So there are two areas where addiction is hotly debated: 1) Pornography, 2) Video games. People are on vastly different sides on this, and they argue relentlessly over what the definition of an addiction is. That really there is video game COMPULSION, not addiction, and therefore the statement that "there is no such thing as video game addiction" is an accurate statement. Same argument is made for pornography, it is a compulsion and not an addiction.

Now I hear the phrase "food addiction" thrown around a lot with the current obesity problems. So is food addiction a thing, or is that only a compulsion as well.

And the ultimate question, does it really matter if it is a compulsion or an addiction. Does that label matter? In the end aren't marriage hurt by differing expectations related to pornography consumption? Aren't lives wasted in years playing video games instead of going to college? Isn't a normal healthy life lost when someone gorges on unhealthy fast food everyday?

Why are we so concerned if something is called an addiction instead of a compulsion. Because I've noticed that this argument over the title often times hinders discussion on the actual problems these compulsions cause.

I would call it an addiction. I have adverse physical and psychological effects for going without. I can't live without eating at least three times a day.... Otherwise I go through withdrawals. Its been a huge problem throughout my whole life. :)

I'm not sure addiction is the correct term, but there are lots of people with food consumption wrapped around emotional issues. I went through a phase after my father died that if it was not moving I was eating it. Was easier to eat than to be sad.

However, I did wake up, realize I was depressed and dealt with the issue. Not until I had gained an alarming amount of weight, but I did finally face it.

Do I think I was an addict? No, was I out of control, yes.

Overeaters Anonymous has been around for decades. Before Internet, video addictions, OCD, even before there were medical terms for anorexia and bulimia.

People who are "addicted" to food can be for a number of reasons. Obsessive Compulsive Disorders probably factors into many of those. It's well known that anorexia and bulimia are two facets of not only eating disorders but OCD. Bulimia is an unhealthy addiction to food - binging and purging. Anorexia is starvation.

Mel Gibson has said of himself he has an "addictive personality." If he has one drink socially he ends up on a drinking binge. If he has a cup of coffee he keeps drinking it for the caffeine buzz it gives him. For food addicts it is the inability to stop eating once a person has satisfied nutritional and physical needs, they can't help themselves and binge eat.

Whatever causes that, whether mood disorders, emotional upheavals, control issues, eating disorders, it boils down to still an addiction to food.

Overeaters Anonymous treats food addicts through the 12-step program the same way Alcohol Anonymous or Gamblers Anonymous treats alcoholics or gambling addicts. There's also shopping addicts, and 12 step programs for them too. I don't know which would be worse. There's an addiction center in the brain for people prone to addictions. When it becomes activated it can be any number of things a person can be addicted to. Food is definitely one of them.

It's also the one thing we cannot live without. So finding a healthy balance is the remedy - whereas for alcoholism or gambling the only way to treat those addictions is to go cold turkey.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2016 05:52PM by Amyjo.

A lot of people mock the idea because everyone requires food to live. However, there are people who eat excessively to deal with emotional problems. In this sense, food can be abused and create emotional dependency. There are also a lot of studies on refined sugar that show it can act like cocaine in the brain, possibly creating a real physical, chemical addiction.

I remember one time, I as out running errands in the car. I could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on. There wasn't really any way that I could stop, pop a couple of aspirins, and keep going. I had no liquids with me. I'm not one of those people who can crunch them down dry; I would choke.

I decided to stop at a nearby Wendy's and get a small chocolate Frosty. (I love those things!)

I found myself imagining popping the lid, spooning that first mouthful over my tongue, how it would melt in my mouth and slide sown my throat. . .

Son of a gun, before I even got to the payment window, the headache was gone. Just imagining how wonderful that Frosty would be released enough endorphins to get rid of that headache. If I didn't believe in that concept before, I do now!

I recommend Bradshaw's books on these. "Medicating" emotional pain constitutes addiction--which is shame-based--but accessing those "wounds" is extremely difficult because of the "constellation" of anger and defensiveness that surrounds them. Psychologists refer to them as "narcissistic wounds" because the pathology manifests itself as narcissism (as in membership in "The One True Church").

I've been able to work through most of my compulsions--I used to play pinball regularly as well as another pastime--but addictive behaviors, particularly codependency, which is an "addition to others" have been particularly intransigent.

I've made considerable progress, and shared what I have here with others, but I'm still vulnerable.

As far as addictions themselves go, Patrick Carnes noted, "Addiction is a pathological relationship with a mind-altering/mood changing experience."

Or as Melodie Beatty noted, "Addictions are things we need to lie about."

My view is that for most, membership in the LDS faith is an addiction.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2016 06:19PM by SL Cabbie.

SL Cabbie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> My view is that for most, membership in the LDS
> faith is an addiction.

****This****

I had a thread this past week about this very topic. In the Mormon side of my family alcoholism and Mormonism were synonomous and intertwined. Denial by both camps they harbor such an addiction. When they have both it is a double whammy!

I take a book with me, just about everywhere. You never know when you might get stuck someplace and have to wait. I don't wait well. Time to get the nose into a book.

I don't care if I've read it before. My bookshelves are full of oldies but goodies.

But go someplace without a book? NO WAY!!!

(That's only if I'm by myself. If I'm with someone else, that's different!)

Seeing the answers people have given, then wouldn't be fair to say that porn addiction is a real thing too? THat it is used, like food, to satisfy some emotional thing whose satisfactions is a type of addiction? (I've made similar arguments on Video game boards, because they are even more stubborn rejecting video game addiction as this forum is with rejecting porn addiction).

I think the vast majority of people accept that porn addiction is a very real problem for some people.

The complaint around here is the habit of the Mormon culture to slap the label of "addiction" on anyone viewing any porn at all. Because the culture forces someone looking at porn to do so secretively and to feel guilty about it, it's too easy for them to feel like an addict, even if their behavior would be perfectly healthy and normal in another setting.

I know TBMs who hate calling watching porn once a month as an addiction. THey think it lessons the challenge of those who can't go a day without watching.

Exactly

It is most definitely an addiction. One I battle every day. Worse than smoking or porn or just about anything else. You gotta eat.

RB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2016 07:30PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

I suffer from it. You better believe it is real.

Okay, now I'm hungry.

Since food is a necessity it probably is incorrect to call it an addiction but there truly is such a thing as addiction to sugar. Sugar has a dramatic effect on your brain chemistry. Some people just cannot restrict their intake due to the chemical impulses immediately received after eating it. Sugar, salt, and fat are the most sensation producing foods and they are the reason most junk food is loaded with all three.

Binge eating might also be seen as an addiction. It mostly involves the inability to stop eating once one has started.

Under the terms compulsive over-eating, binge-eating, and when people compulsively over-eat a food they know is bad for them. People with this disorder don't engage in purging behaviours as those with bulimia nervosa do.

A friend of mine has some serious problems with eating sweets and chocolate- She knows it will make her sick for hours if she does, but if offered she has a compulsion to eat it and can't always turn it down.

Typically the food is the kind that rewards the pleasure centers in the brain, like sweets and fats. Sometimes it's referred to as emotional eating. This is also a fairly new and some-what controversial diagnosis, too, but as society changes and we have more access to things we didn't in the past, new pathologies and disorders pop up. Another one that is on the horizon and will probably be added to the DSM is orthorexia- A compulsion and obsession with eating healthy and exercising to the point of pathology. It's similar to anorexia, but it's also harder to pinpoint for what I think are obvious reasons.

Because we're still learning so much about the brain with new technology, we're in the infancy of understanding certain disorders. It's also possible there is a level of heredity to them as well and nurtured if one or both of the parent's has an eating disorder.

Also, porn and sex addiction is a real thing, too. IDK why people dismiss it, especially when people with these addictions engage in high risk behaviour that can destroy their lives. (I'm not anti-porn, just a FYI.) However, the cult thinks that looking at a naked bewb makes you an addict and they have no clue what they're talking about.

It's now thought that sugar itself can be addicting, and that for Mormons especially, food is really the only vice they're allowed to use for self medicating.

Yes. It's very real. But, sugar addiction is much more common.

I'm a sugar addict. The only way I can not be addicted to sugar is to stay off of it cold-turkey--just like other addictive substances. You can't do that with food, so that would be rough to get over. Sugar is an easy substance to kick, compared to the others.

There needs to be more real help for the poor soul who eats emotionally. Sorry, but nothing can comfort a person, the way food can. This is a world where hugs and kind words are few and far between. People push their bodies into overdrive, and expect too much of themselves.

I miss my Valentine's chocolate, and my ice cream when I'm alone and sad--but I've learned that to be truly kind and nurturing to yourself, you can pig out on healthy foods that make you feel better than sugar makes you feel--at least 30-45 minutes later--when the big sugar-crash happens.

I know I was addicted to sugar, because I absolutely had to have it, immediately or I'd get the shakes. Food hunger doesn't make you shake like that. I was unable to put off eating sugar--it was an immediate craving. A person can put off eating food, or even skip a meal or two, if they have to, without having brain fog, a headache, extreme fatigue, anxiety, and other symptoms.

I had to quit 3 times, because I kept getting hooked again, at Halloween, and Valentine's Day is the worst. When I quit sugar, I still craved it mentally (and still do) the same as always, but I had actual physical "withdrawal" symptoms. I thought I had the flu, but no fever, so I went online, and "flu-like symptoms" were listed for sugar withdrawal. I also had anxiety attacks. I could not concentrate enough to work. On days 3-6, I my body-aches were so extreme, that I couldn't sleep at night, and could barely move during the day. Advil helped.

Really, I challenge anyone who is thinking of losing weight, to get off of sugar first! Most of that really uncomfortable hunger is just sugar withdrawal. You don't need to feel starving-hungry on a good diet.

BTW, if an eating plan doesn't include enough fat, a dieter can get the same urgent hunger symptoms.

Take a good look at what you're eating, before you diagnose yourself with "food addiction." See a nutritionist.

My disordered relationship with food improved dramatically - and so did my weight and overall health - when I gave up sugar as well as grains and grain products. I'm not allergic to gluten but I discovered (by accident, really) that avoiding all wheat products is something good I can do for myself. A chronic and painful autoimmune skin condition I've had for 20 years stays in remission as long as I stay away from gluten in particular.

5 years of not eating bread, crackers, pasta, etc, and I don't miss them at all, though it took about a year for the sugar/processed carb cravings to subside entirely.

Adopting a whole foods lifestyle opened an important and powerful door for me in that I learned about how excellent healthy fats are - and not just olive oil, avocado, coconut oil, etc, but the dread saturated fats from animal sources which are actually good for you: butter, eggs, lard, etc. The freedom to eat all these healthy fats instead of being afraid of them has been a game changer for being in recovery from food addiction, too.

Realizing that being hungry between meals was totally unnecessary, or that snacking on a spoonful of fat (coconut butter, for instance) was a far better choice than any low-fat snack. Snacking outside of regular mealtimes was risky for me in the past as it too often led to mini-binges, but high fat snacks that do not include sugar or processed carbs are wonderfully effective, and delicious. One of the harder things for me was staying in recovery from binging while managing frequent hunger (and cravings) because I thought that in order to be healthy I needed to follow a low-fat diet.

Never been more happy to have been so wrong!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2016 11:31AM by frogdogs.

As eating is my life, to stop I dare not dare.

Yes, it absolutely is. Binge eating became such a problem for me in my twenties that I needed help to get a handle on it. At the time, I had just begun purging after some of my worst binges but fortunately my DH convinced me to try 30 days of inpatient treatment at an excellent facility that was well known for its eating disorders program.

That was over twenty years ago, and aside from those like me who binged, there were bulimics and anorexics - both women and men. Food addiction, in whatever form it takes, is an easy target for others to dismiss as not being a 'true' addiction because it's 'just food' and 'everyone has to eat.' That's what makes it harder than many can imagine. Try maintaining sobriety if your body actually needed a certain amount of alcohol every day in order to survive. You can't abstain from food to heal your addiction. You have to learn how to use your drug of choice in a healthy, non-disordered way to nurture and nourish yourself rather than numb and stuff and control and punish.

I learned so much during my time in treatment - about myself, about the reasons I binged, and was able to back away from the edge I'd been approaching by learning better coping skills and making the commitment to take better care of myself, to learn to be kind to myself. I feel lucky. There were two individuals in the program who had then struggled for 15-20 years with bulimia and anorexia and the physical toll on their health was frightening.

Over the years since then, though I eventually lost most of the weight I gained from binge eating, sometimes I will still find myself in binge mentality even though I didn't go out and buy a bunch of junk food. Years and years can go by. A few weeks ago, I realized I'm stuffing myself well past the point of comfort with very healthy food. I realized I'm not coping as well as I'd thought with some troubling recent events in my life. When I'm in actual physical pain from a distended abdomen, I've just lied to myself that it's not so bad for me to stuff my feelings because "at least I'm eating healthy food, not junk food".

If I don't pay attention to these so-called healthy binges and do something to address them, whether it's talking to someone I trust or journaling honestly about what's going on with me, I'll risk sliding into binges where the worst processed junk food starts to seem temporarily acceptable..."just this once...I'll stop after the weekend".

Binging in my twenties meant consuming vast amounts of sugary and salty junk food to the point of extreme physical pain. I still remember the eager anticipation I'd have about being alone for a few days knowing my DH was about to go on a business trip...and I could binge and recover by the time he returned. I had so much pain and self-loathing from binging - and even now, 20+ years later the mere thought of a massive, private junk-food binge is....not entirely without temptation. The nearly irresistible urge to binge has been tamed to a shadow, an echo - but it's never been entirely absent.

I have a lot of compassion for that younger me, and admiration for what she taught me and how far we've both come together - the healthier me who hardly ever binges anymore thanks to the younger me who, even while feeling trapped in pain, depression, rage, fear...was still willing to do what needed to be done to start and remain on a path of healing and recovery.

I love to cook, so the temptation to overeat the delicious and healthy fare I make is always going to be an issue for me particularly when I'm struggling with increased feelings of anxiety, anger, sadness, etc. In that respect, I know that being in recovery from food addiction means I also have to pay attention to how compulsively I'm using any other good or pleasant thing - exercise, alcohol, even writing - in order to avoid, fix or suppress unwanted emotions or thoughts.

Addiction is a behavior that threatens your health to the point of death or permanent injury, threatens your personal relationships to the point of divorce and estrangement, and threatens your livelihood to the point of job loss, bankruptcy, and homelessness. When people say they are addicted to pornography, I can't see any of this happening except in the case of a severely overreacting spouse. When people say they are addicted to such things as chocolate I want them to stop abusing that word and say they reallyreallyreally like chocolate, since that is actually what they mean. Can you be addicted to something you need to live, such as food? Can I say I'm addicted to oxygen? I think compulsion is a better word for food issues. Or maybe someone needs work on their relationship with food. With the very real problems that alcohol and drugs can cause in people's lives, I think we need to be clear about what the word addiction means so our leaders can take some serious action to help solve the problem.

I suspect that truly devout Mormons believe that breast milk violates the spirit if not the letter of the Word of Wisdom.

Water? Sunlight? Air? You're next.

I don't recall the WoW saying anything about any sort of milk, breast or otherwise.

Since several comments refer to porn addiction and Pista mentioned that one of the reasons this board has had a 'problem' with that is because of the LDS church's habit of calling any compulsion an addiction. It seems that the bigger problem that many(myself included)have in accepting the term is when the church came out with their position that porn addiction is a "public health crisis". While I would certainly agree that, for many, viewing porn may be an addiction but I feel that it's far from a "public health crisis"!