Addiction

_jayciemarie_

I think in a lot of ways that I have had an addiction to food my entire life. Yes, I know we NEED food to survive. I think that all of my life I have thought about food too much. When I was young my parents were poor and I think that is where my problem with food started. My parents cared about drinking and partying...leaving us three kids home alone with little to no food in the house. There wouod be weekends we would go without meals, and then my parents would make a big feast and us kids would pig out. We did that because we didn't know when our next feast would happen. My parents finally grew up and received the help they needed, and most of my childhood was great and normal. I don't think I ever let go of the feeling of not knowing when my next meal was, so I have eaten like it is my last meal EVERY meal for the majority of my life. I don't expect anyone to understand this. I think it is a weird addiction. It is weird, when alcoholics get help they give up alcohol. Drug addicts give up drugs. Foodaholics CANT give up food. Can you imagine telling an alcoholic they can still drink, they just can't drink that much? People struggling with food (like myself) have to deal with food while still eating it. It is hard and it is a daily struggle. I'm proud of everyone that is taking control of their lives. It is probably the hardest thing we can do.

Madame_Goldbricker

I'm so sorry to read what early childhood was like for you. I'm so glad that things improved later on and that things became much better from the sounds of it. I think addiction can come in some many forms. As can compulsions that psychologically can be incredibly hard to overcome. Although in the case of both alcoholics and drug misuse they are placed on a gradual withdrawal program. They generally have to cut down by degrees in the case of alcoholics they are actually advised to still drink rather than just stop short. As the liver is forming enzymes at such a level to process the alcohol that their body would in fact start to shut down if they stopped cold turkey. That could be construed in the same way that obviously our bodies need food to survive, and we couldn't just stop eating. I guess what I'm saying is that in the same way that people withdraw from alcohol/substances that we can gradually scale down the amount of food we eat until it becomes controllable.