Am I a Food Addict? I'm Very Overweight and Can't Stop Overeating.
The problem is that I am obsessed with food. It’s all I think about. I’ll finish breakfast at home with my wife and start plotting out which of the drive throughs I’ll hit on the way in to work for a second breakfast my wife doesn’t know about. And in the evenings it’s worse. I watch TV and eat and if I am not snacking I am just dreaming about all the things I want to be eating.
I am trying to exert some will power over myself but my thoughts about food and my cravings are really relentless and I can’t seem to control myself and I am getting bigger by the year. How can I diet and lose weight if I can never stop thinking about and eating food even for 20 minutes? Is there something wrong with me, like some sort of mental illness that makes me act like this? Or am I just someone with no will power? How do you lose weight when diets won’t work?
William Anderson Says...
Yes, you are a food addict, but no, there is not something unusually wrong with you. A lot of other people have this same problem too. Many do not know it until they try to stop overeating. The problem you have is very common, incredibly tormenting, and a lot of work to recover from. However, it is solvable. You do not have to live the rest of your life getting worse and suffering all the torments and consequences of your compulsive overeating. I know this because I was an out-of-control overweight overeater for 25 years before I got a handle on it and lost 140 lbs.. I have maintained my success since then, 1985, and I have been helping others since. Diets didn't work for me either, but Behavioral Medicine did. I still am not "normal' (over half the population is out of control and clinically overweight) but I am not overweight and overeating anymore.
First, realize that you are in the grip of an addiction and simply trying to use will power is not an effective response. Understand that people without this problem do not understand what you are going through but they often think they do. They will give you useless advice and then blame you for failing when you are unable to follow it. Don't give a lot of weight to what they say.
Learn more about food addiction and what you need to do to control your eating and your weight. Read my book, The Anderson Method - Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss. Visit my website, www.TheAndersonMethod.com where there is information about my program and lots of blog articles about weight control. Read some of my other Q&A answers here at ChooseHelp.com's Ask the Experts column. Visit the Overeaters' Anonymous website http://www.oa.org/ and Food Addicts Anonymous website http://www.foodaddicts.org/ .
You are exactly the age I was when I finally succeeded after 25 years of failing at diets and exercise plans. Don't give up and don't put yourself down for having the problem. Many great people have had this problem. Working to solve it is a feather in your cap.
Get started learning more with the resources I've pointed you to and don't hesitate to make contact if I can answer any more questions you have.
Page last updated Nov 14, 2011
