There is a Solution Ch 2

The Solution, The Answer, The Truth

(The Big Book adapted for food addiction in italics)

Pg 18

We hope this volume will inform and comfort those who are, or who may be affected. There are many.

 Highly competent psychiatrists who have dealt with us have found it sometimes impossible to persuade a food addict to discuss his situation without reserve. Strangely enough, wives, parents and intimate friends usually find us even more unapproachable than do the psychiatrist and the doctor.

  But the recovered food addict who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about themselves, can generally win the entire confidence of another food addict in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.

That the person who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that they obviously know what they are talking about, that their whole deportment shouts at the new prospect that they are an individual with a real answer, that they have no attitude of Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures to be endured—these are the conditions

PAGE 19

 we have found most effective. After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again.

None of us makes a sole vocation of this work, nor do we think its effectiveness would be increased if we did. We feel that elimination of our addictive eating is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes, occupations and affairs. All of us spend much of our spare time in the sort of effort which we are going to describe.A few are fortunate enough to be so situated that they can give nearly all their time to the work.

If we keep on the way we are going there is little doubt that much good will result, but the surface of the problem would hardly be scratched. Those of us who live in large cities are overcome by the reflection that close by hundreds are dropping into oblivion every day. Many could recover if they had the opportunity we have enjoyed. How then shall we present that which has been so freely given us?

We have concluded to publish an anonymous volume setting forth the problem as we see it. We shall bring to the task our combined experience and knowledge. This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a food related problem.

Of necessity there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious. We are aware that these matters are, from their very nature, controversial. Nothing would please us so much as to write a book which would contain no basis for contention or argument. We shall do our utmost to achieve that ideal. 
Most of us sense that real tolerance of other people’s shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions are attitudes which make us 

PAGE 20

more useful to others. Our very lives, as neutral food addicts, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.

You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from addictive eating. Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. If you are a food addict who wants to get over it, you may already be asking—“What do I have to do?”

It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. We shall tell you what we have done. Before going into a detailed discussion, it may be well to summarize some points as we see them. How many times people have said to us: “I can take it or leave it alone. Why can’t he?” “Why don’t you eat like a gentleman or quit?” “That fellow can’t handle his food.” “Why don’t you try low fat or sugar free?” “Lay off the rich foods.” “His will power must be weak.” “He could stop if he wanted to.” “She’s such a sweet girl, I should think he’d stop for her sake.” “The doctor told him that if he ever ate addictively  again it would kill him, but there he is shoveling it down again.”

Now these are commonplace observations on food addicts which we hear all the time. Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. We see that these expressions refer to people whose reactions are very different from ours.

Moderate eaters have little trouble in giving up certain foods entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.

Then we have a certain type of food addict. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair

PAGE 21

 them physically and mentally. It may cause them to die a few years before their time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this person can also stop or moderate, although they may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.

But what about the real food addict? They may start off as a moderate eater; they may or may not become a continuous over eater; but at some stage of their eating career they begin to lose all control of their food consumption, once they start to eat.

Here is the person who has been puzzling you, especially in their lack of control. They do absurd, incredible, tragic things while eating. They are a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They are seldom mildly eating. They are always more or less insanely numbed out. Their disposition while eating addictively resembles their normal nature but little. They may be one of the finest folks in the world. Yet let them binge for a day, and they frequently become disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. They have a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. They are often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except eating, but in that respect they are incredibly dishonest and selfish. They often possesse special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and have a promising career ahead of them. They use their gifts to build up a bright outlook for their family and themselves, and then pull the structure down on their head with a senseless series of binges. They are the fellow who goes to bed so numbed out they ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next

PAGE 22

 morning they search madly through the trash for the leftovers they threw out the night before. If they can afford it, they may have packages concealed all over the house to be certain no one gets their entire supply away from them to throw in the dumpster. As matters grow worse, they begin to use a combination of antidepressants and binge foods to quiet their nerves so they can go to work. Then comes the day when they simply cannot make it and pick up all over again. Perhaps they go to a doctor who gives them anti anxiety drugs or some anti-depressant with which to taper off. Then they begin to appear at hospitals and maybe even a treatment center.

This is by no means a comprehensive picture of the true food addict, as our behavior patterns vary. But this description should identify them roughly.

Why does they behave like this? If hundreds of experiences have shown them that one bite, one lick, one taste means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it they take that first bite? Why can’t they stay obstinate? What has become of the common sense and will power that they still sometimes display with respect to other matters?

Perhaps there never will be a full answer to these questions. Opinions vary considerably as to why the food addict reacts differently from normal people.

We are not sure why, once a certain point is reached, little can be done for them. We cannot answer the riddle. We know that while the food addict keeps away from binge foods, as they may do for months or years, they react much like other folks We are equally positive that once they take a bite whatever into their system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for them to

PAGE 23

 stop. The experience of any food addict will abundantly confirm this.

These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the bite, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the food addicted person centers in their mind, rather than in their body. If you ask them why they started on that last binge, the chances are they will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc a food addict’s eating bout creates. They sound like the philosophy of the person who, having a headache, beats themselves on the head with a hammer so that they can’t feel the ache. If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of a food addict, they will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.

Once in a while they may tell the truth. And the truth, strange to say, is usually that they have no more idea why they took that first bite than you have. Some food addicts have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count.

How true this is, few realize. In a vague way their families and friends sense that these folks are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse themselves from their lethargy and assert their power of will. 

The tragic truth is that if the man be a real food addict, the happy day may not arrive. He has lost 

PAGE 24

control. At a certain point in the life of every food addict, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop eating addictively is of absolutely no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected.

 The fact is that most food addicts, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in eating addictively. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first bite. 

The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a taste do not crowd into the mind to deter us. If these thoughts occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people. There is a complete failure of the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove. 

The food addict may say to himself in the most casual way, “It won’t burn me this time, so here’s how!” Or perhaps he doesn’t think at all. How often have some of us begun to eat in this nonchalant way, and after the third or fourth portion , pounded on the table and said to ourselves, “For God’s sake, how did I ever get started again?” Only to have that thought supplanted by “Well, I’ll stop with the sixth plate.” Or “What’s the use anyhow?” 

When this sort of thinking is fully established in an individual with addictive tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or go permanently insane. These stark and ugly facts have been confirmed by legions of 

PAGE 25

food addicts throughout history. But for the grace of God, there would have been thousands more convincing demonstrations. So many want to stop but cannot.

There is a solution. Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation. But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.

The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences* which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God’s universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.

 If you are as seriously addicted as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help. This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.

How is the  Real Food Addict Different from the Problem Eater?

   Livestock Fattening Pyramid             Food Pyramid from the FDA

The Twofold Disease of Addiction

Notes and Credits

2 Week Starter for Men