical, mental, emotional, cultural, sexual and/ or spiritual/ religious intoxication. Pathological eating disorders are valid cause of poly-behavioral addiction just like any other substance of abuse. Therefore a person suffering from any form of eating disorders should seek help before it results into a bigger problem like obesity and other related diseases.

Here at AWAREmed we are dedicated to avail help to all those who may be suffering from pathological eating disorders. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert in integrative treatment and will be willing as always to avail help to all those in need.

Pathological Eating Disorders and Poly-Behavioral Addiction

 

Related articles
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

Changing Self-Destructive Habits

August 18, 2014

Understanding Self-Destructive Habits

Changing Self-Destructive HabitsSelf-destructive habits are those actions and tendencies that individuals, organizations or groups engage in that are against their self-interest for one reason or another. Let’s look at some of these actions in details:

  1. Eating Disorder

An eating disorder is a psychiatric disorder evidenced by a great desire to be thin and a deep fear for weight increment .Examples of such disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a denial to sustain a fixed body weight such as the restricting type, the binge-eating and purging type.

Bulimia nervosa is whereby reoccurring episodes of binge eating is followed by such unfortunate behaviors as self-induced vomiting, fasting or too much exercising.

Ways of preventing eating disorders

  • In schools, students should be given a safe and conducive atmosphere
  • In places with many cases of such disorders, support groups should be established
  • Schools should incorporate life skills in their curriculum at an early age
  •  Carry out a regular checkup on students
  •  Physical education in education centers should focus in healthy lifestyles rather than weight management.

Five Crippling Habits That Lead To Self-Destruction

People have developed certain behaviors that tend to lead them backwards in any field of life whether in a social, economic or political setup.it becomes so severe that it can be related to the culture of an entire organization. These habits can be summed up into five headlines namely:

  • Lack of clear instructions. A person is required to have transparent and straightforward goals in an organization and in order for this to happen the goals should be easy to understand for anyone.
  • Deficiency in accountability in which people show lack of responsibility. This usually happens when the company’s reward mechanism isn’t connected to production outcome.
  • Justifying poor performance. Leaders tend to find some sensible excuses as to why they have had a bad business year instead of finding ways of improving the outcome.
  • Continuous rescheduling of plans. Some companies fail to adequately allocate enough resources and time to accomplish a set out goal.
  • Reluctance to change and risks involved. A new personnel may be employed to a company and happens to have some fantastic ideas but since he is new, he is ignored.
  • Having a positive attitude towards change and exploring any new viable idea
  • Taking time to make a clear and straight-forward objectives
  • Have a low tolerance to poor performance in a company
  • Instead of revising plans, one should allocate enough time and energy
  • Specifying the roles and duties of every member of the team.

How to curb Self-Destructive Habits

  1. Gambling:

Gambling is basically the act of wagering on money or any kind of valuable item. Problem gambling is an act in which a person’s gambling behavior negatively affects other parts of his or her life.

Signs of a gambling problem

  • Committing crimes to finance gambling
  • Money borrowing to finance gambling
  • Entertaining regular thoughts about gambling
  • Increasing the income allocated for gambling
  • Experiencing failed attempts to stop gambling
  • Denying that you have a problem
  • Taking certain things for guaranteed such as relationships, jobs or career opportunities
  • Using gambling as an escape from reality

How to Overcome Problem Gambling

  • One requires to find out what is the root cause of gambling in their life
  • Change their belief on the possibility of winning in a bet
  • Have a fixed amount of cash for gambling
  • Find another hobby
  • Find a self-support and counselling group
  1. Internet And Cyber-Sex Abuse

This is basically the deliberate action by an adult to create some form of uncomfortable atmosphere using internet and in most cases it affects minors, women or social groups such as the gay communities.

Changing Self-Destructive Habits

Ways of curbing internet sex abuse

Parents are required to monitor what their underage kids do in the internet to ensure that they are not exposed to say no form of abuse. Cyber cafes and educational instructions should block certain websites that promote pornographic behaviors in young people. The governments should establish and implement laws that severely punish offenders of such acts in order to curb any existing habits among people

Life skills on the use of the internet services for small kids should be part of the learning curriculum to spread awareness on how to handle cases of abuse.

  1. Self-Harm

Self-harm is a broad description of the things different people do that causes a negative impact on themselves such as pulling your hair, pouring hot water on yourself, cutting yourself, swallowing toxic liquids.

Ways of Curbing Self-Harm

A good way of solving this disorder is to provide optimum and adequate counseling sessions to affected people in schools, churches and other social centers.

Another way to avoid self-harm is to Substitute it with something that is in a way harmless. For example using a punching bag to release stress and other built up emotions. Sometimes you can hit pillows when you are alone, going for a nice morning walk to start off the day well or any other form of exercise, some people learn musical instruments and use them when stressed out, and one can also use a journal to write out your frustrations.

One can also train on how to create a strong mental health to cope with stress. This is done through eating well and healthily. A well balanced diet increases the amounts of serotonin in the brain which will give a person a great mood.

  1. Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is the inappropriate use of drugs and alcohol. This behavior has adverse impacts on the political, social and economic sectors.

Ways of curbing substance abuse include:

Restrictive rules on the areas that create a stimulus environment for drinking and smoking. Hence a person is limited to using in homes, garages or bathrooms which tend to discourage use

Avoiding to social with people who are also dependent on drugs and substance abuse. This includes not coming to bars, bowling alleys and associating with non-abusers in places like restaurants without liquor

Performing self-relaxation and meditation. This may include expressing anger by dictating them on paper and possibly seeking counseling and any other available advice from friends and community leaders.

Another way to curb this behavior is through rewarding yourself for not using the particular drug and punishing yourself for abusing the substance. This creates an attitude that motivates one to move forward.

In case of alcohol one may decide to switch to brand they don’t enjoy taking in order to lose the taste for alcohol

Rehearsing inspiring thoughts such as every time I don’t smoke my lungs become healthier. Alcohol will damage my liver so I should not take them regularly.

The worldwide site which has proven professionals who can help you recover from any addiction is the www.awaremednetwork.com. If you need help on recovery you just need to call or visit Awaremed Wellness And Resource Center.

Understanding Self-Destructive Habits

Related articles
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

Food addiction

February 26, 2014

Food addiction-Fighting food addiction

food addiction

food especially sugar is becoming the biggest luring substance to food addiction

There is one common addiction for all mankind, we are all in one way or the other addicted to food. Visualize how it feels like when you aren’t able to eat. You will probably start to crave for food, and become more physically and emotionally uncomfortable. The longer the cravings go on for, until eating becomes the most important thing for you to do. This is the constant experience of people struggling with food addiction, even if they have plenty to eat.

However food is essential to survival, and unlike other addictive behaviors, it is normal to eat repeatedly every day, and to look forward to eating for pleasure. But several characteristics separate normal or occasional binge eating from a food addiction.

The first point, food addiction is maladaptive, so although people overeat to feel better, it often ends up making them feel worse, and gives those more to feel back about. Food addiction can threaten health, causing obesity, malnutrition, and other problems.

The second point, the overeating that people with food addiction do is persistent, so a person addicted to food eats too much food and most of the time it’s the wrong kinds of food taken repeatedly. Everybody overeat from time to time, but people with food addiction often overeat daily, and they eat not because they are hungry, but as their main way of coping with stress.

The Controversy of Food Addiction

As behavioral addictions, the concept of food addiction is a controversial one. Opinions differs between those who think that overeating can be a type of addiction, and those who think that true addictions are limited to psychoactive substances which produces symptoms such as physical and withdrawal. Although this has been demonstrated in research with sugar and fat (the two most common obesity-causing constituents of food), and other studies show that food produces opiates in the body, many think that this does not necessarily constitute an addiction.

However, the growing epidemic of obesity over the past years has raised public health concern. In almost all US states, one in five adults are obese. Childhood obesity was ranked as the top health concern for children in 2008, higher than either drug abuse, rated second, or smoking rated third, both of which were ahead of obesity in 2007.

This concern, along with effective treatments for addictions, which are being successfully applied to more and more problematic behaviors, is contributing to a movement towards understanding over-eating, and the consequences of obesity and related health problems, in terms of addiction.

Food addiction is now included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), named as Binge Eating Disorder, and categorized with the Eating Disorders. Excessive eating is also a characteristic of another eating disorders outlined in the DSM, known as Bulimia Nervosa. Some controversy remains over whether eating disorders are actually addictions, but many experts believe that they are.

Food Addiction like Other Addictions

There are several similarities between food addiction and drug addiction, including effects on mood, external cues to eat or use drugs, expectancies, restraint, ambivalence, and attribution.

Neurotransmitters and the brain’s reward system have been implicated in food and other addictions. In animal studies, for example, dopamine has been found to play an important role in overall reward systems, and binging on sugar has been shown to influence dopamine activity.

Food, drugs and other addictive substances and behaviors are all associated with pleasure, hedonism, and social, cultural or sub-cultural desirability. When advertising or the people around us tell us that a food, drug or activity will feel good, it sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy. We are more likely to seek it out, and we are more likely to experience pleasure when we indulge.

Food addiction and Mental Health

Similarities between food addiction and other addictions suggest a universal process underlying food and other addictions. Some experts go further, theorizing that overlaps, similarities, and co-occurrences of mental health problems, including addictions, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders, and the phenomenon of a new addiction or mental health problem developing when an old addiction is treated, indicate that they are expressions of related underlying pathologies. It has been argued that viewing these conditions separately hinders the development of a comprehensive view of addictions.

In the study involving 39 healthy women with different weights from lean to overweight or obese, the participants were asked to complete the Yale Food Addiction Scale, which tests for signs of food addiction. Women with full-fledged eating disorders of any type were not included in the study.

Then, using fMRI, researchers led by Yale’s Ashley Gearhardt and Kelly Brownell looked at the women’s brain activity in response to food. In one task, the women were asked to look at pictures of either a luscious chocolate shake or a bland, no-calorie solution. For another brain-scan task, women actually drank the shake made with four scoops of vanilla Häagen-Dazs ice cream, 2% milk and 2 tablespoons of Hershey’s chocolate syrup or the no-calorie control solution, which was designed to be as flavorless as possible (water couldn’t be used because it actually activates taste receptors).

The scientists found that when viewing images of ice cream, the women who had three or more symptoms of food addiction things like frequently worrying about overeating, eating to the point of feeling sick and difficulty functioning due to attempts to control overeating or overeating itself showed more brain activity in regions involved with pleasure and craving than women who had one or no such symptoms.

These areas included the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex and medial orbitofrontal cortex — the same regions that light up in drug addicts who are shown images of drug paraphernalia or drugs.

Similar to people suffering from substance abuse, the food-addicted participants also showed reduced activity in brain regions involved with self-control (the lateral orbitofrontal cortex), when they actually ate the ice cream.

In other words, women with symptoms of food addiction had higher expectations that a chocolate shake would be yummy and pleasurable when they anticipated eating it, and they were less able to stop eating it once they started.

Interestingly, however, unlike drug addicts, the participants with more signs of food addiction did not show a decrease in activity in pleasure-related regions of the brain when they actually ate the ice cream. People with drug addictions tend to derive less and less pleasure from drug use over time — they want drugs more but enjoy them less, creating compulsive behavior. But it’s possible that this tolerance may be seen only in serious addictions, not in people with just a few symptoms.

Notably, the study also found that food addiction symptoms and brain responses to food were not associated with weight: there were some overweight women who showed no food addiction symptoms, and some normal-weight women who did.

That’s why addictions aren’t simple: they involve variations not only in levels of desire, but also in levels of ability to control that desire. And these factors may change in relation to social situations and stress.

Neither heroin nor Häagen-Dazs leads to addiction in the majority of users, and yet there are certain situations that may prompt binges in people who otherwise have high levels of self-control. So the answers to addiction may lie not in the substances themselves, but in the relationship people have with them and the settings in which they are consumed.

Food addiction-Fighting food addiction

 

 

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

  • Recent Posts

  • Blog Categories