LifeBlows

OR: addictive behavior shows up in areas of your life that are not related to your poison.

The first time that I got sober one thing that I noticed was that my eating and my spending habits were also addictions in the making. I used food and money pretty much the same way I used alcohol. When I was bored or upset or feeling discontent in general I bought clothes or ate.

When I had money to spend, I had so many clothes that I could frequently go without doing laundry for up to 3 or 4 weeks before my wardrobe grew thin. And there were many times when I couldn't say why I was eating except that I sure it wasn't due to hunger.

When I have money I spend it every day until its all gone. When I have a favourite food, I want to binge eat. In a way, I'm thankful that right now I don't have any money because I can't indulge in any of my vices which has given me the time and space to start dealing with my needs in a healthy way.

I think I can see now that if my drinking hadn't developed into alcoholism then my eating could just as easily translated into me being one of those super morbidly obese people that you see on TV. I am currently overweight though close to 100lbs. That scares me and give me hope at the same time because as with my desire for sobriety from alcohol has come a craving for healthy food and a desire to go to the gym.

GettingStronger2

Unless we treat the addiction, it will show up in other areas of our lives. Good luck to you!

Lionne

Hey LifeBlows,
I can relate a bit.I know I'm prone to addictive behaviour and have to be careful.
In the first year of sobriety I also spent an awful lot of money on clothes, acessories, makeup etc. and I was definetly bingeing on some types of food. I only realized it in hindsight and although I wasted some money and temporarly gained quite some weight, I stayed sober so for some time it might have been just what it took. But it could have become an issue if it stayed that way.

I don't know if the same applies to you, but I realized that much of that was because I hadn't acquired some coping skills for stress or unpleasant emotions and situations yet. I just used the food and commodities in a similar way than alcohol, only it was much less harmful. Maybe if this is the case for you, it can be helpful to observe how you are feeling when you do this. Stressed, tired, unsatisfied, angry, sad or alone or just bored? Looking if there are some psatterns can be good, and if you recognize some that can help to then find some other coping mechanisms that have more positive effects. Some people find exercising very helpful (me included) or meditation/relaxing techniques, or simply a hobby that makes them feel happy. I'm not sure if all this applies to your, but maybe it can be useful,
Peace,
Lionne

BackToSquareOne

I did everything to excess, work, exercise, diet, spending money, risky behaviors, drinking then recovery...seems the word "moderation" was never in my vocabulary, it was always all or nothing at all.

LifeBlows

All too true. I have poor coping skills for stress and unpleasant emotions or situations. I also agree that addiction shows up in other areas of our lives if left untreated.

topspin

You're headed in the right direction now !

I was about 60 lbs over my natural wt., so it was a challenge not to buy clothes (pants mainly) as those first 6 months went by. Leaving the tags and keeping the reciepts helped to return them for smaller sizes.

ironically, most of my wardrobe now is from my nephew ( a real clothes horse )

Getting involved with healthy eating ( our fitness forum here has a great Healthy Eating Thread)
.....and getting involved with fitness, goes hand in hand with sobriety for me. The whole body/mind getting healthy together.

A lot of support down on those threads !!

Reset

I've become fairly obsessive about exercise now. I also work a lot more; verging on being a workaholic.

But that's a whole, whole lot better than being an out of shape, drunken halfwit.

So I'll embrace those obsessions for a while at least.