Reconceptualization of eating addiction and obesity as displacement behavior and a possible treatment.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Displacement behavior is a biobehavioral mechanism that allows an animal to deal with situations that cannot readily be faced nor avoided, or that are thwarting. It may explain compulsive overeating (eating addiction). Resembling addiction, displacement behavior is irrepressible behavior that is contextually inappropriate, e.g., sleeping or feeding when threatened by a predator, or binge eating in response to a work altercation. It is thought to be due to rechanneling of overflow brain energy to another drive (e.g., feeding drive) when two drives, e.g., fight or flight, equally oppose each other. Moving the opposing drives out of equilibrium, by resolving the person's underlying problems/stressful situations, theoretically should mitigate the displacement mechanism and addi

SUBMITTER: Pretlow R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9556343 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature