Jen34

Have been sober for six weeks. The past two weeks I have eaten every sweet and salty thing in sight. Is this another addiction I'm going to have to overcome?
I've been addicted to cigarettes. Overcame that
I've been addicted to alcohol. Continuing sobriety on that.
Now binge eating?
Seems like I just have an addiction to EVERYTHING. Does my body/mind feel it needs to have an addiction to something at all times?

Soberwolf

Your showing excellent awareness x

teatreeoil007

Sometimes it feels like life is one big balancing act from one day to the next; trying to attain a healthy equalibrium.

But, we are flawed humans existing muchly in the realm of the flesh, which is never satisfied. It demands to be FED, not just appeased. The flesh does not like to be denied, therefore it pipes up when it isn't getting fed and fed and fed. It's not happy with just a little or some. It wants more. It's greedy.

VERY common to swap one addiction for another. It's all a quest to "feel good", but that feel good feeling is all too temporary-fleeting- and then the flesh is right back there at the fore-front again; demanding until it gets fed again. I want to say that EATING is perhaps one of the most readily available things used to pacify the flesh when someone stops using drugs/alcohol. It's legal, it's pleasurable, and it's necessary to live.

So...? What's the answer? . Whatever we feed is what grows within us. Seem simple? Maybe. But our human nature is very strong willed. And it doesn't like taking 'no' for an answer. Need to rise above and there is a lot help, tools, motivators, but it's up to us to utilize those.

least

Craving sweets in early recovery is common. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Get stronger in your sobriety before you tackle your diet.

FreeOwl

I know the feeling.

The sweets is a normal response... when we remove all the sugars that we poured into our bodies via alcohol - it's very typical for our body to crave sweet things. Don't worry too much about that, just try to use them sparingly. Sweets are sure better than alcohol.

That said, I also have noted that sometimes my use of caffeine, sweets or even just food in general begins to mirror my use of alcohol in many respects. When I catch that, I usually have to regroup and realize that my actions to support sobriety need to be shored up. I may be feeling stressed or tired or depressed or just generally 'off' and I naturally default to some sort of 'substance'.

Food, sugar, caffeine, even exercise all have similar effects on the brain's pleasure response to drugs or alcohol. So, when we remove the alcohol, we still have the patterned response and it can be easy to go on auto-pilot.

I think I may have taught myself this addictive response long before drugs or alcohol - with sugar. I believe sugar may actually be the "original gateway drug" for me. As a kid and as a teenager, I ate sweets like mad. I'd eat entire boxes of candy and a big sugary soda pop for lunch at school. Somehow, I managed not to become obese or diebetic - but I think the binge approach with candy and caffeine even at that young age may have opened the door for seeking that pleasurable dump of dopamine and that sense of stimulation that sugar and caffeine - and later alcohol and drugs - brought.

Even now, having entered into my third year of sobriety, I find I have moments / days when I am suddenly craving sweets or drinking too much caffeine and it is definitely part of a cycle that looks and feels a lot like a drug / alcohol cycle. Thankfully, it's nowhere near as powerful or damaging - but it's still a concern for me and something I continue to work on.

MikeM

Being addicted to addiction is just another addiction that you can address like any other addiction.

So apply all the ways to control addictions to your addiction to addictions.

HollyWouldnt

There are so many metabolic changes when you drop a strong substance from your body.
I let myself honor all cravings for the first week. Now at 1 month the need/want for sugar is gone.
Sugar craving is a classic effect of opiate withdrawal too.
Holly.🎋

IvanMike

I was told a long time ago (for me) that we tackle our addictions in the order that they are killing us. When we show up, the drugs/alcohol are the big thing we eliminate, and continuous abstinence from these is essential to the point where that's how we measure our clean/sober time. For me, the cigarettes were the next thing on the list, so with 8 months clean I quit them one day at a time. Then it was the bad relationships, and these days it's the junk food & overeating. (I'm holding out on the diet Mt Dew!).

I go to NA, but my sponsor got clean in AA 32 years ago. He goes to NA now, but neither of us would ever say anything bad about that program. That said, I like how in NA the first step doesn't say anything about drugs, it talks about us being powerless over our addiction and that our lives had become unmanageable. If my sponsor could change one thing in the AA literature, it would be the word "alcohol" to "alcoholism" in the first step. Fortunately, once you hang around AA for a while you begin to discover just how deep the rabbit hole goes despite how the step is worded.

IME we tend to like a "feel-good", and once we find it, we want more. I have found that my addiction can manifest itself in a number of ways, and that i can often get out of balance. This is something that we have time to work on, and that is what the steps of recovery are for.

With six weeks clean/sober, your job today is to not get loaded and to go to a meeting. (That's what worked for me anyhow - YMMV). Maybe even have a piece of cake. You deserve it.

SportsFan15

Hi Jen,

I can relate. So completely.

I'm on the fence about telling you not to worry and go on and eat what you like for now. Unfortunately, I did that during my first year of sobriety and these 3 things happened:

1. Weight gain
2. Substituting addiction for addiction
3. Never created or worked a plan

That being said, I was binge eating. BAD. It was a whole new behavior for me.

If you are:
1. not binge eating, and
2. Are working a recovery plan of some sort....

I would allow yourself these foods, relax your mind, and be easier on yourself.

In regards to addiction to addiction.....most of us find that we performed our addictive behavior (whatever it was) to numb, escape, or replace pleasure in the place of painfull emotion (loneliness, fear, boredom, depression, anxiety).

My therapist says the shortest route to healing is to "feel the feelings." Honestly, these days when I want to binge eat, I ask myself:

"What am I feeling?" (Sadness, anger, anxiety, rage, WHATEVER)

And I "feel the feeling" instead of eating. Ways I do that: talking to a friend, having a good cry, journaling, art therapy, exercise, petting my dogs, taking a shower, enjoying nature, and pretty much anything sensory oriented.

Jen34

Thank you so much, everyone. I really appreciate your responses.

teatreeoil007

I cannot say for sure if there is such as thing as being addicted to being addicted. In the negative sense addictions keep one in bondage. Are there more harmful addictions than others? Likely so. If we could turn addiction to anything off at will, would we? Is there such a thing as a harmless addiction?

Dee74

Hi Jen - what you're experiencing with the sweets etc is pretty common. Things levelled off for me after a while. I'm sure they will for you too.

In the longer term, and the wider picture, I'm still obsessive - that's me...and it was me before I ever picked up a drink.

I've learnt to really try and steer myself away from behaviours that are bad for me. I use my obsession for good, not evil now

D