Regulating eating & fullness and indentifying hunger

Page 1 of 1 [ 1 post ] 

Wavey75
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 25 Feb 2016
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 1
Location: Torquay, Devon, UK

18 Aug 2016, 3:25 am

Hi to all,

First time posting here, but I have been posting in ADHD forums since my ADHD diagnosis in 2014 and I had Autism symptoms identified by them and then by a Psychologist in the NHS.

I am morbidly obese and my mobility is an issue as I have right hip/knee/pelvis problems from a road traffic collision in 1999, which has left me using walking aids since.

I am male, aged 41 and I used to lead a semi active life before my accident, but now as the years have gone by and I have also had a few corrective operations to my right side, I have become sedentary, in part due to the accident and also IMHO due to my giving up smoking, where I put on 6 stone in almost as many months.

I have been on some form of anti depressants since this accident (now Citalopram 40mg )and after my diagnosis of ADHD I was prescribed Concerta XL, which I now take at 54mg dose daily.

I have been working with my Psychologist to try and identify bad habits and also to hopefully re-engage the part of the body or system in the body that signals when my body is hungry and went my stomach is full.

I had a Gastric band in 2010, which did not work to control my eating or appetite, so I had it switched off and I have been working with the weight management department now for on and off 4 years.

I am very much a person for whom there's no grey area, only black and white. I'm big on accuracy, even though it may or may not be the time to hear it, etc. It's been called foot-in-mouth-syndrome for as long as I can remember and now I am able to control it a lot more than before my diagnosis.

I am still confused by "feeling" and "Emotions". My Psychologist is always bringing them up in a response to something I would ask about, and I find myself feeling like I must have missed that day at school or never got that chapter on how to be human, in my handbook, etc. I don't give myself a hard time, I simply accept that I don't get it, I've little or no understanding of Emotions and feelings. Physical feelings like a needle for a blood donation or a cramp in my leg are simple, but the other feelings and emotions are a mystery - except for the big 4: Happy, Sad, Anger & Fear.

While most of this above is just background information, it's important I think because I want to know how I can get my body to work properly.

The big thing I need/want it to do is identify when I'm hungry and when I'm full. I've eaten until I've been sick, and I've eaten several meals in the day day and gave myself extra fast trips to the loo, (sorry for the graphic image) but I've never felt anything other than my belly goes sort of solid around the belly button, which I assume is part of my intestine digesting everything I've just crammed into my big fat cake hole.

I've got up in the morning and measured a breakfast, then only on water for that day until I felt something, anything that might hint to being hungry. I did this for several days and all I got was dizziness, stomach rumblings and extreme fatigue, despite keeping my fluids up.

I know I have developed some bad habits and associations with food. I am well practiced in mindfulness having been using it for pain management for many years now.

I am struggling to identify when I might be feeling low about something and connecting it as an explanation to an increase in eating and snacking, etc.

I would like to understand the difference in a habit and a desire or some other name for why everyone eats when they eat.

I have asked several adults why they eat at the times they do, and one of the most popular answers was "because it's dinner time or lunchtime or breakfast time, etc." but this is a habit, to eat just because it's a certain time is not controlled by anything in the body.

I would just like to understand how we know when we are hungry and when we are full, given that the stomach in the human body is located under the left breast, on the side, nowhere near the middle belly.

Wavey75