Food addiction and recovery?

First, let me prefice this by saying that these are solely my opinions about myself, and not necessarily opinions I project on others.

So, on my walk today I was just thinking about progress I have made since VSG. That in turn got me thinking about life progress in general, which most of the time gets me thinking about addiction. I am no stranger to addiction, and am very aware that I am a food addict. In my opinion, once a food addict, always a food addict. I have the same opinion about other addictions. But, how do we measure food addiction recovery?

For example: I am a drug addict in recovery, alcoholic in recovery, nicotine addict in recovery, the list goes on. When I say in recovery, what it means to me, is I completely abstain from all these substances and have for years (except cigarettes which I just quit last year). I was wondering today, how will I know when I'm in recovery from food addiction? If I eat something unhealthy, like something thats purpose isn't only to fuel my body, will that be considered a relapse? Or is food addiction a bit more forgiving, like I'll know I'm in recovery when I don't feel controlled by food or always thinking about it.

Addictions are hard to kick, and I've kicked my fair share. Kicking heroin I thought I would die more times than I can count. I am finding food addiction even more difficult, because I simply can not just abstain from food. Our bodies need food, our bodies don't need heroin, cocaine, alcohol, etc etc.

I've been in counseling for 13 years, and I know recovery means different things to different people. So, for my fellow food addicts, how would you measure your progress/recovery?

To me, being in recovery means that I'm abstaining from the addictive behavior. In this case, the addictive behavior is compulsive overeating.

I understand exactly what you're talking about. Addiction tends to run in my family. My dad had a big problem with alcohol when he was younger and my sister has a heroin problem. Food is absolutely my drug of choice.

I'd consider myself to be in relapse if I ignore my restriction and continue to eat when I know I shouldn't. To me, that's when the overindulgence comes into play, and that's when I'm harming myself again.

Just my two cents.

That makes a lot of sense. Abstaining from the addictive behavior I think is a great way of looking at it. I think because I'm so used to recovery being abstinence, the behavior aspect will take some getting used to for me. Thanks, Moonglo

It took me a while to wrap my brain around the concept of abstinence being more about behavior than about substance as well.  This is going to sound sick, but I used to envy my sister in a way; her addiction was to something that she could avoid and still survive, but I have to have some kind of food. 

When I realized that part of the addiction lies in the behavior, I was better able to wrap my brain around how my situation wasn't any worse than hers... made all of it easier to cope with.

This.  Exactly.

I consider compulsive eating to be my addictive behavior.  I "just know" when I'm eating compulsively.  Certain foods trigger it and I lose my ability to make wise or logical choices about what is going into my mouth and why.

For example, I can plan to eat a cupcake this coming weekend if I work out, and then eat a cupcake, enjoy it, enter it into my food log and then move on with my life.  For me, that is not addictive eating.

On the other hand, I bought those individually wrapped 80 calorie dark chocolate granola thins.  I have never, ever, ever been able to eat one of them.  If I unwrap one, I end up eating 5 or 6, one right after the other, hardly tasting them, and knowing that the calories will kill my eating plan for the day. 

There is shame and guilt involved with addictive eating.  When I eat compulsively, I want to be secretive and not track it on MFP so no one will know.  That's a big way for me to judge my behavior.  I can say that keeping my diary on MFP public is a huge mental challenge for me sometimes.

I believe that "eating perfectly" isn't necessarily the definition of eating in a non-addictive way.  For me, it's more the reason behind eating, my attitude while I'm eating, whether I've made a rational decision to eat what I'm eating, and the way I feel after I've eaten.

Glad to see you understand me.  This is exactly what I was talking about!

 You are so inside in my head!  Your point about having yur diary public on MFP really resonated with me.   I am guilty of not finalizing my MFP entries so that it won't announce I was over my calories for the day, or just not entering it at all.  Who do I think I am kidding? My fat butt surely knows the difference. 

I need a lot more therapy I think. :(

Thank each and everyone of  you for this subject. This has helped me so much. Very helpful info.
God Bless u all.
Evie

Food has always been my addiction but I come from a family of alcoholics and drug abusers. Two weeks ago I was discussing my 3 lb weight gain with my Dr and was being very honest with him (really for the first time) and told him how I have started eating ice cream when I get stressed. He warned me about how dangerous that was even though I have been pretty stable for the past year and am only up 3 lbs which come and go. But he really got me thinking.  I am a stress eater. When anything stressful happens, small or large, I immediately put food in my mouth. But I finally figured it out. What I do is, instead of facing a problem I just create my own problem. By shoving food in my mouth I am now focusing on myself and how weak I am or how fat I am or how miserable I am so I can forget about the real issue. I have been doing this for so many years that it is a habit and something that I am familiar with. So what I have done is make a conscious effort to face my real problems or issues by thinking them through and dealing with them right away. It has really worked. I make that phone call I was avoiding or get the work done that needs attending. I haven't felt the urge to eat unnecessarily for the past couple of weeks. I know that this might sound simple but I believe that this is really the root of my stress eating and in time I can stop hurting myself with bad choices.

What a powerful response!  I had to go back and reread it a few times to really take it all in.  You can now diagnose that you have an issue by the fact that you want to stress eat.  This points you to the issue that needs to be resolved, you take care of it and the eating stops being a problem.  That is a very deep insight.  Thank you for sharing it, I bet many of us, myself included, do this to some extent.  I am going to give this further thought to see if I too use food as a distraction and as my way of avoiding conflict or other unpleasantness.  Thank you.