In my post Nicotine Withdrawal - Day 2I mentioned how "I will be glad when this crap is over" when writing about how I was feeling without nicotine at that point. Trying my best not to sound like someone in an AA meeting, but failing - I've now gone 37 days without any tobacco products and I'm finally over the hump. I rarely feel that need I was feeling in the beginning. I know that I've got to be careful. My dad likes to smoke a cigar on Thanksgiving and here we are, already close. No matter how tempting I must refrain, because with nicotine I'd be off the bandwagon with just the one cigar.
So, if it gives anyone hope - it really does get better. Let's compare this feeling I'm having now without any withdrawal to what I said a little over a month ago on 10/17/14 -
After lunch today I felt like something was missing and it made me a little sad when I realized it was the nicotine,because it's not like a piece of gum or mint will ever give that same satisfaction. The people that tell you to buy a lot of gum and hard candy really don't know what it's like to be addicted to nicotine. Those are the people that must have smoked 5 or 6 cigarettes a day. "Oh yeah, chew on this piece of gum and you won't be pissed at the world anymore," they say. Now, I have a jaw that is sore from chewing gum on top of being pissed at the world.
Some of us are very reluctant to use our No. I've brought this up in earlier post stating that apologizing when saying "no" to an unreasonable request is unreasonable and in this post where I bring up the fact that we let ourselves be manipulated, in part, due to our inability to say "no". Can this whole no thing be taken to the extreme? Of course it can. When you're hired to do a job it would be ridiculous to say, the day after you're hired, that you refuse to do it simply because you're not in the mood. The no should come more often than you think though. It should come when you are put in a spot that you inherently know what you should do, but someone else insist otherwise, or tries to convince you that they know better. This goes back to the quote in Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" -
"It's hard to believe that fear of offending me is stronger than the fear of pain, but you know what? It is."
I've been thinking about our reluctance to tell others "no" even when it's beneficial for us to do so and even when it would be destructive for us not to say it. It started when I listened to this podcast where Lewis Howes interviews the author of The Power of No's James Altucher. If you're not familiar with this subject, this podcast is a good place to start. I also have watched the video below a few times and some excellent points are made on how "no" is a part of life's journey if you are to grow.
The metamorphosis that Elliott Hulse is talking about here as far as Friedrich Nietzsche is concerned is best summed up here. I'm not a fan of Nietzsche but I can see where Elliott is coming from making the comparisons in this video. In the story "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzche, he claims that "God is dead." This is because he believes in order to become the Ubermensche, one must get rid of the "Thou Shalts" and this beast of burden thinking. I know that in the case of Nietzsche, he's talking of an oppressive religious system. Jesus himself was against the repressive religious system of the Pharisees. Bringing wrongful ways of thinking down does not, however, mean that God is dead. If you really want freedom out from under a 'thou shalt' or a boss then Christianity would be the most reasonable track. In order to say no to the world and slay the dragon you have to remember who the dragon is and remember that no matter how powerful you think you are, you will still worship something. When Nietzsche says that we are to become like children again with a new yes, he's talking of a natural cycle that happens on a more personal level in people's lives, whether they believe in a God or not. The older you get, the more likely you are able to see through people's bull and give out more NO's then yeses, the wiser you get the more likely you are to accept that you don't know everything but you're willing to recreate yourself with new knowledge that you, yourself have tested instead of simply accepting what's been passed down to you. Related Books: The Power of No: Because One Little Word Can Bring Health, Abundance, and Happiness Pulling Your Own Strings Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
The other day I had someone that knew my dad tell me (jokingly), "Your dad was a nervous Nelly." It was funny because it was true. Strange thing is, I never would've thought anyone else noticed if he hadn't brought it up. Don't get me wrong - he's stronger than me in some ways. He spoke in front of large groups easily all his life and he was skilled in the martial arts when he was younger. He still has some self-esteem issues with caring about what others think a little too much, but that seems to be the way of the world now.
He mainly worries about the kind of stuff that we have no control over. The kind of stuff that could happen to anyone at anytime - like losing a job, getting sick, or someone in his family being in a car accident. Just because these are all possibilities doesn't mean that if you worry about them that they will not happen. He had the tendency to avoid confrontation due to worrying about upsetting someone, but then would sometimes explode over the smallest things.
He worries about stuff that most of us don't even think about. Perhaps it's the police background but it borders on ridiculous - "You kill those weeds with gas and what happens if someone throws their cigarette there?" The question makes some since but the odds of that happening in a time period where it would be flammable enough to burn my house down would be comical. And who is this strange smoking man standing a foot away from my house while I'm not there? Don't get me wrong, I don't make a habit out of killing grass with gasoline. This was on a patch of grass because I'd run out of Roundup. His mother, my grandmother, was even worse - so I can see where he got the worrying from. And now one of my daughters (who has the same type of worries as my father) - so, 4 generations of anxiety in a 50 year span. Thanks genetics.
Sugar has been on the usual suspects shortlist for a variety of illnesses lately and is now being blamed for some of the mental health issues that we're facing in the West. Secondary effects of too much sugar and processed food consumption can cause depression and anxiety due to the weight gain and sedentary feelings they may cause but is there a direct relation between sugar and anxiety?
Notice, I'm not going to be talking about many of the other problems that have been grouped with sugar consumption like confusion, sadness, inability to focus etc. I'm going to focus on anxiety and see where we stand with sugar consumption and its relation to anxiety by looking at the research that is currently out there.
There is a lot of research which shows that sugar and junk food has led us down a path of swollen bodies and unhealthy attitudes. Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that a healthy diet is the answer to all of our problems. I would, however, like to see a study done on the percentage of people who have an unhealthy diet and are overweight compared to people who eat very healthy diets and are in good shape and see what the gap is between the two groups on how much psychotherapy and pharmaceuticals that each is taking. I'm willing to bet that the more healthy group is way less medicated. I'm willing to also bet that people who have addictive personalities are much more likely to have unhealthy diets and have emotional eating issues. And when is the last time you at a tomato when you were depressed? Aren't you more likely to eat a pint of ice cream, which just continues the addiction to sugar? To only add to the confusion, you also have a "chicken or the egg" situation as stated in The Psychiatric Times -
"However, since the advent of the atypical antipsychotics, obesity has become more prevalent." - link
If you've been keeping up with this blog at all you'll notice that I've been keeping a scattered journal on my recent separation from nicotine. It's been a hard road and considering that it's an oral fixation that I've grown accustomed to for many years I've been apt to use this as an excuse to have a tootsie roll pop (or any other sugary candy that you can think of) anytime I have the urge for a tobacco product. As of today, it's been 29 days so maybe it's helped. I have pretty much gotten over the need for nicotine, which is probably why I'm moving on to this subject of diet and relating it to my mental health issues. Can a proper diet with moderate exercise cure me of my anxiety and make my small doses of Xanax unnecessary? This is the next step on my journey. The next frontier that I will have to undertake in order to become so healthy that I'm afraid to die again.
Renowned neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, blows the lid off a topic that’s been buried in medical literature for far too long: carbs are destroying your brain. And not just unhealthy carbs, but even healthy ones like whole grains can cause dementia, ADHD, anxiety, chronic headaches, depression, and much more. LINK
Looking at his site and video interviews, the main claim tends to be that following his suggested diet will greatly lower your chance of getting Alzheimer's and a reduce in brain fog, depression, ADHD etc. I'm not seeing much on anxiety besides a few articles. Maybe the book goes into more detail about anxiety specifically. These are the kinds of studies I'm looking for. Perlmutter's diet does seem to help people though. One man claims to have seen a 50% decline in his anxiety after reading Grain Brain, taking the suggested supplements, and exercising.
The Calm Clinic had the below to say about sugar and anxiety...
Contrary to what you read online, sugar does not cause anxiety. Anxiety is a mental health issue, and it's very uncommon for a person's diet to "cause" anxiety. What sugar does do is create changes in your body that may make your anxiety symptoms worse, or cause feelings that trigger anxiety attacks.
And then they egg you on to take this 7 minute anxiety test, so while what they're saying in the article is probably true there may be a $68 ulterior motive to why you can't fix your anxiety with diet alone. The $68 may be worth it but I'm sticking to diet on this post.
In the next article written by Dr. David Sack we read that...
"sugar consumption to an increased risk of depression and worse outcomes in individuals with schizophrenia" and " Interestingly, countries with high sugar intake also have a high rate of depression."
But what about anxiety? Well, he goes on to say that..
"The Standard American Diet, which is full of sugar and fat, does not necessarily cause anxiety but it does appear to worsen anxiety symptoms and impair the body’s ability to cope with stress." and "In a 2008 study, rats that binged on sugar and then fasted displayed anxiety, and in a 2009 study rats fed sucrose compared to high-antioxidant honey were more likely to suffer anxiety. While dietary changes alone cannot cure anxiety, they can minimize symptoms, boost energy and improve the body’s ability to cope with stress."
So I'm starting to see a theme as I study the correlation between anxiety and sugar. Yes, it does have an effect but it seems to lean more towards the symptoms than it does the cause. We've seen the 50% reduction from following Dr. Perlmutter's recommended diet, the Calm Clinic saying that "anxiety is a mental health issue" and not so much a dietary issue, while they admit sugar can make symptoms worse as does Dr. Sack in his article.
Does anyone say that reducing or removing sugar from your diet can cure you from having those overly intense feelings that are not common in the normal population, the intense feelings you get with social anxiety, when in certain situations, or with OCD? From what research I've done on other people's research - Sadly no. Although it seems to help some people I don't see where diet has cured anyone in the anxiety arena. Can losing weight and feeling healthier help you with your social anxiety? Of course it can, but cure it? Maybe not. Even if you're lucky and diet takes care of 80% of your problems with anxiety, there is a percentage that has to do with our perceptions and facing our difficulties etc.
But let me veer in a direction that I didn't even see this article going...
There is an interview here with Bill Brenner about his addiction to sugar that shows how much a downward spiral unhealthy food can be. It's very easy for me to say that I'm going to change my diet to help with my anxiety, but what is it that has caused my poor eating habits? More often than not, it's my anxiety, or in the case of Brenner, his OCD. Like I mentioned earlier, most of us who are emotional eaters are not binge eating celery while we listen to that song from Inception while crying.
"The OCD is the main problem. It triggers my addictive behavior and the flour and sugar is what I would lunge for." LINK
What changed after you stopped binge eating?
"My head cleared in dramatic ways. I stopped having anxiety attacks. I dropped 65 pounds on the spot and have kept it off for more than two years. It made my OCD much easier to manage."
Once again, we're back to symptoms and managing the mental health issues but doesn't the quote above sound a lot better than not addressing diet at all? So maybe sugar isn't the cause of anxiety disorders, but it's not helping anyone either. Let's take in the fact that not one study or article (at least none that I could find) said that sugar or junk food of any kind was good for you either physically or mentally. So while Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream taste and feels good at the time, there is always the "you play, you pay" rule in food - whether it's our waistlines, our moods, or our slipping back into addictive eating after splurging for one evening. When we've splurged on junk food to the point of being emotional vulnerable or numb to the world we've lost the battle (at least temporarily). I think that most of us are going for that numb part and the anxiety comes from the lack of having that refined sugar hitlike you would any other drug. So you eat more of it and it helps in the short term.
The plan for myself goes as follows - started the Paleo diet as of yesterday and so far it's been okay. I'm probably overdoing it on the meat right now but I'll reign that in. I'm about to go to the grocery store to stock up on more vegetables and some lean meat, maybe some fruits also. It's got to be better than all of the ice cream I've been eating. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I will see gains physically and mentally, and will be able to describe it well enough to let help someone else, whether it's Paleo, vegetarian, whatever eventually works.
It seems that U2's Bono is familiar with the work of his fellow Irishman and author C.S. Lewis, particularly with Lewis's book Mere Christianity. They both have basically the same take on Jesus either being the Messiah, as he said he was, or being a complete lunatic that millions upon millions have been fooled by for two-thousand years. I think that they've both made an excellent argument for there being no in-between. I'd add the question - What are the odds that a man would go to these lengths and coincidentally have a following that was philosophically ripe and creative enough to keep the gospel spreading thousands of years after their deaths (most of them having been killed because of their allegiance to Jesus)? It seems highly improbable when you look at this historically that things would fall so perfectly into place for a lunatic. It shows me that there is something tangible and real about both Jesus and his follower's claims. Why would the original crew die for a lunatic or for someone that they had lied about or made up? If you'd made up some fantastical stories about your buddy that brought you some fame and fortune would you not say that you'd made it up if your life depended on it? To do otherwise must mean that you are convinced that you've told the truth, have seen what you've claimed to have seen, and are eager to see this friend after your death because you believe what he promised.
BONO: So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was - the Messiah -or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched.
CS LEWIS: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
It is pretty well known that the rich and/or very comfortable are quicker to anger than those less "fortunate". Those who have struggled or worked hard for what they have tend to be more even keeled because they don't expect the world to cater to their needs. They simply want to be able to support themselves and their families and be happy as often as possible. They don't have the need for the kind of money that gives power and stirs up the talk of jealous flatterers. They don't expect handouts from anyone else when they are perfectly capable of helping themselves. They keep their dignity intact whenever possible. Though they may struggle at times and people do help them out, they are thankful for the help and don't feel entitled to it.
What rich is for one person can mean a totally different thing to another, but the higher the pay scale the higher the agitation over the petty seems to be also. Those who aren't financially rich, but lead very comfortable lives collecting some kind of income that keeps them from having to work, very often obese, and dependent on others for their needs can also become agitated and angry when their comforts aren't to their liking. Sometimes they are worse than the rich because (unless it's old money), the rich usually do some type of work that, on occasion, may give them a sense of the real world.
At one very expensive restaurant (that I go to about once a year) I overheard some women complaining about the color of the napkins. They asked the waiter what had happened to the black napkins that used to come with their silverware. They were not happy with the white and this whining continued until the waiter was able to round up some black napkins. If this country goes through some type of crash like we saw in 1929, there will be a biblical gnashing of teeth people will have so much to be angry about. Imagine complaining about your Netflix selections being poor and then there is no electricity for 3 months. Imagine if we couldn't afford to eat out 3 or 4 times a week or if we had no cell phone service. People would literally lose their minds.
It seems that the more comfortable we get, the angrier we get when something threatens that comfort. There is an agitation that is triggered which might not be there if we hadn't become spoiled. A lot of this bratty behavior is actually because we think we deserve these things (like a spoiled child) while we ignore all of the small blessings we receive daily.
"Surely you have seen how anger increases with every increase in fortune? It shows up especially in the rich, in the noble, in high officials - anything irresponsible or foolish in their minds has a favorable breeze to raise it aloft. Prosperity fosters bad temper..." - Seneca
Instead of being surprised and subsequently upset when things aren't going the way we want them to; we should be thankful for the things that did go well and accept the fact that being upset over that which we cannot control is useless. If your job is to work the desk at an airport, you should know that every now and then you're going to have to deal with upset customers. To be aghast and so angry that you're in tears every time you have one of these customers would be ridiculous because it is expected. So, weird as it is to say, being the eternal optimist may backfire on you if you expect everything to always go your way. That's not how the world works. It's full of people that want things their way, and normally someone has to give in order for someone else to receive. If you're not expecting bad days and moments to come your way, then when they do, your inner brat will surface and make it even worse.
“Put your hope in God, not just in external beauty, and put your hope in God, not a man.” Years ago, my wife and I went to see Jerry Maguire. There’s this scene where Renée Zellweger and Tom Cruise in the elevator and this man and women come in, and they’re kind of all over each other basically making out in the elevator. And then he backs up and he signs (he’s deaf) something to the girl, and then she kisses him. And Renée was like, “Aw!” And then she tells Tom, “He just said, ‘You complete me.’” And then if we fast forward to the end of the movie, Tom Cruise runs into this living room where there are all these really bitter, angry women. He throws down his bags and says, “I’m good in the living room. They used to always send me into the living room. I could go into the living room and close the deal, so let’s just do this. Tonight was a very big night for our little experiment. Tonight was a very big night for our little company, but it wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. It wasn’t nearly what it could have been because you weren’t there. You complete me.” And Renée was choking back the tears going, “Shut up. You shut up. You had me at ‘Hello.’” And everybody was like, “Aw, that’s so sweet!” Everybody was like that in the theater. . .but me. That idea is a steaming pile of garbage. That idea that has woman after woman after woman on the search for a unicorn.
" -
" - he
suggest a low carb diet with very little fruits. There is an excerpt from his site suggesting that not only does sugar effect our brains but also the healthy carbs...
