Comments on: Denial: Not exclusive to addiction

By: Yulia

Yulia — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:40:09 +0000

Thanks for the great post!!!It just helped me so much in realising and understanding my eating disorder and being really active in recovery.I had BED all throughout my teenage years but i was skinny cuz I was an athlete and people would not believe me that I eat enourmous amounts of food when feeling stressed and feeling so much out of control doing this.I even got people saying:if you claim that it seems you are anorexic -you shouldn’t worry about eating a lot if you are so skinny and train so much(I was not compulsive exerciser I just liked running an never exercised for staying thin.I was actually ahting exercise after a binge cuz it all hurt).I think it is always wrong if you eat a lot/eat too little FOR THE WRONG REASONS.If someone eats a lot cuz they haven’t had the chance to eat food cuz they worked or sth the whole day and they are too hungry this is normal.If someone is having flu and they eat very little cuz they feel sick this is normal.But when everything comes from the head that’s when the ED starts.I was always emotional eater hiding behind skinny perosnality and this was affecting my life.When later I actually started to put on weight and became no longer skinny due to my ED kicking in-and this seriosly affected my athletic performance and my ED got into the darker side of fad dieting and bulimia to the state that now I am so severely depressed ,that I am much unhealthier than I used to be and that I my athletics performance is at stage that I really have to do so much work to get back,not mentioning the daily strruggles with body image and bulimic behaviour,when I think about it and how I got to this stage,how many things I lost and that if I only trusted myself that somethiing with my eating is wrong earlier on…but i prefered to see myself as normal more when I was still healthy and in an earlier stage…it would have saved so much pain and wouldnt have lost so many things…but since all the recovery is done by walking the sam road that lead you to the ED but backwards,I do believe that from now I should always be aware of my ED at least in the next 7 years.And I should ignore people telling me :”Get this piece of chocolate it will help you overcome the stress,come on,don’t be that snob” or “I feel offended cuz you haven’t tried the cookies I baked you are so skinny you should not worry about getting fat”.It is inetersting how all those people saying this stuff to me are now being ironic to me about putting on weight.

By: Elise

Elise — Mon, 10 May 2010 02:27:00 +0000

There are some other conditions, as well as the ones you listed, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I think that Dr. Drew was thinking more in terms of medical conditions like asthma, diabetes, a sinus infection, etc. At least that’s what flashed into my mind when I watched it. Thanks for the great post!

By: Killer B

Killer B — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:03:52 +0000

…of course the other side of this potential debate could show that almost every ego-syntonic disorder will involve some degree of denial. At that point, would every ego-syntonic disorder involve some form of addiction?

By: Killer B

Killer B — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:00:12 +0000

@greythinking re: FamilyInsights.net/Cesar:

Yes.

Depression is an addiction to sadness. PTSD is an addiction to avoidance.

Granted that’s not all there is to either of those two disorders (not by a longshot), but still…

By: Dr. Mark

Dr. Mark — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:28:50 +0000

I think, Dr. Drew ,is right holding the assertion.But I mustn’t fail to put in that there is a great distinction between addiction and eating disorder.

Although all EDs. be it, Bulimia Nervosa, Compulsive Overeating,Anorexia Nervosa, e.t.c. there are certain dangers to victims.

The element surrounding all Eating Disorders is the inherent presence of a low self esteem. Concidering some of the eating disorder as an addiction, we need to draw a line between addiction and eating disorder, because not all the eating disorder is an addiction.

By: Rev. Doc. Mark

Rev. Doc. Mark — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:06:24 +0000

Honestly you are very much right with the assertion you are holding on EDs.

The element surrounding all Eating Disorders is the inherent presence of a low self esteem.
Looking into the EDs in general, It is irrefutable that all eating disorder, Anorexia Nervosa,
Compulsive Overeating, Binge Eating Disorder. etc. are active. Although not all the EDs has to be matched under a group.

It is also irrefutable that there is a great distinction between the word adiction disorder.

By: greythinking

greythinking — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:20:19 +0000

Kate,

Wish I could ask Dr. Drew if he considered EDs to be an addiction! Maybe I should call into Loveline

– grey

By: greythinking

greythinking — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:19:06 +0000

Cesar,

I definitely agree that some of the eating disorder is addictive, and that there are many similarities between eating disorders and addiction. I personally wouldn’t lump EDs under the same umbrella as drugs/alcohol addiction (unless it were a pretty large/generic umbrella), but know that others do. Still, though… would you consider depression or PTSD to be an addiction? I think there can be a lot of denial around those issues, too.

grey

By: FamilyInsights.net

FamilyInsights.net — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:51:05 +0000

I wonder if Dr. Drew meant “addictions” to include all addictions. Let’s face it, there is a very addictive component to an eating disorder. In fact, for many people, part of what an eating disorder gives to them is a “high.” So at least for me, I would have to hear the quote in its context to determine whether or not I agree.

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:12:32 +0000

Maybe dr. Drew includes eating disorders as an addiction. I don’t think he was referring soley to drug addiction. But great post either way