Food Addiction Help

Like addiction to drugs or alcohol, problematic eating behavior often begins as a way to manage stress, turn up the volume on pleasant emotions (like happiness or comfort), or dampen uncomfortable feelings (like anxiety, anger, or sadness).

Alcohol and drug addiction are specific in that they center on addiction to a substance. If you struggle with food, you may have what is called a behavioral addiction. In other words, you may be addicted to or dependent on behaviors rather than substances.

Behavioral addictions may involve things like compulsive sex, gambling, or shopping; they can also involve restricting your food intake or bingeing (eating large quantities at one time). You may have difficulty stopping these behaviors and you may also get a sort of “natural high” similar to that seen with alcohol and drug addictions.

Any addiction shares some common characteristics in that it is chronic, with numerous relapses. It involves a compulsion to seek and “use” a behavior or a substance, and loss of control over how much and when you use or obsess about using. For some, when a “food fix” is not available, you may feel panicked, angry, sad, or otherwise distressed.

Since 2010, researchers at Yale University have been using the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to identify people with food addiction—a construct that is not currently featured in the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Using the same criteria used to identify people with substance use disorders, they have found that 5 to 10 percent of the general population test positive on the YFAS, including 7 percent of children tested. The YFAS also shows that what the developers count as food addiction is 15 to 25 percent higher in those who are living in larger bodies. Even higher rates are found in those who are seeking bariatric surgery or in obese individuals with binge eating disorder (30 to 50 percent).

Binge eating disorder shares a number of characteristics with what has been called food addiction, and an estimated 57 percent of people diagnosed with binge eating disorder meet criteria for it. In both disorders, people experience a lack of control over their eating, continued overeating despite negative consequences, and the inability to change their behaviors. Though there is some overlap between binge eating disorder and the concept of food addiction, there are also thought to be differences, including (in the latter case) poorer self-esteem, depression, and difficulty regulating emotions.

Those who scored positive on the YFAS tended to get more of their calories from fat and protein, rather than carbohydrates. They also were more likely to have a history of child physical or sexual abuse.

Once you begin down this road of eating too much of certain foods that you obsess about, imbalances develop in your body and your brain that lead to food cravings. This is similar to what happens with drugs of abuse. Again, not everyone who uses drugs or drinks or obsesses about particular foods becomes an addict.

If you are using food to deal with either positive emotions or negative emotions, if food is your way of feeling comfort or escaping from stress—then it is your use of food that’s the problem, not the food itself. Anything you do that gives you a reward can potentially be abused—whether it is food, sex, gambling, drinking, or any other activity. But if you focus only on eliminating the food you feel is responsible, you will miss out on a deeper form of recovery. This deeper form could be termed a journey to discovery because so many people with addictions have never known who they are at their essence.

I encourage you to just open your mind to the idea that what you’re addicted to is a particular kind of eating, because, unlike with drugs, you can’t abstain from food. If you decide that certain foods are bad or wrong or “addictive,” you will just continue in the same cycle of restriction, compulsion, and shame—the mindset associated with your obsession with food that has caused you so much pain and suffering already.

Thoughts about food, eating, your weight, or your size can take over your life and make you feel isolated, hopeless, and unhappy. Your food obsessions may cause low self-esteem, anxiety, or panic attacks. You may feel sad, irritable, or emotionally detached or numb. Your work performance may suffer and you may feel isolated from your friends and family members. People in these circumstances often avoid social events because of embarrassment about their eating behaviors. It’s important to heal the condition to enable you to get back into the life you want.