|
 ASK
OUR EXPERTS...
I feel addicted to food. How could this happen and why aren’t I
addicted to all foods then?
By Nancy Anderson Dolan of WiseHeart Wellness Services
More people all the time are having the experience of food addiction.
Addiction is defined as the habitual psychological and physiological
dependence on a substance or practice beyond one’s voluntary control. The
cycle of addiction with food begins with that first exposure to something
and then the practice of eating that particular thing or eating in a
particular way becomes a habit. Some habits are just neutral routines, built
up to deal with life’s practical demands, like walking. Other routines have
an immediate positive pay off. These are the ones that can go on to become
dependencies. People who become addicted to food have a built in biological
or learned psychological vulnerability to distress. Habits that take them
from a state of distress to a state of ease quickly become dependencies.
If there is a physical dependency it means that the body begins to require
that substance or behaviour not just to feel better, but not feel bad,
described as withdrawal. Quite often this presents as the phenomena of
craving. Many people believe this is a simple chemical response to
additives, refined foods and feeding states such as overeating and starving.
In addition to that powerful physical/chemical attraction, a psychological
dependency also builds up. Instead of processing emotion which involves
sitting with uncomfortable feelings (including withdrawal), thinking about a
particular substance or eating behavior becomes distracting and soothing.
Because everyone’s bodies and lives are different, we become addicted to
different foods and eating behaviours. We can begin the process of recovery
by becoming aware of these physical and psychological reactions. By just
practising being aware of our body sensations and finding ways to sit with
them, the process can be reversed. Diets and exercise programs don’t touch
the roots of addiction because they don’t often address these very personal
historical and biological origins that have created the compelling eating
patterns. Often such programs ignore rather than explore these addiction
reactions and can actually escalate them. Unconsciousness and resistance to
the real problem often sets us up to view it as one of morality or will
power. This is the absolutely worst way to address food addiction. What
changes things is the acknowledgement and appropriate treatment of these
unskillful feeling and feeding patterns.
For more details on healthy eating habits, please contact Nancy
Anderson-Dolan at WiseHeart Wellness Service at 403.685.0864.
www.wiseheartweightmastery.com
|
