One in ten of us will be...

 I always miss the drama while i'm at the gym. I too had PCOS and was just overweight until my 3 pregnancies after the weight gain from the GD I was MO..my OBGYN suggested looking into the RNY so treat the PCOS and the diabetes that didn't go away after my 3rd child. For the poster who keeps asking why have surgery to make your stomach smaller if you have these issues should do some more research being blasting people and calling us all mindless food addicts. I certainly wouldn't have had this surgery for restriction..I needed it to put my diabetes into remission(which it has) and to help with my PCOS(I saw my OBGYN 2 weeks ago and she said that my PCOS is absolutely reversing itself). A few days ago I was curious as to how many calories I was consuming on an absolutely horrible eating day pre op so I entered all of the worst things I ate pre op into myfitnesspal..my day came out to just over 2000 calories. Keep in mind this would have been an EPIC bad day..not an everyday occurance. 

As far as the alcoholism is concerned transfer addiction could be a cause, but I dont feel we are all doomed to have this happen to us. My chances of being an alcoholic are higher because my parents were both alcoholics (right???)..and now I've had WLS..but I control my own destiny.

 Congratulations on beating the odds - seriously - with two addicted parents, you rock.

My mom had issues with addiction. My dad was the opposite. For the first part of my life (perhaps up to age 10) both parents smoked. Then dad decided he didn't want to smoke anymore. He put down his cigarettes, and he never picked them up again, even though mom smoked almost up to the day she died.

I take after my father's side of the family in everything but looks (I'm a dead ringer for my mum). And on his side of the family, there aren't any sort of addiction issues. No alcoholism, no smoking, nothing.

In fact, it was my mother's addiction to cigarettes that shaped my entire young life. I had severe asthma as a child (father's mother had the same issue) and mother's cigarettes had me extremely sick several times in my life, horrible pneumonia. I was rabidly against the entire concept of addiction. All it would take for me to stop something was an accusation of addiction. Father said I was addicted to television when I was 14. I stopped watching it for SIX years. A family friend said I was addicted to food, so I stopped eating. Eventually I clued in that one can't stop eating permanently.

No one ever said (especially me) that every person that has obesity is a food addict. I said most....most obese people have a compulsion to overeat. That is the definition of overeating addiction. The fact that they are unable to stop overeating on their own.  Get real.  If external causes were the real cause of obesity then people would have no problem overcoming them. Pcos

  Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common female endocrine disorders affecting approximately 5%-10% of women of reproductive age (12–45 years old) and is thought to be one of the leading causes of female infertility. but obesity affects over 47% of our population both male and female. I was not saying that most obese people are food addicts  to address the 5 or 10 out of 100 females that have pcos. But not all the women that have pcos, insulin resistance etc are obese either. My sister has severe insulin resistence so she eats no sugar therefore she is not obese, not even close. She has pcos as well and has never been obese nor unable to control her intake of food, her diet etc. in fact when she became wheel chair bound she didn't gain one pound because she adjusted her intake of food accordingly. When she is 5 lbs heavier she reduces her intake and does exercise to lose it. She is not a food addict.

"No one ever said (especially me) that every person that has obesity is a food addict. I said most....most obese people have a compulsion to overeat. That is the definition of overeating addiction"

Sorry, no... it is NOT the definition of addiction.

According to the DSM-IV (the official manual for diagnosis of psychiatric disordersm used by every therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist in the country):

Addiction (termed substance dependence by the American Psychiatric Association) is
defined as a maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by three (or more) of the following, occurring any time in the same 12-month period:
1. Tolerance, as defined by either of the following:
(a) A need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or
the desired effect
or
(b) Markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of the substance.
2. Withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following:
(a) The characteristic withdrawal syndrome for the substance
or
(b) The same (or closely related) substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal
symptoms.
3. The substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than intended.
4. There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use.
5. A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance (such as
visiting multiple doctors or driving long distances), use the substance (for example,
chain-smoking), or recover from its effects.
6. Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because
of substance use.
7. The substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent physical or
psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the
substance (for example, current cocaine use despite recognition of cocaine-induced
depression or continued drinking despite recognition that an ulcer was made worse by
alcohol consumption).

What you are talking about is not addiction, it is simple overeating.

Lora

OA has a different definition.  I am familiar with the prescription pill addiction criteria that you have presented.  

Your definition also does not apply to gambling addiction.  I do understand the resistance obese people have toward considering if they are addicts or not. It is difficult.  I still maintain that most obese people have an addiction to food.  Especially the ones that take refuge in the food as a solution to trauma or other spiritual holes one has....I think that all the attention my original post has developed is a good thing. I am glad I posted my original post. It certainly got the ire up in people and will get them aware.

I know that when alcoholics are confronted about drinking problems they are violently defensive as well. BTW alcoholism is a disability and disease not a moral dilemma.  Most alcohlics have insulin resistance so if they ingest a lot of sugar after they quit drinking they tend to become addicted to it and obese as a result. Not everyone with insulin resistance becomes alcoholic or obese and even though people on the forum have thought my logic to be that faulty I never used inductive reasoning to make a point.  I use pathos and deductive reasoning....and the original point i make is that I think that if most obese people learn and address the addictive nature of their obesity they will avoid becoming alcoholic or with other compulsions that are intended to replace their food overeating and that they will have more success keeping their weight off. 

 

My surgeon and the classes she holds or the support groups they have address this issue. I am surprise there is so adamant a repulsion to the issue on this forum.   

Everyone is allowed their opinion.

I believe that the most essential thing for anyone who has weight loss surgery is to figure out and confront the demons that contributed to obesity FOR THEM

I know what mine were. Addiction wasn't one of them. Everyone on here is far more than one broad label that is being used to describe behavior in a way contrary to the definition. By your definition of addiction, I believe that 99% of the individuals on the planet are addicted to food. It is true, like many addicts, I'm quite quite convinced that I'll die without it.

I think the most important thing is to stop labeling "Most obese people" and restrict it to what YOUR issues are. When you pin a label on someone else it's unkind and even inflammatory. my blood pressure hasn't been raised once in this whole discussion. (I always "talk" or rather type a lot in my messages, it's just who I am). I dislike labels being thrown around willy nilly and opinions being stated as fact without sources or proof. Your opinion of me is not important in my life. YOu can convince yourself from now until eternity that I'm a food addict. Go right ahead. Doesn't change my reality at all. But it is hurtful to some, and it is an unnecessary hurt when you have admitted that you're not using the clinical definition. You're simply using a convenient term improperly  and waving a magic opinion wand over it and making it out to be fact when it isn't.

For the vast majority of my life other than a 3 year period in my teens (I'm 43 now, that was almost 30 years ago) I have been mindful of my eating. I considered myself well-read on nutrition (I wasn't) and I ate according to what I believed to be the best way to eliminate weight. It was NOT sound information, but obviously I didn't know that. I just kept my weight at one level except for specific changes in my life. A person isn't "over eating" if they are not gaining weight. I have spent the vast majority of my life in "maintenance mode"... eating enough calories to maintain my weight. Even though I was trying to lose weight. Sure there were issues I didn't understand but that didn't mean that I spent my whole life eating without a structure or plan. I just ultimately decided that it was impossible for me to lose past a set point. I stopped worrying about it. I maintained. Most of my life I've maintained my weight. 3 years as a teenager I didn't. When I was injured and cuoldn't walk I altered my mathematics. Eating the same amount of food but not using the same amount of calories decimated my ability to maintain my weight. I gained some. Then I stabilized as I started to move more. Then I met hubby and he fed m tons... I gained weight because the equation changed again. I wasn't used to the inundation of calories. I don't doubt that I had a faulty regulatory mechanism to tell me when to stop eating, I liked feeling full when I ate, but then.... I evened out again and I maintained. I ate the right amount to maintain my weight. ie I was not over-eating. I had no issues regardign food when I had my WLS mostly because I began to face my demons from the first day I logged on here. By the time I had my surgery (which was a massive eye opener, and I sure thought I knew it all) I had faced and vanquished most of my food foes. But I still found that with proper nutrition information, I ultimately lost some weight.... until the weight loss flattened out... and I maintained. I had surgery, and the weight loss started up. I was more strict in my regulation of my food, and I lost again. Then I maintained. Most of my life I've been pretty damn good at eating a maintenance diet. Right now I'm struggling. Like a lot of Americans my struggle is over a 5 to ten pound amount over optimum. Not 200 lbs over. I have no struggles with food. I'm more or less maintaining.

The repulsion on this forum is a repulsion to a label you've slapped on "most' people here .... not only are they addicts, they're "mindless addicts". Your words might be self-reflective to YOU but they are group condemnatory and stated in a way that comes across as self-important. Apparantly only YOU are smart enough to realize your addiction and teh rest of us (who are responding negatively) are all self-deluded addicts. Well, with 180 lbs still gone (and 185 is optimum) I don't feel like much of a failure after four and a half years. I had and have my food issues. WLS didn't correct my food issues, if anything it exacerbated them. But it did give me the leg up to get to a place where I could do what I am apparantly very good at doing: maintaining.

(overall typing this post has been pretty good for me, I've had a chance to reflect on what I'm good at: maintaining, and what I'm not now, nor ever have been: an addict)

Sorry, but I will stick with the American Psychiatric Association's definition of addiction instead of the OA definition.

There is no "adamant replusion to the issue" of food (or any other kind of) addiction here. If you search past posts you will find plenty fo tghem discussing true addiction as well as other kinds of disordered eating taht people have to deal with in order to be successful long-term. There IS, however, a legitimate reason for people who are NOT food addicts (but may have other psychological issues) to object to having someone make a blanket statement labeling "most" obese people as anything (other than obese). Again, I have to ask why YOU are so invested in convicing people who are not addicts that they ARE?

Lora

Lora... Thank you... (HUGS)