Eating Disorders : Binging junk to cope with exam stress in students
– Shreya Pandey,
AMA School of Medicine
Is it just me or have you also faced binging on junk food when you are stressed out with your college exams? I guess not all of you might face this but some of you might be dealing with it. And specially like me who deals with college exam every week. Yes you heard it right every week proper exams!
So many of the medical students face with eating disorders resulting in low self esteem , conscious about body image resulting in more emotional binging , anxiety levels , frustration , restraint from food and then blaming everything to food again.
Many people when they are stressed , order their favourite fast food which gives them temporary relief from their stress that’s why this problem of binging has increased among teenagers and young adults with increase in fast food outlets which are quick to access and freaking amazing in taste.
But what we regret after is that what we ate was a junk! Which somehow for a brief period of time gave us happiness but in a long run it gave our body many problems such as overweight, obesity , frustration, anxiety , less stamina , poor concentration and many more health problems.
And the main problem is our tendency to binging on it not realising when to stop eating on that junk because you are so severely stressed about your studies and exam. This eventually becomes a habit to eat junk food daily because now it has started to give us pleasure
So enough about the problem now let’s talk about the solution.
- I always believe that your mind is the most powerful in this world. You can change anything with your mind. So first we need to change our belief that food is the solution of forgetting stress. It isn’t. Food is only needed to make your body work in a long run. The better fuel (healthy nutrition) you put inside the better and longer it works benefiting you.
- The more you restrict the more you binge! Many people worried about their health and body start to completely avoid it or starve themselves to undo it’s effect which actually lead you to binge more when you don’t see anything changing or your mind just gives up. Mindful eating is all what you need. Having junk isn’t a problem unless you know when to eat and how much to eat. And starvation could never change your body. You need to accept the amount of time it took for you to have that type of body which you don’t like now is the same amount of time it would take to change your lifestyle and get your desired body.
- Release your stress in another form. Yes I can’t change the date of your exam or the fact how much you have to study to become a doctor. But you can release your stress by talking to your loved ones (best therapy), release by doing exercises or working out in gym which will help you both mentally and physically , read some interesting books or watch Netflix or some interesting documentaries to distract yourself for a while not longer. Whenever thinking about food just gulp down a glass of water as if your gulping down your temptations
- If the problems exceeds a limit and you need help it’s ok to consult a psychiatrist. Eating disorders have now become very common and it’s ok to ask professional help for it.
Sometimes parents might not understand that how could someone have issues with food. But it’s ok our generation is a lot different then theirs. There are many people out there with same problem as yours and never feel afraid to ask for help. Hope my article helps someone