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sfgirl · 07-13-2009, 12:55 AM

Thanks Nina Kay. Luckily food is not usually my issue. It strikes me though how similar food addiction is to alcoholism. I was just watching on TLC tonight the show the 650 lb Virgin and it talked about how he had been molested when he was a young child and that sort of started his binge eating. I find that interesting since trauma, in my case, and in so many other cases of addictions is the impetus for addictive behaviors.

My uncle is morbidly obese (fluctuates prob between 450-550) and in all these years he has done so many diets only to put back the weight. I only realized recently after finally getting some sort of hold on my alcohol problems how similar our issues were. The thing is though that so many people seem to think that when people are eating too much all they have to do is eat less— there is no addiction, there is no recovery that needs to take place. As long as he portions his food and exercises he will get better. When I hear him talk about food I realize why simply relying on those methods would be sort of like me white knuckling my recovery. Working some sort of program, no matter what that is, but certainly a key step is realizing the addiction is present, is so key to recovery from any and all addictions no matter what the substance or even emotion or act. I am not even sure he has ever ended up in a program or situation where they really examined his addiction issues. I felt so missed with my alcoholism for so long. I feel like it is such a parallel thing. The medical community hasn't quite caught up.

The thing that is really interesting about the book I referenced is how much he thinks the food industry has influenced food addiction. While recovery is talked about with alcoholism and not as much with food, I think that perhaps this is something that is rarely talked about or attributed to alcoholism. Again though I think it cuts across. He thinks that advertising and the way that companies have actually made food contributes to people craving and over-consuming. We rarely talk about alcohol advertising and the culture of alcohol in this country. Everyday we are bombarded with messages with of alcohol makes you attractive, is romantic, is about having fun, is sports, etc. I just think that all addictions share so many similarities that looking at them all is helpful to me. Compartmentalizing them too rigidly in my opinion can be detrimental to looking at the issue and ultimately coming to better ways of recovery.

07-13-2009, 12:55 AM	#4 (permalink)
sfgirl Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 696	Thanks Nina Kay. Luckily food is not usually my issue. It strikes me though how similar food addiction is to alcoholism. I was just watching on TLC tonight the show the 650 lb Virgin and it talked about how he had been molested when he was a young child and that sort of started his binge eating. I find that interesting since trauma, in my case, and in so many other cases of addictions is the impetus for addictive behaviors. My uncle is morbidly obese (fluctuates prob between 450-550) and in all these years he has done so many diets only to put back the weight. I only realized recently after finally getting some sort of hold on my alcohol problems how similar our issues were. The thing is though that so many people seem to think that when people are eating too much all they have to do is eat less— there is no addiction, there is no recovery that needs to take place. As long as he portions his food and exercises he will get better. When I hear him talk about food I realize why simply relying on those methods would be sort of like me white knuckling my recovery. Working some sort of program, no matter what that is, but certainly a key step is realizing the addiction is present, is so key to recovery from any and all addictions no matter what the substance or even emotion or act. I am not even sure he has ever ended up in a program or situation where they really examined his addiction issues. I felt so missed with my alcoholism for so long. I feel like it is such a parallel thing. The medical community hasn't quite caught up. The thing that is really interesting about the book I referenced is how much he thinks the food industry has influenced food addiction. While recovery is talked about with alcoholism and not as much with food, I think that perhaps this is something that is rarely talked about or attributed to alcoholism. Again though I think it cuts across. He thinks that advertising and the way that companies have actually made food contributes to people craving and over-consuming. We rarely talk about alcohol advertising and the culture of alcohol in this country. Everyday we are bombarded with messages with of alcohol makes you attractive, is romantic, is about having fun, is sports, etc. I just think that all addictions share so many similarities that looking at them all is helpful to me. Compartmentalizing them too rigidly in my opinion can be detrimental to looking at the issue and ultimately coming to better ways of recovery.