Trying To Lose Weight With Food Addiction and B.E.D

ctb617
ctb617 Posts: 3
in Introduce Yourself
Hello All!

My name is Cassidy. I'm 21 years old. I've struggled with my weight since I was very young. I've always just been overweight. Yet, when I dropped out of college in 2010, I slowly gained a lot of weight...making me obese now. I went from about 240 to 370 pounds in 3 years.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out why I binge and why I'm addicted to food. It's a daily struggle with my eating. I also have sleep apnea which makes me extremely tired all day. Being this tired, it makes it difficult to get the motivation and energy to exercise.

If anyone has a similar struggle, PLEASE message me. I need help and I'm very scared of my health at the moment.

Replies

  • YouDoNotKnowMe
    YouDoNotKnowMe Posts: 4
    I battle the same addictions and have done a lot of research on the subjects.

    The growing consensus is that compulsive eating and binging are truly is addictive diseases, as much and in exactly in the same way that cocaine or alcohol or crystal meth are. Each of these both lights up the dopamine system in our brains but destroys dopamine neurotransmitters and reuptake capability so that fewer other things produce the sense of reward and motivation (among other functions) of a properly functioning dopamine system, which become dependent on more and more of the same chemical substances to light it up.

    In the case of food addiction, it's highly processed, "hyperpalatable" foods that layer together sugar, salt and fat that are addictive.

    There are several approaches to the problems. The Binge Eating Disorder (http://bedaonline.com/) therapists go in for a lot of therapy and dropping the notion of being thin in favor of stopping the binges and adapting a more healthy lifestyle.

    Therapy is wonderful but in my experience of extensive therapy, those aha! moments don't necessarily translate into recovery. I need to heal my body, my brain and my spirit as well.

    And The B.E.D. approach still of begs the question of a decimated dopamine system -- and damage done to serotonin delivery as well.

    For that, according to experts my Pam Peeke, MD (http://www.drpeeke.com/), total detox from these substances is needed. Recover is as lifelong as a coke head's -- you don't "cure" food addiction. But you can learn to live with it by focusing on foods that amp up dopamine, serotonin and methyl donors, and by engaging in activities also known to stimulate these vital transmitters and hormones -- exercise, music, laughter, mining pleasures other than food.

    All of this information is well-documented, through PET and fMRI scans used by the National Institute for Health and major university research teams. See:

    The Hunger Fix by Pam Peeke, MD, MPG, FACP, Rodale 2012

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110228104308.htm

    Med Hypotheses. 2009 May;72(5):518-26. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2008.11.035. Epub 2009 Feb 14.
    Refined food addiction: a classic substance use disorder.
    Ifland JR, Preuss HG, Marcus MT, Rourke KM, Taylor WC, Burau K, Jacobs WS, Kadish W, Manso G.

    http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/12/28/high-fat-diets-addiction-that-hard-to-break/#ixzz2GTZH26m3

    Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook Kelly D. Brownwell & Mark S. Gold, editors Oxford University Press August 30, 2012

    http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2012/11/26-20921_BrainHealth-Team-Studies-Binge-Eating-as-a-Type-of_article-wide.html

    The End of Overeating by David Kessler, Rodale Books, 2010 (He's less helpful in planning a step-by-step recovery than Peeke)

    http://www.oa.org/

Categories