See, I don't believe you can be addicted to food either. Or, if you can, then everyone is addicted to food. You need it to LIVE. People can rely on it for comfort or punishment to the exclusion of other things for emotional or psychological reasons, but those reasons are the problem, not the food itself. Alcoholics may have reasons like this that they started drinking frequently (though they also might not), but once they're addicted it's the alcohol itself that's causing the problems and more addiction.
It's also tied in with fat-shaming, because no matter how much a thin person snacks I doubt anyone would call them food-addicted. It's again a case where someone is doing more of a normal pleasurable behavior than society has deemed appropriate, so they need to stop (in this case, diet). I just looked up sites dealing with food addiction, and the symptoms are basically bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder, yo-yo dieting, or being overweight. I've heard that the addiction model can be useful ways for patients to look at all of those eating disorders, but let's not kid ourselves, addiction to FOOD itself is not the issue here.
I am TRULY addicted to food. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed with ANY emotion, whether it be anger or sadness or happiness, I go to food to numb myself...much like some people go to alcohol or drugs.
I'm sorry, that sounds unpleasant. If you're interested in this sort of thing, I was reading an article by a nutritionist the other day that gives supportive tips for dealing with emotional eating here (might or might not even apply, but I figured it was worth offering).
Of course, you're free to define your behavior however you want (I mean it, no snark). But I find that the way food addiction is talked about colloquially makes it a meaningless and inaccurate term, used to describe behaviors that do not follow the patterns or symptoms of addiction.
It's also tied in with fat-shaming, because no matter how much a thin person snacks I doubt anyone would call them food-addicted. It's again a case where someone is doing more of a normal pleasurable behavior than society has deemed appropriate, so they need to stop (in this case, diet). I just looked up sites dealing with food addiction, and the symptoms are basically bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder, yo-yo dieting, or being overweight. I've heard that the addiction model can be useful ways for patients to look at all of those eating disorders, but let's not kid ourselves, addiction to FOOD itself is not the issue here.
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Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed with ANY emotion, whether it be anger or sadness or happiness, I go to food to numb myself...much like some people go to alcohol or drugs.
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Of course, you're free to define your behavior however you want (I mean it, no snark). But I find that the way food addiction is talked about colloquially makes it a meaningless and inaccurate term, used to describe behaviors that do not follow the patterns or symptoms of addiction.
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