Emotion

I find it useful to look up the people whose quotes are used in the For Today book.  This morning's quote about it being wise to know what to overlook is from William James, an American philosopher and psychologist. 

The James-Lange theory of emotion (which he apparently formulated independently of Carl Lange and also Giuseppe Sergi in the 1880s) talks about emotion as the mind's perception of physiological responses to the outside world.   

That is, emotion is the mind's perception of physiological conditions that result from some stimulus. In James's example, it is not that we see a bear, fear it, and run; we see a bear and run; consequently, we fear the bear. Our mind's perception of the higher adrenaline level, heartbeat, etc. is the emotion.

James asked "do we run from a bear because we are afraid or are we afraid because we run?"  He proposed that the obvious answer, that we run because we are afraid, was wrong, and instead argued that we are afraid because we run.  That is, our response to the bear -- the heightened alert, pounding heart, exertion from running to safety, etc -- is what we call fear. 

James (and others), thought other emotional situations result in different bodily upheavals. In each case, the physiological responses return to the brain in the form of bodily sensations:  the unique pattern of sensory feedback gives each emotion its unique quality. So fear feels different from anger or love because it has a different physiological signature (in our parasympathetic nervous system). 

The mental aspect of emotion, the feeling, is the response to our change in physiology, not vice versa.  So we do not tremble because we are afraid or cry because we feel sad; we are afraid because we tremble and are sad because we cry.

How does this relate to binge eating?  I feel the physiological symptoms of emotional pain and I equate the cure with hunger?  I know in my journey so far I have had to learn what my emotions actually are.  I have had a very poorly tuned emotional compass -- basically, I feel bad so I eat.  I have struggled to define what I actually feel.  Am I sad, mad, bored, hungry, or ...?? 

As I get more precise in recognizing my body's cues, my responses are similarly more precise in terms of efficacy.  If I am sad, eating doesn't help.  I still feel sad.  I may feel nothing for a time as binge eating numbs all feelings.  But I don't feel less sad afterwards.  If anything, I feel worse.  It is like a child who suffers more when the caretaker provides the wrong solution.  My distress increases - I have the source problem and also the hopeless feeling of being misunderstood too.