Transfer Addiction Alcohol

 
I had my surgery just over 3 years ago.  

For the first two years I dropped weight, exercised and was the exact person I sought to be.  In the beginning of year three I became addicted to go out to bars.  I kick booty at pool and began to drink.  At first it would hit me fast and I wouldn't drink a lot.  I met my boyfriend and for the last 7 months we have gone out at least three times a week drinking and dancing.  

I have gained 45 pounds in the last year.  I can now eat almost anything the only exception being dairy.  I need motivation to get back on track and I'm not sure why this is happening.  I never enjoyed drinking before.  I've gone on all the forums and no one is talking about a negative transfer addiction only about how they now love exercise.

Has anyone else had a problem? 

I know I need to get back on track.  I'm starting today, I just feel lonely in my quest to get back to my goal weight.  

Transfer addiction DOES happen, some acknowledge it others remain in denial (I see this amongst friends).  Coming from a family of addicts I have been hyper aware of what could happen and have limited myself to drinking rarely.

Here is one board I'm aware of on OH that you might want to try.  It's not super active but usually you can get a response within a few hours or days.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/crossingtotransferaddiction s/

You're not alone. I have seen such posts off and on over the years. It's good you recognize it. If you go up in the search box at the top right of the blue bar, and type in transfer addiction, you will get quite a bit of information from the OH site. There is a group, but don't know how active it is:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/crossingtotransferaddictions/

Whatever you do, get help, counseling, etc. Keep posting here. It's the best support in the world! And you will soon realize you have no reason to feel lonely.

No one is talking about transfer addiction?  I don't think so.  This is an issue for many post ops, for a variety of reasons. Getting thinner, wanting to be popular and have fun = going to places with booze.  After 2 years you don't "get the thrill of compliments" as much as you did early post op.  You may be looking for a "high" that you don't get from compliments anymore.  In some cases, life traumas that happened many years ago, but were never fully dealt with drove you to over eat--now you can't overeat easily, you find an alternative "go to" to deal with these old issues.  Childhood trauma, your divorce, or divorcing parents when you were young, molestation, rape, being bullied, etc., etc...... If you think that this may be your issue, you need to talk to a medical professional.  Self image issues also bother some post ops--I've heard several post ops speak about how they benefited from professional counseling and/or medication to help resolve these issues. Good luck. DAVE

Transfer addiction is real and it's good that you caught it now. I'd go to some counseling, and please, please be very careful. I ended up in the ER a couple of weeks ago because I had some alcohol, and it wasnt a lot, but enough to make me never want to touch it again.

Alcohol and transfer addictions are probably in the top 25 questions asked on this and the main forum ...   put it in the search box above and you will get a stack of old posts.

Transfer addictions are very real for some people and require real help.   If you feel this is a problem for you, then seek appropriate help before it gets really out of control!

Good luck!

Yeah, what they said.  I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and have read studies indicating that as many as 30% of people who have WLS (of whatever kind) ending up with another kind of addiction.  Alcohol addiction is by far the most common.

Please seek some counseling before the problem gets any worse.  As others have said, the search function (at the top of the page) should return a lot of threads about alcohol addiction post-op.

Lora

 You're not alone.  It took me several years to get clean and sober and lose the weight but I did it.

I found AA to be a wonderful resource and I began running to get that mellow feeling back that alcohol used to do.

You're not alone.