Yesterday, out of the blue, without any foreboding gossip or
rumor, the company I work for was taken over by a competitor.
All afternoon we sat stunned and unnaturally quiet, trying to
absorb what had happened and what it might mean to our future.
Two hours after the announcement of the sale was made, I walked
through the office, a large call center divided into several
teams that handle certain accounts or patients at different
levels of care. Apparently quite independently of each other,
each team was trying to handle the tension and the underlying
anxiety in their own way.
What did they all choose? You guessed it: FOOD.
We eat when we're happy and celebrating; we eat when we're
lonely; we eat when we're bored. And, above all, we eat when
we're upset. When our whole world seems to spin out of control,
food remains the only object that can seem to keep us anchored
and stable. We reach to it for comfort, for re-assurance, for
love. And we remain blind to the fact that our affection for it
allows it to exert control over us. Over the next few months, as
reorganization plans are implemented and the winds of change
sweep through the offices of management and the cubicles of
worker bees, we will reach out, over and over, for the comfort
of eating to steady our stomachs and soothe our nerves.
Corporate downsizing - just another weapon to make us fat!
Does the pressure never stop? Perhaps when we're dead, there is
no longer any compulsion to eat - or maybe we are destined to go
into our graves as a starving corpse who tries desperately to
communicate with the living about the overwhelming urge to eat.
About Author :
Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and admitted diet
fanatic specializing in the effects of attitudes and motivation
on individual goals. She recently published a
psychologically-based workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which
develops mental skills for permanent weight control. She can be
reached at http://www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html.
