How To Tell If You May Be A Food Addict
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Following the recent guest posts by Drs Vera Tarman and Pam Peeke on food addiction, many readers have left comments about how this notion rings true to them and how the ideas of treating their “eating disorder” as an addiction has helped them better control their diet and often lose substantial amount of weight.
Others have asked how to tell if they might be food addicts. For them, I am reproducing the following list of 20 questions taken from Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous.
Although it is important to note that “food addiction” has yet to be officially recognized as a medical/psychiatric condition and the following questions are by no means “diagnostic”, I would still support the idea that the more of these questions you answer with yes, the more likely you may benefit from discussing this problem with someone who has expertise in addictions (rather than simply going of on another diet or exercise program).
1. Have you ever wanted to stop eating and found you just couldn’t?
2. Do you think about food or your weight constantly?
3. Do you find yourself attempting one diet or food plan after another, with no lasting success?
4. Do you binge and then “get rid of the binge” through vomiting, exercise, laxatives, or other forms of purging?
5. Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people?
6. Has a doctor or family member ever approached you with concern about your eating habits or weight?
7. Do you eat large quantities of food at one time (binge)?
8. Is your weight problem due to your “nibbling” all day long?
9. Do you eat to escape from your feelings?
10. Do you eat when you’re not hungry?
11. Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later?
12. Do you eat in secret?
13. Do you fast or severely restrict your food intake?
14. Have you ever stolen other people’s food?
15. Have you ever hidden food to make sure you have “enough?”
16. Do you feel driven to exercise excessively to control your weight?
17. Do you obsessively calculate the calories you’ve burned against the calories you’ve eaten?
18. Do you frequently feel guilty or ashamed about what you’ve eaten?
19. Are you waiting for your life to begin “when you lose the weight?”
20. Do you feel hopeless about your relationship with food?
@DrSharma
Burlington, ON
