Are fat people addicts?This question is circulating in my mind for some weeks now. I am fat. I used to be fatter. Am I an addict or am I rather uneducated when it comes to a healthy lifestyle? Can someone reach a weight of 118 kg/260 lb without having an eating disorder? What actually is an eating disorder?
Google quite often is our friend so I googled “eating disorder” and ended up with Wikipedia:
Quote:Eating disorders refer to a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual’s physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are the most common specific forms in the United States.
I certainly face times of bingeing. If I do not control what I am eating with an outside tool like writing down everything I eat in order to calculate whether it’s good/enough I don’t stop eating. Is that an addiction?
Now looking up “addiction” get’s me this:
Quote:The American Society of Addiction Medicine has this definition for Addiction:
Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in the individual pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. The addiction is characterized by impairment in behavioral control, craving, inability to consistently abstain, and diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships. Like other chronic diseases, addiction can involve cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death.
So, let’s see:
1. pursuing reward (for me: good feeling, numbing bad feelings)
2. by substance or other behaviors (food, eating)
3. impairment in behavioral control, craving, inability of control (I actually do binge from time to time)
4. diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships (for quite some time I would have said I am happy and content with my life though I definitely avoided opportunities to meet with people, I actually am still conscious of meeting new people)
5. can involve cycles of relapse and remission
6. can result in disability or premature death (well, I was morbidly obese, that does say it all, doesn’t it? I was not able to walk up stairs without breathing hard and couldn’t do much sports.)
I looked a little further and there is actually a food addiction (I didn’t know this existed!) characterised with the following signs and symptoms:
1. Binge eating, or eating uncontrollably even when not physically hungry
2. Eating much more rapidly than normal
3. Eating alone due to shame and embarrassment
4. Feelings of guilt due to overeating
5. Preoccupation with body weight
6. Depression or mood swings
7. Awareness that eating patterns are abnormal
8. Rapid weight gain or sudden onset of obesity
9. Significantly decreased mobility due to weight gain
10. History of weight fluctuations
11. Withdrawal from activities because of embarrassment about weight
12. History of many different unsuccessful diets
13. Eating little in public, but maintaining a high body weight
14. Very low self esteem and feeling need to eat greater and greater amounts.
Duh, I have to check of number 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13. That makes 10 out of 14. I am somewhat appalled!
Seeing this my next post probably should start with:
“Hello, my name is Godiva and I am an addict.”