Eating Disorders = Addiction?

I have had an eating disorder for almost 11 years now and gone into treatment for it twice. I believe that in a way an eating disorder is an addiction. Before treatment there was no way I could do recovery on my own. My mind, like that of an addicts, would go directly towards eating disorder tendencies to cope with the world around me. After treatment, that is still my first desire, but because I have been able to abstain from the action for the past 6 months it is not what I act out on immediately. Addictions can be overcome given time and the drive to pick yourself up when you slip. I think in the recovery process, it isn't a matter of not lapsing, but a desire to never give up. 

I do not necessarily believe that ED is an addiction but some of the things that we do while being affected by ED are addictions. When I was at my worst with ED I got addicted to at least 2 things and those thngs were laxatives and exercise. I also believe that there could be an addiction gene out there because there have been so many addicts in my family. I was taking 84 laxatives a week and exercising 10 hours a day. I also did 1000 crunches a day on top of the 10 hours. I usually did the crunches in sets of 200 and would take a 5 minutes breaking in between. I often got rug burn on my back (people laugh when I tell them that because they usually say and I quote "I have only heard of people getting rug burn on their back in one way!"). Addiction can come in many forms just the drive everyday telling me that I cannot live without doing these things was actually having the opposite effect on me. I was slowly killing myself and now at 35 am paying the consequences. I have had 5 surgeries on my right knee and I have degenerative arthritis in my neck and back. I also have irritable bowel syndrome which I thing is a direct cause of using laxatives (by the way coming off of laxatives is an extremely painful experience). Ialso have ulcers. Addiction can really hurt people. As I have said I don't necessarily believe that ED is an addiction but some of the habits associated with are. I also believe addictions come in many forms.

I do not believe eating disorders are addictions. Addiction is being physically dependent on something that the body does not need to survive... like alcohol, nicotine or heroin.

Since all humans are "physically dependent" on food for survival, it is preposterous to me to consider anything regarding eating an "addiction."  Are we "addicted" to oxygen? Unless every human, with or without an eating disorder, is considered "addicted to food," eating disorders cannot be considered addictions.

We HAVE to eat. No one HAS to smoke or shoot up heroin.

I wholeheartedly believe in addictions, having seen the wrath of them in many family members. I just as wholeheartedly believe that classifying eating disorders as addictions, or even as addictive behavior is wrong and potentially very damaging and dangerous.  

There are some practitoners and schools of thought who ascribe eating disorders and addiction to a neurotransmitter deficiency and effectively treat these disorders using a high dose amino acid therapy in order to allow the body to produce the correct amount of neurotransmitters that needs.

These clinics have VERY effective results treating addictions.

Kerri Knox,RN

Functional Medicine Practitioner providing effective mood disorder relief

http://www.easy-immune-health.com/Natural-Remedy-for-Depression.html

Eating Disorders and addictions have many common components, the most significant being the use of something unnatural to alter feelings or experience. I don't, however, think the labels matter as much as the admission that all are health issues, all are treatable, and each of us needs to be more concerned with supporting and guiding than with judging.

Hi Laura,

You are right. This is a converastion that we should be having. And research is being undertaken to answer these very questions.

I did post a blog on this subject (http://www.eatingdisordersblogs.com/treatment_notes/2008/05/do-eating-disor.html, based on current research at the time, but I remain open to new research that might show otherwise.

Dr. Sari Shepphird

I do believe eating can be an addiction.

Food is used for emotional comfort in our society.  We use it to celebrate, comfort us in times of stress, upset and depression.  Food is often given to cheer people up.  Food is so entwined in our social events. Lots of people use drugs in the same way - for emotional comfort.

 

Food is also physically addictive too.  Cooked food contains heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and many of these are indirectly and directly addictive.  These will play havoc on your mood.  There are 3 types of HCAs - uppers, downers and antis.

Uppers can ehance cocain action by partly influencing the same receptors in the brain.  These can cause sleeplessness, anxiety, promote aggression and are usually indirectly addictive.

Downers are physically addictive.  If you don't eat as many downers as you are used to you will become annoyed/impatient.  Many people note this when they  cut down on junk food.

 

Antis - inhibit the action of both uppers and downers.  They are addictive because they stimulate secretion of opiod peptides composed by the body.  When in stress the body produces antis to fight it.

Wheat and milk contain opiod peptides - which can lead to depression and sleeplessness.

 

So yes food can be addictive - it just isnt recognised readily enough.

One last thing.

 

Yes we have to eat but we are the only species to eat for pleasure.  If food was about nutrition only then a lot of the food we eat we wouldnt eat - a lot is nutrient deficient and some are even considered empty calories.  If we were eating for nutritional purposes we wouldnt eat this stuff.

It's not about the food!  I figured that out.  Addiction or not it had negative consequences to my life and all that were in it. One thing for sure, I can't abstain for eating, so I dealt with the real issues.  I can not drink, I can not smoke, those addictions are stopped by stopping, but when I didn't deal with the real problems, I was doing something els...uuuhhhg.  Intensive residential treatment away from it all was what I needed.  Beau Cote was my way through.