Eating disorders are the result of brain plasticity

Eating disorders are the result of brain plasticity

What is brain plasticity? And how is it related to the development of an eating disorder?

Brain plasticity or neuroplasticity is the brain's lifelong ability to change based on new experiences. When we say “the brain’s ability to change,” we don’t mean something mystical or just “spiritual.”

What we are alluding to is the brain's ability to reorganize or rewire its neural pathways, resulting in certain desired or undesirable actions or behaviors. For people with eating disorders, for example, it is unwanted actions such as negative thoughts about their body image that lead to the development of ED. This could have manifested itself through starvation, overexertion, or overexertion and purging over a period of time.

When people start having bad thoughts and feelings about themselves, their brains begin to develop certain new neural pathways (or connections) to produce certain behaviors. As people continue to respond to pathological behaviors such as starvation, binge eating, over-exercising, etc.: These neural pathways become stronger and stronger. Basically what you think is what you get.

You see every behavior we have or regular thoughts that we believe have developed certain brain maps and formed pathways. These new brain maps can begin to take up a huge amount of space in our brains until they become omnipotent. Eating disorders take up a lot of space in the brain because they affect almost all areas of the sufferer's life.

So when it comes to treating eating disorders, if it doesn't work on changing the old neural pathways, it won't work. What needs to happen is for the sufferer to develop new neural pathways and build them around the old faulty pathological pathways that are their ED. As you begin to use these new pathways (the healthy pathways), they will become stronger and stronger and eventually they will replace the old pathological ones (the old pathological ones will fade).

You see, when you realize that it is your brain that is causing you to do things wrong, you will understand that you just need to make your brain work differently to create behavior change. And you can do this by focusing your attention differently when the ED urge hits you.

The brain's ability to change does not decrease with age or the duration of the problem. Many people think that it is easier to stop an eating disorder early when the disorder first occurs; and that if you have had the disorder for many years, it is almost impossible to stop it.

This is not true and is completely false. People can stop their eating problems at any stage of the process because the human brain is plastic and changeable through every repetitive activity we perform. Now, changing your mindset is stressful, but it's not impossible.

The first thing you need to do is recognize that what your brain is telling you may not be right, so you don't have to act on it every time. Your brain is not your mind and you can influence it with better thoughts and actions.

Your brain is just an organ that sits between your ears. But your mind is what you do, what decision you make, and what perception of yourself you give to others. Of course, this doesn't mean you have an abnormal brain, it's just the abnormal thoughts and behaviors that led you to ED. It has been proven beyond a doubt that your mind, your conscious behavior and your thoughts can change the structure of your brain.

In summary, eating disorders are the result of the brain's ability to change its own structure in relation to wrong actions and thoughts over time. Because you have changed the wiring of your brain to fit a particular pathological behavior into your brain map, you have developed an ED. You have reacted negatively to certain eating disorder triggers that you have built up around you over time.

You probably never would have developed an eating disorder if you had responded differently to these triggers. For example: if you don't get upset when someone calls you "fat" at school, or if you don't care if your ex-boyfriend dumped you for a skinnier girl, or some similar event. You would probably never have an eating disorder now. But because you paid too much attention to it, you have to suffer for a long time.

But it's not all bad news. The good news is that because your brain is plastic, you can change your brain for the better: just as you changed it when you developed the defective pathological behavior in the first place. With focused attention, mindfulness, and by building new neural pathways around the old ones, research has shown that you can change your brain and therefore your ED.

This is the only cure for eating disorders – changing your brain by using your mind to reverse your old thought patterns that got you into this mess.

Inspired by Irina Webster