A Shift in Perspective Regarding Eating Disorders & Other Addictions
I'm grateful to be able to discuss these things here, as I didn't see anything in the rules barring this topic.
I've done up to a 5 day water fast years ago, but stopped all fasting because I bought into the rhetoric that people with eating disorders shouldn't fast at all. I have a history of binge eating (I'm not even overweight) and figured it made sense to avoid "extreme" behavior that could trigger me. The problem is that binge eating is already extreme as a behavior and if it happens more days than it doesn't, maybe fasting isn't that extreme.
I also have a very physical job now and believe I'm starting to get hernias. The binging is built on stacking bad habits together, like watching TV, eating junk food and dissociating because a part of me doesn't want to process the discomfort from the day or face the fact that a large portion of life is simply painful and we have to accommodate to that. I'll be going slow, but my plan is to use fasting to bring awareness back to my dietary habits and not be a slave to ghrelin.
In r/fasting, someone posted this video of Dr. Pradip Jamnadas that helped me to build a lot of connections: Addiction: Why We Can't Fast or Keep a Diet - Dr Pradip Jamnadas MD - Fasting for Survival follow up
It resonated with me from the beginning because he believes that we can't really talk about fasting without talking about addiction, unless you're someone who has no issues with/cravings for sugar, processed foods or other addictive substances. Food addiction is uncomfortable to talk about, but I love how he just goes straight to the issue for most people, even if it's an inconvenient truth.
I'm not exactly religious, but I will say through faith in life and grace I've been off processed foods and sugar for about 10 days and am doing a 24 hour fast today. I'm also shooting for 18/6 IF as a normal day, as a way to tell ghrelin to fuck off because I'm in control of my choices. My plan is to do a 36 hour fast next weekend and see if I can add 8-12 hours to the fast per week until I can reach 72 hours. I don't currently feel the need to do more than 72 hours, but that could change. Basically, I want to completely break any cravings for unhealthy behaviors and rewire my brain's reward system. I need the autophagy and the rest for my digestive system and eliminating any type of constipation that may be contributing to abdominal distension from food addiction.
So I suppose I'm sharing some of my story and intentions, but I'm also curious if anyone else has had similar struggles or sees a similar function for water fasting. Do folks here generally believe/experience that fasting can help rewire our brains to overcome addictive behaviors? I'm very curious as to what the vibe here is about these topics. At this point, it's clear to me that Western society profits greatly from addiction and I really don't believe the topic can be avoided since it's a struggle for so many people.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend!
