Holiday Warning, binge eating and cross triggers

Hey guys. 5 months PMO free here. First Christmas season PMO free in years. Like many with extended families, we have a holiday feast at multiple places multiple locations. I'm fairly fit and I consciously watch my calorie intake, but once or twice a year I look forward to indulging in food. This past week I consciously anticipated what I would normally categorize as "over eating". That is, this is the time of the year I plan on binge eating. From a purely physical fitness standpoint, most say it's OK. But from a porn addiction standpoint, not so much I think.

The thing is, our brain's reward center is about two things: hunting for and acquiring food and sex. Well, over the last 5 days I have anticipated binging on food, and I have binged. I thought about turkey, I thought about gravy, I thought about casseroles, I thought about desserts, and then I went out and got them. That lit up my dopamine release center like a Christmas tree. I had absolutely no idea it would cross trigger my desire for porn but, last night was difficult. I tossed, I turned, I could not sleep, I felt like I drank a pot of coffee before bed, or had taken a Red Bull, I had to constantly fight hypersexualized imagery in my head.

Today I have concluded that by binging on food I had cross triggered my brain's desire to binge on porn. There is some science for this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110228104308.htm

Now I am not telling anyone here not to binge eat. It is the holidays after all, and binge eating is almost by definition what we do. I am telling you that if you binge eat be prepared for that dopamine rush that comes with it, and the dopamine withdrawal that follows, which for guys with a porn problem may result in your brain trying to get you to use porn, rather than go back for thirds and fourths. I can tell you that when I woke up in the middle of the night I was not picturing a turkey sandwich.

Happy holidays!

 

Backatcha jilted!