I found some interesting research in Aimee Liu's book Gaining. Recent research shows that anorexic thinking, as it relates to food, can be mapped by functional MRIs.. Janet Treasure and a group of researchers at Maudsley Hospital in London have watched the brain "in action" while subjects watch images of food.
These are some of their findings (paraphrased):
1) For people with no history of eating disorders, the sight of food (i.e. strawberry cheesecake) excited the lateral region of the brain responsible for apetite.
2) For people with a history of anorexia and bulimia, the "dominant response" to food came from a region in the frontal lobe of the brain associated with making decisions and the regulation of anxiety.
3) The longer a person has been ill, the stronger the response of the frontal lobe.
4) When subjects return to normal eating, multiple areas of the brain respond in order to override the brain's disordered response to food. These multiple responses (patches) are meant to prevent the person's impulse to suppress appetite.
5) The longer the time passed without relapse, the stronger the response of these multiple areas of the brain to prevent the disordered response.
6) The brain cannot produce a completely normal response to food even decades after the subjects last used ED symptoms. Subjects in recovery from ED respond to food with a mixture of "attraction, resistance, guilt, calculation, permission and release".
7) The Good News: The brain seems to continually rebuild/heal itself in order to allow the mind to gain control over even many years of affliction.
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I have been in recovery for close to eight years. Sometimes, when I eat, I experience, as the author says, a mixture of "attraction, resistance, guilt, calculation, permission and release".
Next time I feel that way, I will be thankful because it means that my brain continues to heal and find different ways to override old behaviors that were not healthy for me.
peace, hope and love,
Lily
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