A Starvation Diet's Toxic Thoughts

Someone might wonder what kind of toxic thoughts a person must be thinking in order to go on a starvation diet. The short answer is: a lot of them. The long answer is that everyone will experience their toxic thoughts that cause a starvation diet differently, but there are some common threads that run through them.

Toxic Thought: I'll Go On A Starvation Diet Because I'm Worthless

One of the most common toxic thoughts someone on a starvation diet feels is worthlessness. There's an underlying feeling that you don't deserve food for allowing yourself to be at your current weight (which may or may not be an appropriate weight for your height and build). A starvation diet is a way of correcting your inability to be thin by managing entirely too much self-control.

Society likes to tell everyone that being overweight or obese is caused by a lack of willpower. But when you starve yourself you are operating on nothing but willpower. Which, according to the previously mentioned logic, should mean that you become super thin. But you don't. Whatever you lose is gained back once you start eating again. Maybe not right away, but eventually. A starvation diet is not sustainable and when you're running on toxic thoughts alone, you are not going to achieve your weight loss goals.

Toxic Thought: I'll Go on a Starvation Diet Because I Am Special

After you've been on a starvation diet for enough time (about one to two weeks, it varies), in addition to your toxic thoughts, you might start experiencing a feel of elation and euphoria. I certainly felt this after a little while and thought it was my reward for being so clean and pure and keeping that dirty, horrible food from my body. I thought I was better than the mere mortals that needed food to survive. I was so special that no bodily alert to hunger would cause me to put sustenance in my mouth.

But these toxic thoughts are the same thing as previously mentioned, just a different kind, and can often run parallel to the first. Which, I realize, makes no sense to both think of yourself as better than other people and worse than other people at the same time, but these are not rational, logical thoughts. They are mental illness running, uncontrolled.

How Do I Avoid the Toxic Thoughts that Cause Starvation Diets?

Toxic thoughts can happen at any time and they can manifest in intrusive thoughts, to where going on a starvation diet seems like a really good idea. But it's not and never will be. Weight loss can be achieved with the help of medical professionals and dealing with these toxic thoughts can be achieved through seeing a eating disorder therapist. Sometimes psychiatric medication might be needed to combat an underlying illness, such as depression or anxiety, that could be causing them.

It's important to remember that these toxic thoughts do not run your life and that starvation diets are not a healthy thing to do. Reminding yourself of this through mantras or just randomly throughout the day might sound silly, but it can help to reprogram your thinking and remind yourself that you have other options than harming your body by denying it the fuel that it needs in order to operate.

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