Eating disorders and negative patterns with food begin with personal pain and set up a vicious cycle of anger: destructive behavior—shame—depression—self-hate—and back to anger.
Once again you choose to vent this anger, to gain relief from this anger, by controlling food and continuing your self-destructive behavior.
Breaking this cycle and finding the strength to disconnect from an unhealthy relationship with food requires relearning not only the proper response to food, but also the proper response to anger. No matter what your food patterns are, the misuse of food starts as a natural response of anger to pain. You’ve been numbing or avoiding your anger through your patterns with food for so long that it may be difficult for you to connect with that anger and put it into words. Your active participation in self-destructive behavior produces feelings of guilt and shame.
Dear Readers,
Following the events in Gaza there is so much anger and so much feelings of hopelessness. As we bear witness to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Palestine, our hearts are heavy with sorrow. Our deepest compassion compels us to unite in solidarity with innocent civilians caught in the midst of this turmoil. Thousands have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Gaza, leaving behind cherished possessions in a desperate quest for refuge. Their future remains uncertain, with no guarantees of returning to the homes they once knew. Others endure relentless violence, grappling with fear and trauma on a daily basis. They are weary, hungry, and in dire need of assistance. What you want to do is simply put an immediate stop to this bloodshed but you can’t. You want to save lives but you can’t. There’s also so much anger over world’s silence and failure to stop the genocide. Many people are angry over their government’s support for Israel through military and weapon aid. It’s painful to see how the tax payers money is being used to fund wars:
Through Fiscal Year 2022, the United States federal government has spent and obligated $8 trillion dollars on the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere. This figure includes: direct Congressional war appropriations; war-related increases to the Pentagon base budget; veterans care and disability; increases in the homeland security budget; interest payments on direct war borrowing; foreign assistance spending; and estimated future obligations for veterans’ care.
This total omits many other expenses, such as the macroeconomic costs to the US economy; the opportunity costs of not investing war dollars in alternative sectors; future interest on war borrowing; and local government and private war costs.
Public access to budget information about the post-9/11 is imperfect and incomplete. The scale of spending alone makes it hard to grasp. Public understanding of the budgetary costs of war is further limited by secrecy, faulty accounting and the deferral of current costs.
The current wars have been paid for almost entirely by borrowing. This borrowing has raised the U.S. budget deficit, increased the national debt and had other macroeconomic effects, such as raising consumer interest rates. Unless the U.S. immediately repays the money borrowed for war, there will also be future interest payments. We estimate that interest payments could total over $6.5 trillion by the 2050s.
Spending on the wars has involved opportunity costs for the U.S. economy. Although military spending does produce jobs, spending in other areas such as health care could produce more jobs. Additionally, investment in nonmilitary public infrastructure such as roads and schools has not grown at the same rate as investment in military infrastructure.
Finally, in addition to federal war costs, the post-9/11 wars have cost billions of dollars of state, municipal and private funds, including dollars spent on services for returned veterans and their families and local homeland security efforts.
Nevertheless this anger over genocide in Gaza is also affecting people’s mental health. People suffering from Eating Disorders usually channel their anger through food. As you look for a way to vent this anger, to seek respite from the anger, you choose food. Control of food, either through under-eating, over-eating, or intentional unhealthy eating, becomes a self-destructive behavior.
Eating disorders and negative patterns with food begin with personal pain and set up a vicious cycle of anger: destructive behavior—shame—depression—self-hate—and back to anger.
Once again you choose to vent this anger, to gain relief from this anger, by controlling food and continuing your self-destructive behavior.
Breaking this cycle and finding the strength to disconnect from an unhealthy relationship with food requires relearning not only the proper response to food, but also the proper response to anger. No matter what your food patterns are, the misuse of food starts as a natural response of anger to pain. You’ve been numbing or avoiding your anger through your patterns with food for so long that it may be difficult for you to connect with that anger and put it into words. Your active participation in self-destructive behavior produces feelings of guilt and shame.
The pain hurts, and that you should experience this pain is unjust and makes you angry.
Guilt, shame, and depression reinforce self-hate.
Control over this anger has been the silent motivation behind your food patterns. Only then will you be able to break the cycle of anger, and start taking back control over your emotions and life.
Self-hate says you deserve the pain.
Self-hate says you deserve pain.
Now you are angry not only at the pain in your past but at yourself for the pain in the present. Shame and guilt reinforce self-hate.
Yaqeen Institute recently wrote a brilliant article on how o channel your anger over Palestine. Please find below a summary of article by Mayar Assaf.
How to Channel Your Anger For Palestine
By Mayar Asaf
In this blog post, the writer expresses intense emotions regarding the situation in Palestine, feeling anger towards the Israeli army and Western media. They question how to deal with this anger and seek validation for feeling furious. These emotions are just a wake-up call for us to test our hearts health and move toward justice.
Islam always encourage and urge us to be patient in every situation and test we go through but that doesn’t mean to turn our heads when there’s oppression. On disagreement, Islam induces us to express our anger and channel it through various ways:
Guide our anger:
Its important to know the 2 types of anger: the total absence (cowardice), and excessive (tyranny). The Muslim is asked to find a balanced position.
To control it:
Distinguish between anger for Allah and personal rage.
Remember the repeated Prophetic advice: “Do not get angry.”
Perform wudu’ to help calm your mind.
Seek protection from Satan’s influence by repeating, “a’udhu billahi min ash-shaytan ar- rajim.”
Becoming a better version of yourself:
True victory requires both internal transformation and external action. Regarding our internal side, our faith opens our eyes to Baraka and hoping for it. While establishing new media organizations to convey the truth on the external side. Which the 2 sides should work in harmony.
Stay grounded to prevent burnout:
Pushing ourselves to the maximum without taking a deep breath can drain our energy and diminish our sparkle. Achieving justice for Palestine requires consistency and longevity, so we need balance in order to keep going and advocating about the situation.
Hold one another accountable:
Our prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم warned us against isolation, and ensured that the group’s collective strength is way more Influential. So we should always join hands and work together in such events.
No one should navigate this alone, checking with family and friends will serve as a supportive network, to remind each other to take a pause, and reach a balances position.
