The End of Overeating (on NPR)

[sfgirl]

I never post in this section but I heard parts of this program on the radio yesterday and it sounded amazing so I had to post. The guy featured in the show (Dr. David Kessler) was the head of UCSF and Yale medical school and has battled food addiction. From the parts I heard he had a lot of interesting things to say. He has done studies with food addiction and cigarettes and recently wrote a book. If this is your struggle I would highly suggest listening to the program. Unfortunately the audio is not up yet but I am posting the link anyways; I would think they should have the audio up soon so that you can stream it over your computer:

The End of Overeating: Forum | KQED Public Media for Northern CA

Even as a person battling alcoholism I think he had some great insights into addiction. But having a primary focus on food it made it very interesting.

[sfgirl]

Amazon.com: The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite: David Kessler: Books (are you allowed to post amazon links on here? if not....sorry and...)

http://books.google.com/books?id=AWV...ient=firefox-a


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042602711.html

[Nina Kay]

Welcome to this Forum SFgirl. Thanks so much for sharing this helpful information. I hope that you'll keep coming back. Good luck with your recovery.

[sfgirl]

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.

[Nina Kay]

Thank you sfgirl, for your rare insight. I believe that you are so right in all that you believe and see. I have also noticed all of the similarities in addictions and addictive behaviour. I attended OA (Overeater's Anonymous) for a while, and the big book of AA is the main book that is studied and all is derived from that just as it is in AA. We replaced the words alcohol with food and drinking with compulsive eating. I've learned addictions in any form are just different choices of ways to deal with or hide from our underlying problems. We all have addictive personalities and underlying problems that we are trying to drown out in some way.
Please know that you are very welcome to come here & share your insight & ESH with us as often as you will. ((((((((((((Hugs)))))))))))))

[Bamboozle]

Many of you know that I have an addiction to alcohol...


...but I also have an addiction to food.

The truth is that, for me, the food addiction is worse than the alcohol. What makes the food thing so tough is that we need food to live...ugh...I could go on about this one for hours...but I won't.

I'm tackling the alcohol problem first...I'm doing pretty well with regards to that...


...but the food thing. I really have to watch it. I still binge every now and again.

The bad thing is that after I think I've eaten too much one day...I'll really cut down the next day...sometimes several days in a row. I know that's not healthy...but I am making sure I'm not starving myself...because if I don't eat anything at all...I get really foggy-brained.



...ugh...

I need to come up with some kind of plan...and accept that I'm really going to have to manage this every single moment...even though I don't want to.