Addicted

So, armed with the knowledge that food can reward our brains in the same way that drugs or alcohol reward an addicts brain what can we do? If we can become just as addicted to food as someone might become to alcohol, or drugs then we are facing something quite huge. Anyone who knows anyone with an addiction, knows it's not as simple as "just quit." People have developed 12 steps programs, and we have rehab centers designed to help these people conquer their addiction. But what do we do when it's food?

When an addict is quitting they avoid the substance altogether. They even go as far as to stay away from people from their old lifestyle who would enable them or influence them to return to their bad habit. Avoiding alcohol can be done fairly simply (I'm not saying it's simple to quit) I am simply saying you don't have to buy it, or keep it in your home. You don't have to order it when you go out, and you can stay away from parties or event where you know lots of alcohol will be served. But food, food is necessary for living. You must eat to survive. So you have to face food every single day, several times a day. If we subjected addicts of any other kind to their vice that much we would never expect them to recover. Looking at it in these terms we can see why food addiction is such a huge hurdle.

Addiction also comes with emotional baggage. There are usually deep seeded emotional issues attached to your chosen vice. Food has become a therapist and a friend for many people. We even label foods in a way that makes it seem like it is supposed to help you, "comfort food." People run to food when they are stressed out, when they are depressed, when they are angry, or even when they are happy. Food plays an enormous role in our lives not just for survival, but also for social interaction. We serve food at get togethers big and small. We often meet friends for lunch, or dinner. We reward ourselves with food. The American relationship with food is a very complex one.

So how do you overcome a food addiction? How do you undo the vicious cycle that you have started? You have to stop the reward system. You have to stop feeding your brain the foods that caused the problem in the first place.

I am not a doctor or a nutritionist, but I am going to make the assumption that along with therapy, you have to make drastic changes. Cheat days don't exist for an addict. Alcoholics can't even have just one. Cocaine addicts don't get just one hit. So with food addicts the junk food, the sugar, the high fat foods simply have to go. Gone gone gone. Not just a little here, a little there. It has to be gone.

That is way easier said than done. I imagine it might be possible to make it a gradual process, or even just try cold turkey. I think the addition of therapy is HUGE. Finding the emotional links to your eating habits will help you to be much stronger in your conviction. Without resolving the deep issues, you will never really be able to overcome the addiction.

How do you know if you are addicted food? That's a hard one. I imagine many people who are, know. They know themselves, they have tried and failed so many times, and usually settled into a cozy corner of denial or defeat. But its' not impossible to overcome! I found this questionnaire on Google, it might be a good place to start.

I wanted to write about this to really shed some light on the issues people face when they attempt weight loss. I hate the idea that we tend to assume people are simply lazy. That is not always the case. If your issue is with food, I hope you are able to overcome it. I hope you are able to start first by admitting that it is in fact an addiction and then go from there so you can reach your weight loss goals. And if food is not your problem, I hope you will have just a little empathy an understanding for those who you previously assumed just couldn't put down the fork. It's not always that simple.


**images from Google**