Food addiction

Itchula

ninerbuff wrote: »

Addiction...........no. A disorder..................yes.

It's hard to justify that someone who keeps "using" their "addiction" regularly, will stop being an addict. So how does one stop eating food and not die?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Truth. I can't avoid a grocery store like an alcoholic can avoid a bar. (NOT saying alcoholics have it easy, not in any capacity. Addiction/Compulsion whatever you want to call it kind of runs in my family.

JamestheLiar

For any sort of serious discussion of this question, we need to start with definitions. Are we talking about addiction as it relates to disease? Habit? Difficulty in controlling?

Also we need to define what we mean when we say food. Are we talking about all food in general? Certain foods? Carbs? Delicious Peanut Butter? mmm peanut butter.

Wait, what was I saying?

lemurcat12

KimAqui20 wrote: »

MamaBirdBoss wrote: »

midpath wrote: »

Do you believe it's real? Why or why not?

I'm talking addiction in the sense that you can't control it and it hinders your life. Like beyond emotional eating.

I believe that it's not medically correct to call it an addiction, for various reasons, but a COMPULSION, absolutely. It has more in common with hoarding, anorexia, and OCD disorders than it does with substance abuse.

And you CAN control it. No one puts a gun to your head and makes you eat too much...or drink too much...or smoke...or hoard. Until you realize that the only person who can make a change is you...and until you care enough to do it and to stop blaming your poor coping skills on something outside of yourself...you will ALWAYS fail.

There is ALWAYS a reason that stopping a self-destructive behavior is "too hard." Most of them are lies. The ones that don't don't matter.

-I'm depressed. (Join the club.)
-I don't have time to eat well. (But you have time to buy the crap you're buying now?)
-I don't have money to eat well. (Complete BS. Healthy food is WAY cheaper per meal.)
-I have low thyroid/PCOS/insulin problems/anemia/mobility issues/toe cheese. (Yeah, and I have a rare and potentially fatal exercise allergy AND an ever rarer genetic muscle disease. My symptoms will make your hair curl.)
-My dad/mom/brother/sister/grandparent/dog/child/spouse died/doesn't love me. (Crap happens to everyone. People who keep their lives together anyway aren't specially blessed.)
-I have no job. (Eating less is cheap!)
-I have kids/a demanding job/commute really far. (You make time for the things you care about.)
-I don't have a scale. (Like, SERIOUSLY? This is one of the dumbest excuses.)
-My mother/brother/spouse/whoever doesn't support me. (Figure it out--and if the relationship is THAT destructive, why are you still in it?)
_I have no control. (BS. Of course you do. Get a hold of yourself. You can do way more than you think.)

Really, the closest thing to it IS hoarding. It's a kind of internalized hoarding. Whereas bulemia and orthorexia are more like hand-washing and light-flipping.

This might not be the group for me. Thanks.

This is NOT a group. This is an old (necro) thread to discuss a topic on the Food and Nutrition discussion section of this forum.

You were given a link to an ED support group above, and there's also a Motivation and Support discussion section of this forum.

Whether or not people can be addicted to specific foods is a topic that people sometimes find interesting to discuss and debate. (IMO, the answer is no.) You can generally tell if a thread is active, also, by looking at the dates on the posts.

Hope that helps!

lemurcat12

KimAqui20 wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

Addiction...........no. A disorder..................yes.

It's hard to justify that someone who keeps "using" their "addiction" regularly, will stop being an addict. So how does one stop eating food and not die?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Truth. I can't avoid a grocery store like an alcoholic can avoid a bar. (NOT saying alcoholics have it easy, not in any capacity. Addiction/Compulsion whatever you want to call it kind of runs in my family.

My grocery store sells lots of booze.

kommodevaran

ninerbuff wrote: »

Addiction...........no. A disorder..................yes.

It's hard to justify that someone who keeps "using" their "addiction" regularly, will stop being an addict. So how does one stop eating food and not die?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

The wonderful news is that one doesn't have to stop eating food, just to stop overeating. For some people it can be helpfult to - at least for a while - to avoid foods they find difficult not to overeat.

tennisdude2004

Food - no, but eating - very possibly!

ladipoet

I used to think that food could be addictive, but I no longer believe this. I believe it is possible control oneself and one's eating because of my own personal experience: I follow a Ketogenic lifestyle because I have to. That is, I cannot really stray too far from LCHF because when I eat one complete meal that has more than about 9-10 grams of sugar total, it causes the neuropathy to flare up in my feet. SOOOOOOO, knowing that what I put in my mouth will cause excruciating pain in my feet for the next several hours of my day roughly five minutes after having eaten it has worked wonders for greatly improving my will power when it comes to "food addiction." I have superhuman will power around food now because of this built-in aversion therapy. lol