Food addicton

[Biscuits]

Just wanted to share MY experience and thoughts about my addiction. I truly believe today that i was born with a compulsive personality and that if i hadn't turned to food at such an early age then i'm sure i would used another substance.

I always knew i was different to other kids or even my brothers and sisters, i just didn't think like them. I reacted differently to situations that arose daily and was convinced that i was adopted and did not belong in my birth family. I used to think that my ED was triggered by the abuse i suffered as a child but more investigation has led me to think i already had the addiction before the abuse happened.

I was one of six kids and am the only one i think with an ED, why is this? When i am with my family they see our upbringing totally different to me. It amazes me how differently i see things to them its almost as if we were raised by seperate families.

Food was always important to me even as a child, as long as i could get enough of it i was okay, it made me feel good and changed how i was feeling. I can even remember the high certain foods gave me back then.

My whole attitude to life was different to those around me, my thinking just seemed off beam even as a child. I look back now as an adult and know in my heart i was a basket case when it came to emotions.

This all intensified as i got older as things in life got more comlicated, my addiction grew with this and took me into a world of my own. One where my ED was at the center of my life. The bingeing, purgeing, fasting were all i thought about and controlled my everyday. They took me to some very low places in life and led me into a life of existing rather than experiencing life.

I'm glad that i got desperate enough to walk through the doors of OA and into a new way of living, those simple twelve steps have truly given me a life worth living today but never want to forget the low points my ED took me to and hopefully remembering them will stop me becoming complacent about working my program.

[BigSis]

(((Biscuits)))) Thank you. I also feel my food addiction predates all the others... it may well be my reall "drug of choice".

The rest of my family is slender... and isn't it a coincidence that they were far more addicted to other substances? Just had the need filled in another way, I think.

There is a growing body of evidence that our addictions are tied to physical elements... like the way our brain responds to endorphins (which are produced by food) and the way it grows receptor sites to compensate for the surges of chemicals, then sends out messages "cravings" when those receptor sites are empty.

I think we are not far from a time when there will be medication for addiction, similar to how there is medication for depression. There was a time when clinical depression was an embarrassment and shameful condition that people shied away from... much as they do addiction today. I pray the researchers can get there soon....

((hugs))