Main Entry: en·abler

Pronunciation: \i-ˈnā-blər, -bəl-ər\

Function: noun Date: 1615:

one that enables another to achieve an end ; especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior

food ADDICTION

Food addiction manifests itself in the uncontrollable craving for excess food that follows the ingestion of refined carbohydrates, primarily sugar and flour substances that are quickly metabolized and turned into sugar in the bloodstream.

Due to those uncontrollable cravings, a food addict's quality of life deteriorates when he or she eats sugar, flour or wheat. It can deteriorate physically, emotionally, socially and/or spiritually.

If any of the following symptoms are familiar to you, you may be a food addict:

Physical Symptoms of Food Addiction

• Do you think you cannot control your intake of food, especially junk food or high sugar foods?

• Have you tried different diets or weight loss programs, but none has worked permanently?

• Have you found yourself vomiting, using laxatives, diuretics, or exercising a lot to avoid a weight gain after you have eaten a lot?

Many food addicts are obese and have tried numerous methods for weight control (diets, drugs, surgery, etc.) yet nothing has created a permanent solution. Other food addicts have never been obese. Their physical weight has been controlled by extreme measures such as excessive exercise, purging through vomiting or laxatives (bulimia), or the severe and unhealthy limiting of food substances(anorexia). No matter which version of food addiction fits you, all of these symptoms become more severe with time and eventually lead to physical problems that can create an early and sometimes painful death.

Emotional Symptoms of Food Addiction

• Do you find yourself feeling depressed, hopeless, sad or ashamed about your eating or your weight?

• Do you find yourself eating when you are upset or reward yourself with food when you do something good?

• Have you ever noticed after eating sugar, flour, or wheat that you become more irritable?

Food addicts notice that their emotions become more severe, intense, or unreasonable when eating the addictive substances. For many food addicts, emotional life may deteriorate into despair, depression, or thoughts of suicide.

Social Symptoms of Food Addiction

• Do you eat in private so no one will see you?

• Do you avoid social interactions because you feel you do not look good enough or do not have the proper fitting clothes to wear?

• Do you steal other people’s food?

• Are you more interested in what food is served at social gatherings than looking forward to the warmth of being with the people attending?

A food addict’s social life is affected by intense obsessive thinking about food. Making eye contact with people and taking an interest in developing friendships or intimate relationships become secondary to locating and eating addictive foods. Food addicts often hide or steal foods and eat in secret.

I am a food addict...But....I never ate in private..i was totally open with it because I thought this was it..This was all that was left for me....BOY was I wrong...

I will always love food but not like that anymore.....I am becoming free of the affects of food addiction and I hope and plan to remain that way for the rest of my life...

A good reminder posting this!

I am a food addict and I only ate in private!

I would eat very little around people.

I would wait until I was alone.... Then I would relax and sooth myself by stuffing food.

Being around other people triggers my impulse to eat.. And sometimes I still find myself mindlessly picking up chips or a snack food just because that was my whole life in social settings.

I will forever be a recovering food addict and this site's more or less my personal support sponsor

*sits back down*

Being around other people triggers my impulse to eat.. And sometimes I still find myself mindlessly picking up chips or a snack food just because that was my whole life in social settings.

I will forever be a recovering food addict and this site's more or less my personal support sponsor

*sits back down*

You know this is kinda what I'm getting at this morning, being around other people....

But in the sense of all of them being food addicts,

and enabling each other in their food addictions.

Very good post....can so relate, thank you for posting!

my mother hid food all the time, ate in secret, and then denied it. As an elderly woman, she still hides food and is still in denial..........early in our marriages, my siblings and I all hid food in our homes and thought it was normal.....thank gooness those days are long gone.

After VSG I find going out to a restaurant with a group challenging, because if I don't move that plate away after my few bites, I'd probably pick at the food while everyone else was eating theirs....even if I was full--so that's an ongoing battle, but at least now I will push the plate away.

The support that comes from VST and my local group, has helped tremendously. Thanks again!

Edited November 1, 201312 yr by PGee

Read these how does it make you feel??

...dying for something crunchy! I ate a small bag of Bbq Fritos driving home from work so that my husband wouldn't ask me any questions! They were delish... Sent from my iPhone using VST

Well I'm 15 days out. I lasted about a week on the soft liquids . Started with cottage cheese ' date=' then progressed to 10 days and ate a hamburger Pattie. Ruff , but men worth it. If that isn't enough I went to costco the other day for Protein and walked around and got full on the samples. I took down. Everything from moon pies to taquitos. Last but not least tonight being Halloween . I raided the kids bags for anything with Peanut Butter and all the almond joys my lil sleeve could take. Needless to say I feel disgusting rite now. Sweating bullets like a ***** in church. Lmao.[/quote']

It's Halloween and I ate chocolate... Lotsa... Wrote in MFP' date=' tomorrow new day. PS kit kats still taste awesome![/quote']

I can't believe this thread is still going strong' date=' LOL!!! Going to the renaissance faire with my hubby and some friends this weekend. I'm sure I will return with a ton of debauchery to report come Monday Funnel cakes. Turkey legs. Scotch eggs. Cider. Beer. Mead. More cider. Pirogis. Even more cider. Some more mead ... LOL ...[/quote']

I am most definitely an addict. I didn't ever eat in private, but every waking hour revolved (and still resolves) around food. My mom is an addict also and raised me that way from a young age. "We had a bad day, let's treat ourselves." "We had a good day, let's treat ourselves." "I'm bored. Let's have a snack." I honestly do not know how to associate with people without food. Every friendship I've ever had, we would get together for a meal. My new plan is to meet people for activities instead of meals. I also ditched a few "friends" that really were not healthy friendships for me and am only keeping positive people in my life that support my goals.

I'm 2 weeks out of surgery, and tonight my Aunt is coming in to town and I have to go to my parent's house, so I'm scared. I told my dad that they should have dinner and when they are done they can call me and I'll come over. That way I won't have to endure as much food pressure.

I can't wait for the day that it will become easier... it probably will never go away entirely, but I will accept any improvement. It took 30 years for me to get where I am now, so it'll take a while to undo all those bad habits!

Laura - those posts you just posted make me feel sick. These people obviously missed the entire point of the surgery. It makes me sad to read stuff like that on here... when people post it, it seems like they want to have their bad actions validated and have someone tell them, "It's OK. We all make mistakes." We do all make mistakes, but 15 days out of surgery having a burger? Really? You could justify yourself back to your starting weight and all of the pain and money would be for nothing. This has to be a life-altering, life-long commitment.

They make me feel a lot of things....

Sick, scared, angry, concerned.

And for some of us. It gives the green light.

For me It does not get easier with time..

if anything it more challenging! Easier to become complacent.

I come here for support and to support.

But there are days when I question whether I should be here.

I am most definitely an addict. I didn't ever eat in private' date=' but every waking hour revolved (and still resolves) around food. My mom is an addict also and raised me that way from a young age. "We had a bad day, let's treat ourselves." "We had a good day, let's treat ourselves." "I'm bored. Let's have a snack." I honestly do not know how to associate with people without food. Every friendship I've ever had, we would get together for a meal. My new plan is to meet people for activities instead of meals. I also ditched a few "friends" that really were not healthy friendships for me and am only keeping positive people in my life that support my goals. I'm 2 weeks out of surgery, and tonight my Aunt is coming in to town and I have to go to my parent's house, so I'm scared. I told my dad that they should have dinner and when they are done they can call me and I'll come over. That way I won't have to endure as much food pressure. I can't wait for the day that it will become easier... it probably will never go away entirely, but I will accept any improvement. It took 30 years for me to get where I am now, so it'll take a while to undo all those bad habits![/quote']

Oh and I had surgery right before thanksgiving. I excused myself from it because I was in the mourning stages with food and I knew it would put undue stress and sadness.

That's what worked for me at that moment I know that not what works for everyone.

But I needed the space.

I understand. My family doesn't really "celebrate" Thanksgiving but we all end up together with a crap ton of food. I'm thinking of going late after everyone has eaten. Even though it's still a month away and I'll be on soft foods, I'm not sure I can handle it. I might have someone set aside a tbsp of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (or whatever soft stuff there is) on a little plate. Otherwise, it's too fresh for me to trust myself. I'm still in the highly addicted stage.... I need to avoid food like an alcoholic needs to avoid a bar!

Guilty I'm a total enabler but I was never a closeted eater..

Edited November 1, 201312 yr by soocalchic

Guilty I'm a total enabler but I was never a closeted eater..

My mom is like you.. I think it helps her not eat when she's pushing it on others..

Edited November 1, 201312 yr by laura-ven

You're right. Depending on what support you're looking for this site can be either good or bad for us.

For me, I need the slap in the face, tear me apart reality that slipping up is not an option.

People need to realize that sure eating like you did before might be working now, but it's not going to work down the road and it's going to lead right back to pre-op stats/issues.

I firmly believe our wls will only be long term effective if we take advantage of it and change our eating ways while it's easier in the beginning.

What a great thread Laura. Yes, this place is a hot bed of enabling. All the "I ate a snickers bar one week post op and I don't feel bad about it....."

Yeah, those people see that as a victory over food guilt, but they fail to see it reads like a go ahead to eat snickers bars to all the people who aren't sure what they should or can eat. Then they follow it up with...."I'm still losing weight just fine....."

Yes you are, for now. You may make it all the way to goal and maintain goal forever like that, but the odds are against you. The majority of people either don't make it to goal or can't maintain it unless they have some control over what they're eating. That's the message we really need to be sending out....not "I eat whatever I wanna eat." Didn't we all eat whatever we wanted to eat before surgery? It clearly didn't work for us then. Not one of us.

And, as we've discussed before, you can't say one word about it or you get called a bully and accused of being non supportive. Is this a support forum? Yes it is. Have you ever been to a support group? If you walk into an AA meeting and announce that you drank a case of beer and you don't feel guilty about it, you're likely to catch hell. Patting people on the back and telling them that their life threatening behavior is ok is not support. It is enabling. Support is trying to help people save their own life. And make no mistake, obesity is as deadly as anything we're likely to face.

Yes I make mistakes. I'm not perfect. Far from it. I've eaten candy, pie and donuts....all in the last month. But I don't say "I eat anything I want" because if I truly did I'd be living on candy, pie and donuts. I have to exercise some self control. And unfortunately the sleeve is no substitute for self control. It will not control your portions adequately to allow you to eat whatever your heart desires.

Sorry if I ventured off topic a little.