SUGAR ADDICTION

 

Being an addict and having a sugar addiction-eating disorder means a lot of suffering and it affects your whole life.

Addiction is a serious disease, it affects anyone and it often brings strong feelings of shame and anxiety. It often drives the person to isolation and a host of associated diseases.

 

A person with a sugar addiction has an undesirable reaction in the body to the intake of sugar in any form, which in turn affects how they think and feel. The brain is hijacked by the sugar.

 

The obsession with thoughts, that is, you often become extremely preoccupied with thoughts about sweets, food, eating, that is, when and what to eat, where, how much, etc.

You become obsessed with sugar, food, your eating and often your own body, both how you perceive it, and also how you think the world sees you.

Weight phobia is a big part of the disease for many.

 

It can manifest itself in many different ways, binge eating interspersed with starvation, laxation, vomiting and/or compulsive exercise.

It may involve eating large amounts of food and then vomiting it up, or restrictive eating, or overeating but not engaging in compensatory behaviour,

or you just hate food in general - this can look a lot of different ways.

Loss of control is a major characteristic.

You have 100% the will that now I will..but what you planned falls, you totally lose control, time after time, and the feeling of being a total loser is found in many addicts.

 

Common to many is that they compensate in different ways, there is a strong fear of gaining weight or becoming fat.

Many clients I meet have tried everything to control themselves and their eating, they have gone to weight groups, tried water and tea fasting, various diets, avoiding fat and eating only light etc.

a lot of the people who contact me have had surgery, e.g. gastric bypass surgery, but feel worse than ever, because at the bottom there is an addictive disease that the person has not been helped to deal with.

 

Diet and nutrition are most of the people I meet, they know most of what is good to eat to have a functioning brain, body, many have studied and read every self-help book available and tried many different methods to manage their anxiety, worry, etc. but come to me and express:

 

"What's wrong with me, why don't I have enough character", or "I know so much about this, yet I can't keep to the path I've decided on, I really have no character", etc.

 

I wish I could help spread hope, to get people to let go of their guilt, to let go of their shame, to gain the knowledge and tools to understand themselves and this disease better, and to start living in recovery.

That these constant "failures" that many feel they have are not failures, they are different ways of trying to "find their way out of the madness" that they often feel they are in.

ASAM

American Society of Addiction Medicine

The latest definition of the disease of addiction - according to experts in the United States ( ASAM) is:

Short definition :

-A physical disease of the brain

with physical, psychological, social and spiritual consequences.

-A primary disease (not caused by anything else)

-It is chronic (you have it for the rest of your life)

-Current disease, i.e. it "goes into remission"

-Progressive (gets worse if you don't do anything about it)

-A deadly disease if not treated

-It's about the brain and biochemistry, not character and willpower.

 

But the disease is treatable.

Read much more about addiction on their website

https://www.asam.org/

Read much more about research, knowledge and other interesting things on Bitten's website and buy her book

www.bittensaddiction.com

 

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