Why Your Stone Age Brain Is Responsible For Your Bulimia

Just Why Do YOU Still Have Bulimia?

I imagine this is a question that’s frequently on your mind.

Now you’ve probably got a good grasp of the emotional triggers that initiate a binge and purge. BUT, you’re really struggling to figure out why it’s so hard to stop – even though your rational, logical brain wants to.

Yet despite this determination, you still find yourself heading for the cupboard when the urge to eat becomes too overwhelming. It’s like something takes over you. It’s instinctual even.  In fact, you watch yourself whilst bingeing and wonder why the detached voice that’s shouting at you to stop makes no impact. Instead you eat until the urge is satisfied… and then you purge to minimise the impact of what you’ve done.

It’s a bad place to be – and you know your ability to move on would be helped if you could only find an answer that made sense.

Hopefully you’ll find something in this post…

You’ve developed a distorted view of food

The reason it can be so difficult to move beyond bulimia is due to the complex factors at play.

At the start you probably felt in control. Bulimia was a logical solution to a problem you faced. Something in your life was missing. You felt empty and turned to food for comfort. However, because you’d find yourself overeating, purging was necessary to ensure you didn’t get “fat”.

And whilst it seemed like a good decision at the time, it laid the foundations for an obsession with food that quickly got out of control.

In addition, the bulimia caused emotional havoc. It’s left you feeling dirty, weak and disgusted with yourself. As such your self-esteem and confidence have eroded to the point that life now feels like a struggle.

Look! It’s NOT your fault.

Now here’s some information that may help you better understand why you’ve lost control. You see whilst your conscious brain opened the door for bulimia, your reptilian brain has long since taken over.

That’s because when you purge on a regular basis, your body initiates an instinctive physical survival response that’s driven by your reptilian brain – namely the brain stem and cerebellum.

This reptilian brain operates sub-consciously and controls instinctive survival processes. It doesn’t require conscious thought and instead its effects are felt through powerful urges or instincts that drive you to take action. So when you go on a restrictive diet, your body thinks you’re starving. As such you’ll instinctively develop an obsession for food. In short, what you’re experiencing is a primitive survival mechanism that wants to ensure you have the calories you need to live.

This primitive brain is as old as man and evolved to help early humans survive in their harsh, hostile environment. And we do need these instincts. After all, having an early warning system alerting you to danger (without you even having to think about it) is incredibly efficient and very powerful.

But here’s the problem…

As inhabitants of the western world where food in in abundance, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to starve. BUT your reptilian brain does not understand this. Instead it makes you crave the sugary, fatty foods that have the calories needed to sustain you.

It’s time for a different approach

Now here’s the really good bit. Once you understand how your primitive brain is wreaking havoc, you open a door that can set you free.

That’s because humans also have a conscious brain called the cerebrum. It’s responsible for your ability to make decisions and choices. What this means is you do have the capacity to override the subconscious thoughts and instincts generated by your primitive brain.

In short once you understand what’s really happening, you can empower your conscious brain to intervene and override the urge to binge.

And you can do that with the power of your thoughts.

Your thoughts determine your perception and your perception becomes your reality

The hard bit is knowing just where to focus your thoughts.

Instinctively you’d think you should be focusing on stopping the triggers or stopping the bingeing urges that start the bulimic cycle. But actually that’s the worst thing you can do. That’s because you’ll simply put more attention on bulimia and give it the energy it needs to flourish.

A far more powerful way of using your thoughts is to tap into your imagination and allow yourself to dream and imagine the life you really want. If you can discover what inspires, moves and touches you, you’ll naturally peer beyond your present circumstances and something truly amazing starts to unfold.

Now I’m not saying this will be easy and the experience will certainly be different for everyone. The key is to not give up too soon. If you can’t find an answer it’s probably your innate negativity – another aspect of your ancestral survival mechanism – stepping in. You need to quieten this down and listen to your heart to see what emerges.

It could be to:

• Focus on travelling and allow your free spirit that’s being suppressed to express itself.
• Allow your creative skills to be released through writing, painting or poetry.
• Focus on fresh air, staying active and enjoying a new active pastime rather than controlling your physical appearance through a restrictive diet.

I promise if you adopt this method, freedom from bulimia could be just around the corner. What’s more I know this to be true from experience because it’s the method that set me free 20 years ago – and the method I teach clients today.

So if this post has made you curious, please sign up to my FREE video series. It’s really easy to do. Simply pop your email into the box above and I’ll send a link direct to your inbox.

You’ve got nothing to lose but potentially stacks to gain.  So please take your first step to bulimia freedom today, and watch my videos to learn more about the amazing potential and opportunities that await you beyond bulimia when you empower your mind to set you free.