In the 1930s, Alcoholics Anonymous developed the 12-step process to bring recovery to alcoholics. Today that process also helps drug addicts, problem gamblers, problem shoppers and individuals with eating disorders.
Anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating, and other unspecified eating disorders are addictions that both females and males are prone to. While these diseases present with food issues, they are grounded in misperception of body weight and shape and compelling and erroneous thinking sufferers need to control their lives in an out of control world.
These disorders are clinically considered psychiatric/psycho-spiritual diseases. They are progressive in nature and ultimately fatal (albeit slowly) if left untreated. At times in one's illness, the individual may practise any or all versions on the continuum of maladaptive eating. Sufferers invariably, however, revert to their favoured version.
The patient is powerless over their illness. These diseases are not "poor behaviour" or "lack of willpower."
Individuals in recovery can live healthy, happy and fulfilling lives if they persevere with a 12-step recovery program. Central to this recovery is accepting a Higher Power in one's life and surrendering to the will of that Power.
Eating disorders, like all other addictions, are family diseases. The untreated sufferer unconsciously passes on their distorted thinking around thinness to their children and all those around them.
Similarly, where the family norm supports excessive food intake on a daily basis or uses food as a reward, compulsive overeating thrives. These toxic attitudes become ingrained into the family culture and pass from one generation to the next.
Often there is a history of childhood trauma, neglect or abuse (sexual, physical or mental) and a family history of addiction. Sometimes there is no identifiable cause for these diseases.
Sufferers generally have a driving need for perfection and are supported in this by intense societal pressures to be thin. Patients perceive themselves as fat and believe the critical voices in their head that demand they run another mile. Compulsive overeaters and bulimics, on the other hand, tend to use food to numb unpleasant feelings. As they gain weight, they become depressed and self-soothe with food to compensate for their pain. The vortex is then self-sustaining.
Anorexics and bulimics experience poor memory, chronic infections, rubbery legs, fluctuating moods and depression. Eventually they grow fine hairs on their faces, their kidneys fail, the roots of their teeth become visible, and they develop diabetes and experience heart disease or vision loss. Compulsive overeaters are subject to increased joint wear, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Clinical depression and other mood disorders often coexist with eating disorders.
Individuals with these diseases do not heal in isolation. They require protracted care from a general practitioner and/or psychiatrist. They may need to be admitted to a specialized treatment program. All respond best when they work a 12-step recovery program in community with others who share these diseases.
If you have a problem with food or know someone who has, there is an Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous (open to compulsive overeaters) meeting at Sunshine Coast Avalon Centre, 5549 Wharf St., Sechelt. Call 604-740-5828 or 604-885-2995 for times.
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