nita_inspire
Do addictions run in your family?
Jan 13, 2011
I posted this in response to someone elses post about addiction, but I wanted it here on my blog also. So here it is:Oh my goodness, yes. Alcohol, gambling, shopping and sex, drugs to a lesser degree. I personally love to gamble, but realize that I am prone to addictions because of my family history, so I make sure that I am very aware of what's going on while I'm doing it. Instead of being distracted by the lights, I try to pay attention to what I'm actually winning or losing. As far as drinking, I drink when I choose to, but not because I have to. And, I make a point of never ever never ever having a drink when I'm upset or when things are going wrong because I know you need a clear head to deal with things and no matter how much you abuse your drug of choice, eventually you still have to deal with the issue.
Wish I had understood that with food, my parents were awesome cooks and they made everything from scratch. Unfortunately, sometimes that also meant that eating was our quality time. So in some ways, it eventually translated into food being love and comfort. The food was soooooo good, and I was always encouraged to have seconds and thirds. It never occurred to me that the most important function of food was for physical nourishment because it nourished the big hole that I felt in my heart ,and I would eat until I just couldn't hold anything else, and if it was extremely good I would start planning when I could eat some more later. Luckily, this didn't happen all of the time, but enough for it to have created a weight problem.
However, one day a friend said, you know you're not supposed to eat until you're full; you're supposed to eat until you're not hungry. That was a stinging blow because all I could do was stare at him before finally uttering, "Really?" Gosh, I wish I had learned that sooner. I'm not a foodie per se, but when the food is good, I have a real hard time stopping.
So, I would imagine more often than not, for a lot of the people in our situation, there is some sort of predisposition to addictive behavior. A lot of us turned to food, instead of other things, but sometimes the food can be just as damaging. It just takes longer to see the harmful effects.
I was worried about the possibility of transfer addictions, but someone at a support group meeting, said you could choose to replace food with something positive like exercising or meditating. I added cleaning and writing to the possibilities since those are two things that I hope to do more of.
Sorry for such a long post, but I think being aware of the tendency towards addiction, gives us yet another tool in this battle.
Cheers,
Alnita
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About Me
NC
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35.4
BMI
Surgery
01/07/2011
Surgery Date
Nov 26, 2010
Member Since
