Food Addiction is Real

by Chris
(Canada)

I'm a food addict. It's that simple, and that complicated. My stomach may be full, but my head is constantly telling me I'm still hungry. If I'd never gone on that first (of many) fad diet as a teenager, I'd probably weigh about half of what I do currently--and I'd still be "overweight". Now I can't develop a normal relationship with food no matter what techniques I try.

The hellish thing about a food addiction is that you can't just quit cold turkey. Can you imagine telling a drug addict or an alcoholic, "You need to get over that addiction. Oh, you'll still have to shoot up/have a drink three times a day. But no more! You can do it! It's all about the portion control!"

A few years ago I spent about 18 months on a drug that had the unexpected side-effect of turning off that addiction wherever it lurked in my brain. For the first time in memory I didn't obsess about food. I ate what I wanted when I was hungry, stopped when I was full and didn't think about food until it was time to eat again. And I lost 80 pounds. Until I was taken off the drug because it was messing up my kidneys, and gained all the weight back, plus 20 (you all know the drill). Well, now I know how "naturally thin" people can stay that way. I also know I can't spend the rest of my life starving.

I don't know what the answer is. I only know there's no kind of behavior modification that's going to work on an addiction that you have to keep feeding.