Addiction Awareness

Yesterday after my post I was waiting on my friend Eric to get around so that he and I could go tackle the day. While I was waiting for him I decided to watch some television. Being a fan of pop culture I stumbled across an episode of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. I truly love hearing his perspective on things. I remember in middle school sometimes I would listen to Dr. Drew's radio show Loveline on The Edge. His speaking voice is very soothing, which is great for his patients I'm sure.

Well while I'm watching this reunion show I caught myself coming to tears with everything that these people had gone through. Addiction is one of those things that people can not truly understand unless they themselves have been through it personally. Have any of you? I have seen it first hand. Someone who I was very close to at one point in my life struggled through drug addiction and still does, because like they said on the show I watched, being a recovering addict can take up to 20 years or more for someone to really truly concur this problem. Relapses are normal.

I have lost relationships that meant a lot to me due to addiction. It's sad, but it is one of those things that nobody can fix for the other person. The addict has to do it all by themselves. Now you can be supportive, but they have to be the one to decide that they are through. I bring this up because one thing a lot of people do not realize is that obesity caused by overeating is in fact an addiction problem. Drug addicts and alcholics did not become addicts over night. It was a process the same as food. The only difference is that taking cigarettes, drugs or alcohol out of the mix is good and will save the person's life. Taking food out of the person's life is not an option.

People do not understand that food can be one of the most addicting things of all. They think oh you're fat because you have no self control, yet we sympathize with someone who shoots something into their arm that was concocted in a bathtub with ingredients found under your kitchen sink. Where is the logic? This is the reason why people struggle to lose weight. They never deal with the root of the problem. If you were in drug rehab, Dr. Drew or whoever would have counceling sessions with their patient to try to find out when and why you turned to escapism or the need to be high. They would break you down to finding the very instant in your life that this thought process took over your brain. Once this is found then the addict can begin to overcome the problem. We do not do this for people who have a food addiction.

Food addicts have withdrawl symptoms just like alcholics and drug addicts. They suffer from relapses, temptation (and lots of it because no matter where we go food is everywhere. Recovering drug addicts don't have lines of blow thrown in their face everyday unless they hang out at places where it is accessible.) and the very same feelings of depression and anxiety. Using food as comfort is the same thing as an addict using to numb themselves. For a food addict they get the same kind of high off of it. Another thing is what we call the "come down period" for alcoholics and drug addicts this is where they start to sober up and come off of their high. They felt great while they were high, but now they are hitting a low because yet again they have messed up. Someone with a food addiction feels great while they are eating, but once they have that moment of clarity of what they are doing they too feel the same guilt.

Honestly and truly anytime someone talks about drug or alcohol addiction they could interchange those words with food and it would be the same thing. Sadly in our society it is more socially acceptable or at least something that reacieves more sympathy than someone who claims to be addicted to food.

Just the other day one of my friends was talking on Facebook about how all the new years resolutioners were going to be taking up lots of space in the gym and that by the end of February they wouldn't even still be going. There was a long feed of responses to this of people agreeing with him and understanding where he was coming from. I even get what he was saying, but it is that mentality that keeps people from keeping on. Discouragement is the greatest excuse to stop. And all an addict needs is a teensy tiny excuse. Another one of my friends commented on this post saying that because people say things like that is what keeps these people from keeping their resolutions and she is 100 percent correct. Now my friend who had this as his status did not mean it to be mean. He's a super nice guy and I've personally never witnessed him do or say anything mean. He probably was genuinely annoyed by the fact that he couldn't get to his machines because of the new crowd and I get that. However with that said, we need to not be the excuse.

My person in my life who was suffering from drug addiction would try to find excuses to relapse and really if you look for one you can find it. It is amazing what the mind can create if we want it to. The reason for this like I said is because of all the temptation that is everywhere. I was in church today and that is what the sermon was all about was trying to not give into temptation. The problem is that it will never go away so we must find a way to overcome it.

I ask you all to consider everything I've said today. Try to be sensitive and encouraging to those around you. You never know what they are going through or how inspirational even a smile can be to that person. We are all more important to others than we can imagine. I believe that God puts us in certain places at certain times for a reason and if my reason was just to tell someone good job then my job is done. Those two words really could change someone's entire perspective of themselves. It really really is the little things in life that can make the biggest difference.

I also ask you all to not give into the temptations and you have no idea how very proud of yourself you will be. The overwhelming feelings will subside and in the end you will be so proud of yourself. That my friends is an amazing award. Really over all what I hope you take from this post is to be thoughtful of yourself and others. In the end you will be happier for it. So be kind to one another and have a great remainder to your weekend. Monday's coming along with some wacky winter weather in this part of the country so enjoy it now. I'll post new things to think about tomorrow!

Food = Meth

No I do not believe that food and methamphetamines are the same thing, but there are some similarities between a food addiction and a drug addiction. One of the differences between these two is that food makes you fat and meth makes you skinny. I remember sitting in my college health class my freshmen year and a woman came to the front to talk to us about her former meth addiction. She wasn't some speaker who had come in she was one of the students who felt compelled to share her story. Why did she start taking meth? She wanted to be thin and she knew it would help her lose weight fast. She thought that she could quit once she'd lost the weight because she wasn't going to get addicted. Well, that's not how it worked, several years later, several lost teeth and a couple of rehab stints later this woman stood in front of her freshmen college classroom and she was overweight. All that for nothing.

That’s right. We are in fact our own worst enemy. We are the reason that we became over weight to begin with. I am the reason I look the way I do because instead of making good food choices I made bad ones. One thing that I’ve truly noticed is that one’s relationship with food is much like a drug addiction. It’s not healthy. I mean me personally I try to justify eating certain things even though I know that I shouldn’t. I don’t understand why I’m self sabotaging. If one of my biggest wants is to fit into a size five then why can I not resist eating that bowl of ice cream?

Since I’ve had surgery I continue to try to justify eating bad (even though when it comes right down to it I haven’t done it yet). I say to myself it’s OK if I eat this thing I haven’t eaten in a month because I don’t feel good. Where is the logic? Do I really truly believe that those fried chicken strips are going to make me feel better? No I know better, but somewhere in my mind I do believe that. This weight issue is deeper than I thought and one that I really need to get to the core of changing.

I’ve said a million times it is a lifestyle change and it’s true. Food really is like a drug addiction. I say things like, “If I can have this now it’ll be the last time I just need it one more time.” Or since my mom has been staying with me I keep begging her to go get something from Sonic or Wal-mart (like chocolate or ice cream). I tell her how much better it will make me feel. My mom is a softy, but lucky for me she doesn’t do it right away. After begging and pleading with her she says, “are you sure you want me to go get that for you?” and by that time I think I’ve used up all my energy begging so I say never mind.

I’ve been around drug addicts and I see some of the same things in my association to food that they saw in meth and that is sad and scary. I also think of some of my friends who struggle with their weight and when I think about some of the things that they say it is also very similar to things that my ex would say regarding his drug addiction. Obviously there is a need for change if food is equal to methamphetamines.

I was reading an article by Ashley Wisniewski, a woman who is about half way through a year long weight loss blog, she talks about how she is self sabotaging and that she needs to work on her relationship with food. She says that sadly she has only lost 10 pounds since she began the blog and thought she would be much thinner by now, but after Thanksgiving she realized that a lot of the same problems she had with food five months ago are the same problems she’s having now. Everything she said was exactly what I had said or thought and it made me start thinking. Was I reading one of my own posts? At least I’m not the one suffering these problems, but I do need to be the one to overcome them. To check out Ashley’s blog click here.