America’s Secret Addiction
America is a nation of self-disclosers, amiably acceptant of our weaknesses. Celebrities, family members, coworkers and friends think nothing of admitting their compulsions and dependencies on alcohol, street drugs, prescription medications. We enter rehab programs, clean up, dry out, and go on with our lives: beating our problem or entering a long series of relapses and treatment episodes. Except, perhaps, for politicians or ministers, there is little social stigma attached to such mistakes unless there are criminal overtones that may lead to incarceration.
Television and films have educated us on the dangers and side effects of dependence upon alcohol, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, designer drugs, steroids, pain pills, cannabis and opium. We had to coin the term chemical dependency (CD)
...ages of 12 and 17 have taken it. That is 1.1 million of our children across the nation. Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst wants all Texas schools athletes to be the cleanest athletes in the nation and is proposing that ...
But the most widespread, self-destructive, dangerous addiction afflicting America is never discussed: FOOD.
The treatment of overeating is extensive: diet clinics, fitness programs, fat farms, plastic surgery. We collectively spend billions of dollars on weight loss aids and fitness equipment. We decry the epidemic of obesity that is overtaking our population to an enormous (literally) degree. We investigate metabolism and hormonal effects. We debate the comparative merits and flaws of
...bronchodilator qualities of ephedrine HCL imply the relaxing of smooth muscle tissue in the airways. These coupled together mean that you experience relief from tightness of the chest, shortness of breath, and/or wheezing associated with asthma. You will need luck ...
We fail to confront the irrefutable fact that obesity is caused by food addiction. Excuses and metabolic rationales aside (No, Virginia, no one ever walked out of a Nazi concentration camp or a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp fat -macabre but true) our out-of-control overweight is a direct result of our obsession with, and dependency on, too much food.
You may disagree.
...hours of television watched annually by Americans. Probably something like 60 billion hours in commercials alone. Just imagine the kind of things that could be accomplished in 250 billion hours? Staggering isn't it? Now, if television is not some form ...
Consider the problem from a slightly different perspective. In the United States, an “all or nothing” society, the goal of the typical CD treatment program is total abstention. The alcoholic is taught that one sip of liquor is never acceptable and constitutes a full relapse from which recovery must start over. In Europe, and many other parts of the world, moderation is considered more realistic than abstention. The goal is to lower the level of usage to the point where it has no deleterious effects on the user’s life and the problems - work, relationships, mood, productivity
...street. Oxycodone Side Effects Oxycodone is very addictive and is often abused by individuals who begin taking the drug as a part of a prescription but spiral out of control into actually abusing it. As their tolerance increases, they require ...
Such a model can more easily be applied to food. Our bodies require a certain level of sustenance to thrive. It is when the intake becomes excessive that problems arise: appearance, the inability to be active, fatigue, depressed mood, and strains on the internal organs. If we can temper that level of intake, we can avert the consequences that follow overindulgence in anything.
Such is indeed the focus of many weight control programs. However, they are missing one vital ingredient: acceptance of personal responsibility. At a 12-Step meeting, members repetitively admit to the group: “My name is B and I’m an alcoholic.” Imagine, if you will, the different atmosphere that would be engendered if a member were to
...and its recent increase probably mean many things. While we may enjoy sarcastically pondering the quagmire of large federal, international and smaller third world graft infested agencies, it distracts us from focusing on our own responsibility and assertive actions that ...
Such a statement sounds ridiculous coming from an admitted problem drinker yet that is exactly what we allow from our problem eaters. It is far more likely that we will tell a close friend: “M, I think you have a problem with alcohol and I want you to get help,” than we will tell an equally close friend: “G, I think you have a problem with too much eating and I want you to get help.”
We
...competition. The abuse of steroids has become so prevalent that President George W. Bush called upon professional athletes, team owners, and coaches to stop all players from taking the performance-enhancing drugs. Though the effects of long-term use of steroids is ...
One lesson learned over decades of CD research and treatment is that the problem must be acknowledged before it can be addressed and beaten. CD clients are notorious for making excuses, playing mind games with those around them, and shirking self-responsibility whenever they can. If we can bring ourselves to acknowledge that we are addicted
...hours of television watched annually by Americans. Probably something like 60 billion hours in commercials alone. Just imagine the kind of things that could be accomplished in 250 billion hours? Staggering isn't it? Now, if television is not some form ...
Confrontation of the problem requires that we drop the fa ade of politeness and euphemistic phrasing. As a society, we need to look at others and ourselves and call it as we see it. If I’m fat, I’m fat, and it’s my responsibility to not only admit that honestly, but to also admit to myself and the world that it is my fault: I am the one who made myself fat. No one else forced food into my mouth. Like the recovering alcoholic at the bar, I can always
.... A useful clue lies in phobias. The most common phobias all relate to real dangers in the environment. Fear of spiders is a good example, as is fear of heights. Both represented significant dangers to our ancestors. But wait, ...
Weight control can be simple - eat only what you need to survive - but never easy. The fallacy of many diets is that we can lose weight without suffering. Stopping or minimizing CD abuse is always painful and a craving for chocolate, ice cream, or the urge for sugar (no one seems to crave vegetables) can be as overwhelming to the dieter as the addict’s emotional need for his drug of choice.
Naming our national weight problem for what it really is,
.... A useful clue lies in phobias. The most common phobias all relate to real dangers in the environment. Fear of spiders is a good example, as is fear of heights. Both represented significant dangers to our ancestors. But wait, ...
Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker’s Edge, she recently completed a psychologically-based weight control book: Diet with an Attitude:A Weight Loss Workbook. She
...activity can increase your anxiety and keep it there as long as you are involved in this activity. Getting caught with dope, getting arrested and jailed can increase your anxiety. Does this all sound like common sense? Well yes it ...