The Disease is Overeating

The Disease is Overeating, the symptom is obesity. The degree of the problem can be measured by BMI, metabolic syndrome, and the like. Some damage is permanent, some can be released by not eating specific food groups. Reduction of carbohydrates removes much of the blood glucose issues, and related weight issues. Restrictive food lists and behaviors provide relief from food addictions. Psychological treatments can remove stress, emotional, personality driven overeating. Philosophical approaches can remove other reasons, and give some relief to the cultural and physical driven overeating, and to intentional overeating, even after it has become encoded and automatic.  To obtain this recovery, we need clarity of mind to understand the actual cause of the specific overeating case.

To me it is now obvious that recovery from overeating is a much bigger undertaking that most undertakings. Certainly much bigger that simple weight loss.  I have been reading and researching this issue for all my life, but seriously since 2008. I have read 8 feet of books on the subject, and about the same on recovery attempts, philosophy's, and other things that have been suggested as possible sources of the solutions. Some helped, some defined the problem better, some gave me insight into my specific problem, and some was just a waste of time. The difficulty comes in a wrong definition of the problem causes. That is just misdirection, which is likely the biggest problem with recovery from overeating. We are simply not addressing the real problem, but rather a symptom of the problem.

It become obvious at this point that treating someone problem must come from the inside, for only we can treat our problem, or even figure out the cause. Yet that is a massive undertaking, and we do not get much help from the medical establishment. Anyone who is unable to follow their prescribed diet is simply noncompliant and no further help is available. Admitting that we do not know the answer can be the first step in developing the knowledge to fix the problem and know the answer. 

To fix intentional overeating, we first need to realize that overeating was intentional at one time and overeating became encoded and automatic. This has become part of our personality, character, our psyche, part of what make us us. We are not even aware of the intentional aspect of the past. It is a natural instinct in overdrive. Now what? How does one fix this? We need to change our character, our personality, our behavior, our outlook on our culture, change even our belief system, what ever we need to change, sufficient change to recover and sufficient change to not slide back, that is the difficult part. That change must be continued for the remainder of life. 

Now evidence based change is difficult to argue against. Trying to figure out what the evidence says is the hard part. Once we understand, duh, it is obvious. So why could I not see it before? Misdirection is likely culprit. Now we are left with changing our behavior, but after we know the truth of the evidence, that should follow. Most try to change the behavior without understanding the cause of the behavior. If the cause remains, backsliding can be expected. I do not need to be self-sufficient, I can ask for help when help is available. When it come to cause of my behavior, who is there to ask? Me and rigorous honesty, guess and test or ?.  In the end we all just die anyway.