Every thought and feeling that you have affects your hormones. Stressful events can range from death of a loved one to a divorce to being told that you are fat, ugly, or stupid. Most often people get exposed to negative words and after a while, they may start believing it. Believing it turns into living it (making others judgment of us actually true). This can turn into a loss of self-love and can trigger a hormonal release that causes you to open the refrigerator and eat “comfort food” or causes you to have zero sex drive.
When you have fear it causes a cascade of hormones to be released. This happens whether the fear is real or imagined. Your body does not know the difference between the fear of failure or the fear of a lion rushing towards you to eat you. Your body will respond to these stressors in the same way. It is the only way that the body knows how to keep you safe.
The problem is that the hormonal cascade that gets produced because of things that we perceive and believe was meant to deal with physical harms and not emotional ones. The result is that these hormones end up causing weight gain, fatigue, headaches, etc. You do not need to understand all of the details of these hormones, just the fact that they affect you!
In order to feel balanced and achieve a healthy weight, it is important that you deal with your emotions. The good news is that you can do this. My advice is to turn off the news (it is mainly negative) and to have a gratitude journal that you write in every day. This helps you to focus on what is good in yourself and your life. Regular exercise helps you as well. Yoga and meditation time is invaluable to keeping your emotions in check.
When you get your emotions and feelings balanced, you will find it easier to eat healthy and to feel vital. If you feel that your hormones are seriously out of balance then it is also important to seek the guidance of a physician specially trained in bioidentical hormones.