Tag Archive | Compulsive Eating

Gluttony and Food Addiction

Feb20

In all the the articles I’ve read about food addiction and in the numerous references to food addicts, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word “gluttony” used.

It’s a simple word that means excess in eating or drinking, according to Webster, yet somehow it doesn’t fit with the other words in the food addiction lexicon.

There is an article in the current issue of The Week about Foodies and gluttony. Talk about excess! And I thought I had it bad!

Of course, there are different kinds of foodies just like there are different kinds of food addicts so I’ll keep that in mind and try not to be too judgmental.

Somehow the idea of “spending 36 hours cooking for a single dinner party” or “extolling the virtues of poached bat and roasted guinea pig” makes me feel like a food addiction is not the worst problem I could have.

There is excess and there is excess. Overeating, emotional eating, compulsive eating–they are all examples of excess, and yet they are not vulgar.

That’s an important distinction if you’re thinking about how your food addiction is affecting your life and how you feel about yourself.

I believe that it comes down to who you are spiritually when you do the things you do, and that includes eating.

Somehow, gluttony seems vulgar and food addiction does not.

Go figure.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great!

Two Stressful Days in the Life of a Food Addict

Feb15

I’m not going to talk about the days, just the result of the stress . That’s how we size things up anyway, isn’t it? It’s the outcome that matters.

I don’t know what it is that makes a person feel so much rage against themselves that they engage in self-destructive behaviors. There’s a point when the incident that caused the stress begins to blend with the person who is feeling it.

I think it is at that point where the line gets blurred and we temporarily become what the situation has made us feel. Suddenly, the emotional tension becomes too much and we snap like a rubber band that is stretched beyond its limit.

Betrayal is a terrible feeling. The feeling of being victimized, especially by someone we trust, is so overwhelming that we bury it deep inside. We try to pretend that it never happened while our families and friends urge us to just get over it and move on.

But the truth is that most people don’t just get over it, because it isn’t something you just get over. Then one day the stress builds and the feeling reminds you of the incident that started it all. And you snap.

So what does all this mean to a food addict? Well, I can tell you what it means to me. I don’t drink and I am an ex-smoker. I never did drugs of any kind. My addiction is a food addiction.

I don’t know how a drug addict feels. I never will and I don’t want to. The battle with foods is hard enough to win. Sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t.

This week at the job I work, there was a constant, unrelenting low-level stress. I am a person who needs a break once in a while.

On the first of the two most stressful days last week, I took home a box of chocolates which I  consumed in less than two hours. No judgments, please. I’m sharing.

The second fall-off-the-wagon-at-top-speed incident was the following day. I took home a package of black Twizzlers. Two hours later they were gone.

Two days in a row of steady, constant low-level stress turned into unmanageable high-level stress and my food addiction took over. I wanted to sleep but I couldn’t. I wanted to exercise but my hours were too long and I was too exhausted.

I needed a break but there was none to be had, so the trigger clicked and I couldn’t get out of the way in time. Within 24 hours, I was back at the store but my shift was only four hours and I had gotten some rest and a sense of accomplishment from my non-store work.

My interest in food or should I say in eating compulsively was gone and I could breathe again. Mental and emotional anxiety were replaced with inner calm.

Unlike other addictions, a food addiction can come and go in a matter of hours with only the unpleasant side effects that usually occur as a result of overeating.

It takes a lot to put me in that unsafe place where food is my only suit of armor. I don’t offer excuses but I do know that I have to get back on track fast and break the cycle as quickly as possible.

I guess I have some work to do.

Advice for Food Addicts: Spit It Out

Feb9

An elderly doctor gave me some advice years ago that I was reminded of today. He had retired from his medical practice of nearly half a century and had begun treating patients using nutritional therapies.

This was in the 70’s when nutritional medicine was a more secretive practice than it is today. On one of my evening visits to his Trenton, New Jersey office, Dr. Getlen diagnosed my hypoglycemia.

Until that time, other doctors had attributed my symptoms to a variety of things. Among their suggested diagnoses were newlywed shell shock and a possible brain tumor. I’m not kidding.

That same night I confided to Dr. Getlen that I ate uncontrollably whenever I felt nervous. We didn’t call it stress back then. We didn’t call ourselves emotional eaters or food addicts in those days either.

Whenever my blood sugar would drop, I would crave sweets. Once the addictive feelings began, I ate until the candy was gone. Food addiction creates more problems than just weight gain, and no one knows that better than me.

Today, I was watching a small child eat candy at the urging of her mother. “Try this one, Honey.” The child chewed the jellied candy vigorously and then spit it out. She did this repeatedly until the woman threatened to keep all the candy for herself. No comment on that one.

She asked the little girl why she kept spitting out the candy. The little girl replied very politely and matter-of-factly, “I already tasted it”.

Suddenly, Dr. Getlen’s words came back to me. He told me how to eat what I wanted without having to feel guilty about eating or worrying about gaining weight.

He told me that when I got the urge to overeat sweets to do it. He said to be sure to chew whatever I ate thoroughly and savor every bite.

Then, to my surprise and puzzlement, he told me not to swallow the food, but instead to spit it out. He said it was my mind that was in control and it was only interested in pleasing my taste buds.

He was right. I did it and it worked, especially with jelly beans. That little girl knew the secret and observing her, I was reminded of it.

It may sound like a terrible waste to spit out the food, and it would be rather disgusting if you did it at a restaurant.

The object of the exercise, however, is to satisfy your hunger without turning your body into a garbage dump. So, try it and see if it works for you too. But only at home.

P.S. It doesn’t work with ice cream.

Fight Your Food Addiction With Friendship

Jan23

I was talking with a young woman today, younger than me at least, about friendship.  Marisa told me  how she had dreamed about being a nurse, falling in love and having a family.

She laughed about how she and her two best friends had their lives all planned out as she ate a bag of Doritos and drink half of a two liter bottle of Pepsi.

“I was one hot Mama then” she said sadly. “Look at me now”. Tears filled her eyes and her voice trailed off.  Marisa supports herself and her two children by working two jobs.  She hasn’t heard from her friends in four years.

“It seems like all I do is eat. I used to talk to my friends when I was lonely, or sad, or tired. We talked all the time, and now all I do is eat. I feel so ashamed. This is my life.”

Food addiction is often the result of life circumstances we cannot control. Food is the mother of all comforts and can be quite irresistible when it is always available when you need to feel comforted and supported.

In Marisa’s case, her boyfriend left and she had to drop out of college to support her children. With no support system and too ashamed to talk to her friends after she gained the first 25 pounds, she went to work and took care of the kids.

Too tired and discouraged to think about anything but the wolves at her door, Marisa eats. She doesn’t deny it. She says it’s her only comfort now, but she does hope to go to nursing school one day.

Although she is involved in her daughters’ lives, she says she misses her friends most of all. Not necessarily the ones she palled around with in college but just friends in general, those special people around whom you can always be yourself without fear of being judged.

Marisa joined a women’s health club two weeks ago. She said she is looking for something to replace the need to eat when the shame surfaces.

We hear a lot about the necessity of support systems when dealing with emotional overeating, compulsive eating and food addiction, but the word “friendship” doesn’t always turn up in the conversation.

The impersonality of this high-tech world sometimes overshadows the need for and the value of friendship. In a perfect world, every one would have a friend.

Marisa hopes to make new friends at the health club. She wants to be an better role model for her teenage children who are already experiencing the consequences of being overweight. She wants to see her dream of being a nurse come true.

Most of all, she wants to feel like a loved, appreciated and valued human being whether she is fat or slim. In her own words, “I want to be comfortable in my own skin regardless of my size, and I want to have friends again who accept me as I am.”

Friendship trumps overeating in every category. If you can talk to a friend about your feelings instead of stuffing them down with food and hiding behind the shame, chances are you will find a way to overcome your fears and your food addictions.