hown that patients who decide to undergo an intervention of bariatric surgery are likely to have scores of anxiety attachment higher than a comparable population made up of people thin. This difference could in part be explained by the tendency to overeat related to anxious attachment.
Understand the anxiety of attachment
It has been known for a long time that people who have an anxious attachment high are more likely to give importance to the frustrations as well as to manage more difficult emotions when they are angry. This is due to the way in which the orientations of attachment are initially in place. The dynamics and feelings associated with our long-term relationships the most important, including in early childhood, serve as role models and guide our behavior in relationships later as well as in stressful situations.
If someone is taking care of us with a constant attention, helping us to cope with the problems that we encounter during our life, we will develop an orientation secure attachment. When a negative event occurs in the life of people feeling very safe, they are able to turn to others to ask them for support, or to self-soothe themselves into thinking that the people who take care of them their would say in this situation.
However, if the care that we receive are inconsistent – for example in the case where the caregiver does not respond systematically to the needs – a certain degree of anxious attachment and a fear that our needs will not be met develop. In this case, if negative events occur, the support of others will be sought, but it will not be considered as reliable. People with anxious attachment are also less able to find the peace that the people, who have developed a secure attachment.
We have recently sought to verify if this poor management emotional could explain why people with anxious attachment are more likely to overeat. Importantly, we found that those experiencing anxiety, attachment high have more difficulty to take distance with which the thwarts, and to continue doing what they were supposed to do initially. They manage these negative emotions by using food, a behavior that is associated with a higher BMI.
It is important to note, however, that this anxiety is only one factor among many that may influence overeating and the increase in BMI. We cannot say that the anxiety attachment leads to overeating and weight gain. It is also possible that overeating and weight gain influence our direction in terms of attachment, or as both play a role.
Manage eating behaviors
For people with high levels of anxious attachment who are seeking to better manage their eating behaviors, the two approaches seem to be promising. It is either to work specifically on the direction of the attachment and/or to improve their skills of regulating their emotions.
To work on the orientation of the attachment, these people can use a psychological technique called ” priming security “. It is designed to stimulate the sense of security : this is to ensure that persons anxious to behave as if they were in the skin of people ” safe “, able to cope with the negative events of life. The beneficial effects resulting from it are felt more broadly, the people who use this techniques engaging in more behavior that is more prosocial.
One study at least has found a link between this “boot” and the consumption of cuts diet pills : when people think of the relationships that are safe for their life, they eat less, at the time of sessions of “snacking” later, when asked to reflect on relationships that generate anxiety (this work is, however, very preliminary, and has yet to be replicated, and in-depth).
In regard to the regulation of emotions, a recent article has highlighted the importance for people who are looking to lose weight to focus on stress management rather than on calorie restriction. This study does not concern only the people who are suffering from anxiety related to attachment, it would therefore be necessary to continue and deepen this work.
In a perfect world, of course, everyone should be able to experimen