SUGAR

[jimrich]

Hi all,
Just want to share an experience with syrup or sugar. 
I recently had some food at a Jack in the Box that included pancake syrup. Very shortly after, I began to recall some very sad events at a 12 step Incest meeting and soon began to have serious tears over stuff I was remembering from the Incest meeting.  I was in my car and began to have very deep sobbing and tears so I pulled over to the curb and stopped.  I haven't felt that deep level of grief and sorrow in years so I was surprised there was so much grief and tears still inside of me.  The tears just poured and poured as I vividly recalled disturbing things from the Incest meeting. I was actually panting from the intense weeping and sorrow!  After what seemed like a very long time, my feelings began to subside so I drove away from the curb and continued on.  Pretty soon I thought again about the Incest meeting and did not feel any sorrow or stress!  I wondered if the pancake syrup had caused me to have such a dramatic emotional reaction instead of just sad memories about the Incest meeting?  I'd seen reactions like this from coffee back when I first started Recovery work.  It was kind of disappointing to think that sugar, not emotions, had caused me to feel so much sorrow and have so many tears!  I assumed it was all about my memories and yet it may have been more about sugar than any memory! 
I just looked up "sugar blues" on line and saw that the grief I experienced about Incest was most likely just a SUGAR REACTION somehow coupled with sad memories! I'm not sure exactly how my mind and memories played into the intense grief that sugar made me feel but now, when I think about that Incest meeting, NOTHING HAPPENS!... since I've had no sugar or coffee today!  What a realization! Now I wonder how many of my other past "mood swings" were unwittingly caused by sugar or coffee! I'm kind of a sugar-nut so I'd guess many of my "moods" came from sugar!!!  Well, I can easily control my sugar & coffee intake from now on!
Have any of you dealt with sugar or coffee effects on your moods?

[Papa Coco]

Jimrich,

Sugar and coffee definitely cause chemical reactions to our moods. Physical stimulants. But I also know that each of our 5 senses has its own memory. If pancake syrup triggered an emotion that the body remembers feeling before, then, it seems to me, that perhaps it was a combination of two things: Physically, the syrup stimulated your physical body while the taste of it triggered a physical memory. Kind of a double-whammy.

I've read articles about people who have accepted transplant organs, who then started craving new foods and accepting new ideas. My wife and I have a close friend who received a new liver, and she says she definitely has ideas and triggers that she didn't have before. Many experts believe that each organ in our body has its own memory. Pancake syrup, and canned frosting, are to me, a drug. I once went off sugar for several weeks, and then, one day, I also skipped breakfast. I had a bad meeting at work and went home so depressed, I opened a can of frosting and ate half of it. I've never gotten so stoned so fast as I did when eating that half-can of frosting on an empty stomach while on a sugar free diet. It convinced me that sugar is every bad thing they say it is, and more.

But, dang it: I eat it again now.

My mom was a pastry chef/wedding cake baker for most of my life. No matter what horrors I was living through, a piece of cake and a dish of ice cream were her go-to cures. I grew up craving sugar, and the worse I feel during any triggered event, the more I crave cake and ice cream.  It has both, chemical triggers and emotional triggers for me. It's a double-whammy for me for certain.

[Chart]

Ah the Brain... We're not anywhere near figuring it out. But there are intense links between emotions and sugar, but in both directions. That being too much sugar can also slow you down and put you to sleep. Or not enough can induce depression, from which a little sugar binge ends up feeling like an evangelist revival meeting.

I'm guessing your Jack in the Box sugar-shoot gave your brain the necessary energy to complete the mourning process from that incest survivors' meeting. I'm further guessing that in parallel to the sugar intake there was 'something' that triggered your deep emotional reaction. I bet if you think back to that experience, and walk through the events (however mundane) at the restaurant something might pop out. Just a thought.