Lighterlife. Deters Drastic Dieting Diaries

Food has been described as ambrosia and the elixir if life. For some, eating is a biological necessity for others it is a passion that can turn into an obsession. Experts define food addiction to be a disorder where the addict is preoccupied with food, the availability of food, and the pleasure of eating.

There are three recognized addictions:

1) Anorexia.

2) Bulimia

3) Overeating, where the addict has no control over the amount or the number of times he eats. The person has no concept of being overweight or the servings a person must eat normally. Being an overeater, the addict will indulge in uncontrolled eating binges. Being obese, the addict will be prone to hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, arthritis, and cancer.

The most common health problems are obesity, alcoholism, diabetes, bulimia, food allergies, and food intolerance.

The signs that you are addicted to food are:

- Uncontrolled cravings for particular foods. Some are addicted to sweets, others to soft drinks, yet others to coffee.

- Continuous or frequent eating. No fixed meal times an addict will eat throughout the day.

- Sharpened hunger on consumption of specific foods.

- Anxiety attacks, feelings of nervousness, low sugar, a headache, stomach gripes and grumbles.

- Withdrawal symptoms.

- Fatigue.

- Extreme irritations.

- Intolerance to foods.

- Feelings of guilt at having eaten.

The very cornerstones to curing the addiction are to:

- Identify and avoid what are known to be trigger foods or drinks.

- Put into practice a diet that is nutrient rich, healthy, and helps maintain or loose weight.

- Make lifestyle changes. Adopt a healthier lifestyle and include plenty of fresh air as well as exercise.

- Focus on personal and spiritual development. Seek inner peace, calm, and joy. Practice meditation and deep breathing.

- Plan to have activity filled days to distract the mind from food.

Deters comment:
Good advice?
Sure, i think so.

very practical advice there.
Good to aim for living that way during the maintainance stage (i.e. onece the addiction been disempowered)

The last one is a very cognitive approach, and we all know that mind-over-matter techniques just dont hold under stress, don't we? But good little techique to be able to use once we are better and recovered and maintaining.

P.S. Sorry i cant remember where i read this, if you find the reference let me know and i will gladly add it.

"The 12 Types of Emotional Hunger." By Roger Gould, M.D.

Below are the 12 types of emotional hunger that fuel Emotional Eating. As you read through the list, ask yourself how many of these apply to you and your life.

Type 1. Dulling The Pain With The Food Trance.

If you get really hungry when you feel angry, depressed, anxious, bored, or lonely, you suffer from Type 1 emotional hunger, and you use food to dull the pain that these emotions cause.

Type 2. Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones, But Cake Won't Heal What Hurts You.

If you react by getting hungry when others talk down to you, take advantage of you, belittle you or take you for granted, then you suffer from Type 2 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid confrontation.

Type 3. A Full Heart Fills An Empty Belly.

If you crave food when you have tension in your close relationships, you suffer from Type 3 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid feeling the pain of rejection or anger.

Type 4. Hate Yourself, Love Your Munchies.

If you tend to become hypercritical of yourself, if you label yourself "stupid, "lazy," or "a loser," you have Type 4 emotional hunger. You eat to "stuff down" self-hatred.

Type 5. Secret Desires Have No Calories.

If your hunger gets activated because your intimate relationships don't satisfy some basic need like trust or security, you suffer from Type 5 emotional hunger and you use food to try to fill the gap.

Type 6. Forty Million Big Gulps And The Well Is Still Empty.

If you eat to make up for the deprivation you experienced as a child, you have Type 6 Emotional Eating.

Type 7. It's My Pastry, and I'll Eat If I Want To.

If you eat to assert your independence because you don't want anyone telling you what to do, you have Type 7 emotional hunger.

Type 8. I Can't Come To Work Today--I'm Eating

If your appetite kicks in when you're faced with new challenges--if you use food to avoid rising to the test, or to insulate yourself from the fear of failure--you have Type 8 emotional hunger.

Type 9. Aroused by Aromas, Not by the Chef.

If you stuff your face in order to avoid your sexuality-either to stay overweight so that nobody desires you or to hide from intimate encounters--you suffer from Type 9 Emotional Eating.

Type 10. I'll Beat You With this Eclair.

Emotional eaters often eat to pay back those who have hurt them, often in the distant past. They use their bodies as battlegrounds for working out old resentments.

Type 11. Peter Pan and the Peanut Butter Cookie.

If you eat to make yourself feel carefree, like a child, you have Type 11 emotional hunger. You eat to keep yourself from facing the challenges of growing up.

Type 12. That Stranger In Lycra Wearing Your Face.

If you overeat because you fear getting thin, either consciously or unconsciously, you have Type 12 emotional hunger.

I've been looking on amazon at books for addiction recovery / treatment.

Through books discussing the aetiology of addictions, it seems that there is a theme of something being wrong in the area of attachment for the addicted person.

take this book forinstance, 'Creating the Capacity for Attachment: Treating Addictions and the Alienated Self'
by Karen Walant

The book synopis includes this...
"Detached, alienated people, many of them functioning with a pathologically developed false self, barely navigate life's challenges. Our cultural emphasis on autonomy and separateness has led to a retreat from valuing interpersonal, communal dependence and has greatly contributed to a rise in the number of people whose suffering is often expressed in addictions..."

I am buying some of these books.