TRANSFER ADDICTION
(Reckless abandon?)
By: Jennifer Ross Sawyer, MA, LPC, NCC, Jennifer Ross Sawyer, Counseling and Consultation
After Weight Loss Surgery, some people get in trouble. The people who are most at risk are those who have food addiction.
What causes addiction, anyway? I’ve heard it said that people who become alcoholic or addicts of any sort are people who are wounded. They have metaphorical holes in their hearts. Nothing will stop the pain except cramming something into that hole.
For some of us, that something is food. For others, it is alcohol, drugs, sex, smoking, shopping, exercising, scrap booking, crocheting, surfing the web, or engaging in some activity which is harmless in moderation but steals life from the person involved when overdone.
Make note that some of the activities I mentioned are “good.” And, surely, if you have to switch addictions, it would be better for you to switch to a “good” activity.
There is a characteristic that an addict has that is rather interesting. This characteristic is reckless abandon of his or her own well-being and the well-being of others. Sometimes after WLS, particularly during the honeymoon period, patients are most susceptible to this feeling that they are invincible. This feeling sometimes leads to risk-taking that is harmful.
After losing weight, possibly being thin for the first time, feeling good about one’s body, looking great in clothing, taking care of one’s personal appearance , being treated differently by others, having more opportunity socially, in relationships, or in career, the feeling that one is above reproach, that one can climb a tall building in a single bound, that one is hot, hot, hot can mislead the patient into believing that nothing bad could happen if he or she were to get involved in sexual, substance, or other risky behaviors.
If what causes us to latch onto addiction is a hole in our hearts, why not make our next project to find the cause behind that hole and figure out how to heal from the inside out?
Use your personal resources. Help yourself overcome the pain without stuffing a mindless activity into the hole.
You alone can do this. But, you cannot do it alone.
