Food addiction is defined in many ways:
• we lose control of our lives and can no longer define reality, despair becomes our daily companion
• we binge, graze, or starve
• we attempt to satisfy our soul needs with food
• our self-esteem disappears and our health worsens
• we search frantically for a way out
• we ask for help to abstain from those substances we find ourselves craving, ever mindful of our addiction to sugar, flour, wheat, and other high-carbohydrate foods
• feeding our bodies with a plan of sound nutrition will allow us freedom from the insanity of this disease
Experts and pioneers such as Charles A. Starks, Ed.D. LMHC, Elizabeth Gibson, M.A., LPC, and Kay Sheppard, M.A. (who passed away this week) are well-informed sources regarding this deadly disease.
Please help humanity heal from this deadly addiction by treating food addiction (addiction to sugar, flour, wheat, and other high-carbohydrate foods) as we treat addictions to alcohol, gambling, drugs (legal, illegal, and prescription) sex, purchasing (I call it the buy-high), and nicotine.
We ask for these mandatory insurance paid benefits:
• testing for confirmation of the addictive gene
• rehabilitation treatment
• introduce and inform parents of obese children of this biochemical, biogenetic disease
• mandate physicians to support this treatment vs prescribing pills and surgeries that do not solve the core problem
• medical care for food addiction related illnesses
Recovery programs include:
• an abstinent food plan
• 12-step recovery meetings
• daily communication with a sponsor
• food addiction recovery literature (there are many!)
• working through the 12 steps with a sponsor
• exercise
• prayer and meditation
• making outreach calls to the community to offer support
• being of service to other sick and suffering food addicts in and out of the recovery rooms
• building a daily gratitude list
Life in recovery offers many promises. Some of them are that:
• the chaos inside us will be gone, so the chaos around us will diminish
• our thinking will become clear
• we learn new information and knowledge and retain what we have learned
• we accomplish complicated tasks with less confusion
• we learn to become consistent and dependable
• we gain the ability to listen to others’ ideas and suggestions without becoming defensive or argumentative
• become present and alert
• we won’t have to shut down, dissociate, or avoid listening
• we can be ourselves because we won’t allow abuse of any kind to be done to us by ourselves or others
• we no longer attempt to fill our emotional and spiritual needs through our mouths
• we will now use our mouths along with our hearts to ask for what we need and deserve as children of God
• we will be able to listen with empathy to others’ suffering
• we will not need to be controlling that our way is best
• no longer be judgmental about everyone we meet
• our self-esteem will no longer be tangled up in our perceptions about our bodies
• we will be able to hear and feel our Higher Power in our hearts
• we no longer experience the panic, fear, and anxiety of the past, when presented with many choices
• we will be able to reach clear decisions and understand what is appropriate for us
• we begin to trust our intuition
• we cherish our abstinence as critical to our physical, emotional, and spiritual survival.
Because 12-step programs are anonymous and do not affiliate with any outside diets, weight loss programs, treatment facilities, or religious organization, and have no opinions on outside issues, they never endorse, finance, or lend their name to any related facility or outside enterprise, no specific programs have been suggested. There are many.
With food addiction recovery in the hands of every parent, school, and doctor, together we all benefit and together we can Make America Healthy Again.
