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)
...waste andefficiency. I joined the California National Guard a few years after my separation, entering as an Sp5, andwas an Executive Officer s driver for a battalion, attended Ft Ord s NCO academy tolearn how to teach formally and was ...
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
...in parks, on trains and in homeless refuges around Sydney. I had grown up and been raised in fairly wealthy conditions, never in my wildest dreams did I ever conceive that I would become homeless, but here I was living ...
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.
...result of our obsession with, and dependency on, too much food. You may disagree. After all, the other CD addictions are for substances we can totally banish from our lives whereas we have to eat to live. Consider the problem ...
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
...kids with such a disorder? Most of these medications used to treat ADD are Schedule II drugs under the U.S. DEA schedule system. Since these are powerful stimulants some as powerful as cocaine there is a big potential for abusing ...
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
...in parks, on trains and in homeless refuges around Sydney. I had grown up and been raised in fairly wealthy conditions, never in my wildest dreams did I ever conceive that I would become homeless, but here I was living ...
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
...labor shortage is the pharmacy business. Companies like Rite Aid and Eckerd Drugs have a really tough time securing people to work behind the counters in the pharmacy. Now that Rite Aid and Eckerd Drugs have merged this might help ...
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
...kids with such a disorder? Most of these medications used to treat ADD are Schedule II drugs under the U.S. DEA schedule system. Since these are powerful stimulants some as powerful as cocaine there is a big potential for abusing ...
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
...up in the emergency room where she was diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder after intensive evaluation. Bipolar disorder or manic-depression is manifested by highs and lows. When a patient like Nancy is on the manic side, there is a ...
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,
...labor shortage is the pharmacy business. Companies like Rite Aid and Eckerd Drugs have a really tough time securing people to work behind the counters in the pharmacy. Now that Rite Aid and Eckerd Drugs have merged this might help ...
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
...for medical and psychotherapeutic treatment for the abuse of psychoactive substances like alcohol, prescription drugs and street drugs like heroin, cocaine or amphetamines. Many drug rehabilitation programs strive to teach patients different methods of cooping in a drug free environment. ...