When considering how to be most helpful to clients who have issues with weight, eating behaviors, or food, it is useful to look at three categories of eaters: Normal Eaters, Emotional Eat- ers and Food Addicts. Normal eaters can diet. Their issue with weight is primarily physical. Af- ter checking with a doctor for medical complications, they have to eat less calories, fat and sweets while increas- ing their exercise. This often requires attitude and behavioral changes that are not easy but can be done alone, with a counselor or in a commercial weight loss program. Emotional eaters cannot diet success- fully. Their problem is not just physical but also psychological: something is “eating them.” These clients need help learning to identify and communicate feelings, be assertive, reframe societal notions of beauty, make peace with family, and resolve abuse issues, in ad- dition to changing their eating behav- iors. Many of these people experience success after intensive therapeutic work for a few months or years. Then there are food addicts. These people find it impossible to stop abus- ing food. At first, they binge once in a while but over time there is increasing loss of control. Many try therapy for un- derlying psychological problems but this doesn’t change their relationship with food, at least for long. They are chemically dependent on food in exactly the same way alcoholics or drug addicts are dependent on their substance. Un- like normal eaters and emotional eaters, food addicts need to abstain from their binge and trigger foods completely. Middle stage food addicts often need peer support such as Overeaters Anon- ymous (OA) or other food-related 12- Step fellowships. In addition to 12-Step support, late stage food addicts, like advanced alcoholics and drug ad- dicts, often need professional support, sometimes even repeated treatment. Diets and talk therapy alone don’t work over time for food addicts. The recovery process for a food addict begins with abstinence from the one or more specific foods over which they have lost control. This often includes challenging food addiction denial and being rigorously honest about difficult thoughts and feelings. For long term recovery, food addicts frequently need to work on deep emotional and spiri- tual issues while abstaining from their addictive foods. A therapist working with a food addict uses a markedly different paradigm than when working with eating disordered clients. Eating disorder therapists focus first on underlying issues and work toward their client being able to eat all foods in moderation. A therapist working with a food addicted client deals with the food first; everything the therapist does is directed at maintaining physical abstinence. When irrational thinking or prior trauma arise, the focus is on dealing with these issues in order to remain abstinent. Through challenging food addiction denial clients must come to the point where they accept their inability to eat certain foods the way normal eaters can do with impunity. Even more significant, middle and late stage food addicts must accept that their thinking about addictive foods has been so distorted by the disease that their judgment about these foods is unreliable even after they are in recovery. Many middle and late stage food ad- dicts need to become part of a re- covering community such as the food related 12-Step fellowships in order ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services Information on the Science of Food Addiction & Effective Treatments Presented by foodaddiction.com “Some people are addicted to specific foods – or food in general – the same way that some people are addicted to alcohol or drugs.” (foodaddiction.com) Normal Eater Emotional Eater Food Addict Chart Scientific Evidence of Food Addiction What Works for Food Addicts? Journey of a Food Addict: A Story in Pictures How ACORN Recovery Services Can Help You In This Brochure You Will Find: FOOD ADDICTION Beyond Ordinary Eating Disorders Revised from “Food Addiction: Beyond Ordinary Eating Disorders,” The Clinical Forum, International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, Winter, 1994. Philip R. Werdell, M.A.
Transcript
When considering how to be most helpful to clients who have issues with weight, eating behaviors, or food, it is useful to look at three categories of eaters: Normal Eaters, Emotional Eat-ers and Food Addicts.
Normal eaters can diet. Their issue with weight is primarily physical. Af-ter checking with a doctor for medical complications, they have to eat less calories, fat and sweets while increas-ing their exercise. This often requires attitude and behavioral changes that are not easy but can be done alone, with a counselor or in a commercial weight loss program.
Emotional eaters cannot diet success-fully. Their problem is not just physical but also psychological: something is “eating them.” These clients need help learning to identify and communicate feelings, be assertive, reframe societal notions of beauty, make peace with family, and resolve abuse issues, in ad-dition to changing their eating behav-iors. Many of these people experience success after intensive therapeutic work for a few months or years.
Then there are food addicts. These people find it impossible to stop abus-ing food. At first, they binge once in a while but over time there is increasing loss of control. Many try therapy for un-derlying psychological problems but this doesn’t change their relationship with food, at least for long. They are chemically dependent on food in exactly the same way alcoholics or drug addicts are dependent on their substance. Un-like normal eaters and emotional eaters, food addicts need to abstain from theirbinge and trigger foods completely. Middle stage food addicts often need
peer support such as Overeaters Anon-ymous (OA) or other food-related 12-Step fellowships. In addition to 12-Step support, late stage food addicts, like advanced alcoholics and drug ad-dicts, often need professional support, sometimes even repeated treatment. Diets and talk therapy alone don’t work over time for food addicts.
The recovery process for a food addict begins with abstinence from the one
or more specific foods over which they have lost control. This often includes challenging food addiction denial and being rigorously honest about difficult thoughts and feelings. For long term recovery, food addicts frequently need to work on deep emotional and spiri-tual issues while abstaining from their addictive foods.
A therapist working with a food addict uses a markedly different paradigm than when working with eating disordered clients. Eating disorder therapists focus first on underlying issues and work toward their client being able to eat all foods in moderation. A therapist working with a food addicted client deals with the food first; everything the therapist does is directed at maintaining physical abstinence. When irrational thinking or prior trauma arise, the focus is on dealing with these issues in order to remain abstinent. Through challenging food addiction denial clients must come to the point where they accept their
inability to eat certain foods the way normal eaters can do with impunity. Even more significant, middle and late stage food addicts must accept that their thinking about addictive foods has been so distorted by the disease that their judgment about these foods is unreliable even after they are in recovery.
Many middle and late stage food ad-dicts need to become part of a re-covering community such as the food related 12-Step fellowships in order
ACORNFood Dependency Recovery Services
Information on the Science of Food Addiction & Effective Treatments Presented by
foodaddiction.com
“Some people are addicted to specific foods – or food in general – the same way that some people are addicted to alcohol or drugs.” (foodaddiction.com)
Normal Eater Emotional Eater Food Addict Chart
Scientific Evidence of Food Addiction
What Works for Food Addicts?
Journey of a Food Addict: A Story in Pictures
How ACORN Recovery Services Can Help You
In This Brochure You Will Find:
FOOD ADDICTIONBeyond Ordinary Eating Disorders
Revised from “Food Addiction: Beyond Ordinary Eating Disorders,” The Clinical Forum, International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, Winter, 1994. Philip R. Werdell, M.A.
to maintain stable long term recov-ery. The role of health professionals is to help people figure out for them-selves whether or not they are food addicted, then help motivate them to make their recovery a priority. This of-ten includes helping food addicts work through any resistance to surrendering to the level of support they need for ongoing abstinence and recovery.
While the principles of food addiction recovery are the same as those for alcoholism and drug addiction, there are important differences. Most food addicts abstain from sugar and other key binge foods, however there are often subtle differences in food plans among food addicts. Moreover, many food addicts began using their drug addictively in childhood, generally long before people take up alcohol or drugs. Finally, there is more variance among OA groups and other food re-lated 12-Step fellowships than there is in AA. And, because there is so little professional support for food addicts,
it often takes food addicts some time before they find the level of structure and support needed to maintain stable recovery.
A wider recognition of food addiction on the part of the therapeutic community is necessary. Some estimate that half of the obese and one quarter of overweight people are food addicted. If this is true, millions in the United States need the same level of professional support that is already available for alcoholism and drug addiction.
Many people who use 12-Step groups work with a doctor, dietitian or thera-pist who resists using the addictive model. These professionals encourage clients to focus on their underlying is-sues and to learn how to eat all foods in moderation. No health practitioner would support a drug dependent client to continue using a substance to which they have become chemically depen-dent much less have a goal of using it in moderation. �
FOOD ADDICTIONBeyond Ordinary Eating Disorders (cont. from Pg 1)
ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services is a professional organization committed to helping other food addicts. All staff members are food addicts with long-term stable abstinence and recovery. We see ACORN work as a supplement to Twelve Step work in a fellowship such as Overeaters Anonymous (OA), Food Ad-dicts Anonymous (FAA), Compulsive Eat-ers Anonymous-HOW (CEA-HOW), Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) and Grey Sheeters Anonymous (GSA). Abstinence is not dieting, and ACORN process groups are not therapy. Facilita-tors of ACORN groups are committed to putting their own abstinence first, and sharing their process of recovery with others in the group. The primary work in ACORN groups is to achieve and maintain abstinence, be rigorously honest about thoughts and feelings, and share about in-depth spiritual work starting with a food First Step, i.e., the story of one’s power-lessness and unmanageability about food.
Visit foodaddiction.com for more infor-mation. �
What is ACORN?
NORmAl EATER(with obesity)
EmOTIONAl EATER(eating disorder)
FOOD ADDICT(chemical dependency)
The problem is physical: weight
The problem is physical & mental-emotional: Binge eating, restricting, and/or purging over feelings Unresolved trauma And possibly weight (sometimes overweight and sometimes underweight)
The problem is physical, mental-emotional & spiritual: Physical craving (false starving) Mental obsession (false thinking) Self-will run riot (false self) And often trauma and weight
The solution is physical: Medically approved diet Moderate exercise Support for eating, exercise and lifestyle change
The solution is mental-emotional: Develop skills to cope with feelings other than with restricting, purging and bingeing Resolve past emotional trauma and irrational thinking (healing trauma) . . . and physical Same as for Normal Eater
The solution is spiritual: Abstinence from binge foods and abusive eating behaviors Rigorous honesty about all thoughts and feelings A disciplined spiritual program, e.g. The Twelve Steps . . . and mental-emotional and physical And all those for Normal & Emotional Eaters
What works: Willpower(less calories in, more calories out)
What works: Moderate Eating (challenge irrational thinking, resolve prior trauma)
What works: Surrender (no addictive foods, ask for help, work a spiritual program)
Normal Eater, Emotional Eater, Food Addict
So, What Works for Food Addicts?Scientific Evidence of Food Addiction
Diets alone don’t work. Simple therapy alone does not work. What works for food addicts is surrender. Surrender-ing, through physical abstinence, the foods to which they are chemically dependent. Surrendering to rigorous honesty with all thoughts and feelings about food. Surrendering to whatever structure and support is needed. Ulti-mately, surrendering to the process of a spiritual experience, i.e., the type of psychic change that has given relief and healing to thousands of chemically dependent individuals.
Most food addicts have weight prob-lems – the majority are obese, though some are a normal weight or may even be dangerously underweight. Many also have unresolved emotional trauma similar to those who are diagnosed with eating disorders, e.g. anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder. In short, most food addicts have problems simi-lar to those of normal eaters and prob-lem eaters, but for food addicts, their addiction to food must be the primary focus.
If food addicts just diet, they may lose some weight but inevitably will gain it back. If food addicts do not commit to being rigorously honest – prefer-ably with another food addict or with a healthcare professional that under-stands food addiction – they may make some gains in therapy, but will eventu-ally relapse into the food; this will make them even more anxious or depressed. To be successful in healing from food addiction, one needs to first accept that they are food addicted and then, once again, deal with this as primary.
Most successful, long-term recovering food addicts approach their physical abstinence and deeper internal healing as a spiritual discipline. One simple ap-proach to this concept is to study and practice the Twelve Steps. While this clearly is not the only way – as there are an endless number of spiritual paths that will work – the Twelve Steps are a spiritual practice specifically designed for those who suffer from addiction. �
A decade ago, there was almost no scientific evidence that food addiction existed as a chemical dependency. To-day, the evidence is abundant, far more than when alcohol and street drugs were categorized as narcotics and as addictive diseases.
There is a bibliography of 2743 peer re-viewed articles and books on food ad-diction at the Food Addiction Institute website (foodaddictioninstitute.org). There is also a new medical textbook, Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook, Brownell and Gold (eds), Oxford Press, 2012.
From what we see now, food addiction is best understood as a cluster of sev-eral different biochemical food depen-dencies. Some of the most convincing evidence includes genetic evidence, brain imaging, evidence of opioid de-pendency, evidence of cross-addiction from alcohol to food, evidence of mal-function of serotonin, evidence of over-eating stimulated by endorphins, evi-dence of hyposensitivity to insulin and addiction, evidence of food addiction as extreme celiac disease, Prader-Willi syndrome as an extreme food addic-tion, evidence of “volume addiction” to food, and inclusion of food as an addic-tive substance in models of chemical dependency. There is also scientific evidence that food addiction can be treated success-fully. Studies of Glenbeigh Psychiatric Hospital of Tampa’s food addiction treatment program and the Primary Intensives of ACORN show that when
self-assessed food addicts diagnosed by professionals as having a chemical dependency on food are treated by the same model that works in chemical dependency treatment for alcoholics and other drug addicts, there is a high degree of recovery.
There is also a body of research show-ing the effectiveness of Overeaters Anonymous and other food-related 12-Step fellowships in supporting compulsive eaters and food addicts to become food abstinent and sober. Key research citations can be found in Werdell’s letter “Dear Physicians, Dieticians and Therapists” and a full discussion on the implications of the research for food addiction treatment can be found in Cheren, et al, “Physical Craving and Food Addiction: A Review of the Science” – both at www.foodad-dictioninstitute.org.
OThER puBlICATIONS WE RECOmmEND:
Danowski and Lazaro, Why Can’t I Stop Eating? Recognizing, Understanding, and Overcoming Food Addiction, Ha-zelden, Center City, MN, 2000.
Foushi, Weldon and Werdell, Food Addiction Recovery: A New Model of Professional Support – The ACORN Primary Intensive, Evergreen, Sarasota, FL, 2007.
Werdell, Bariatric Surgery and Food Ad-diction: Preoperative Considerations, Evergreen, Sarasota, FL, 2009. �
mary Foushi, B.S. is co-founder and Ex-ecutive Director of ACORN. She holds a degree in Human Services with a specialty in Addiction Studies. Mary is a food ad-dict with over 23 years of stable recovery and is maintaining a 200-pound weight loss for over 22 years. Her strong com-mitment to recovery and her ability to
honestly relate her personal struggles and successes with food addiction offer an invaluable source of information and hope for those seeking to learn about food dependency and freedom from a life addicted to food. Mary is a CENAPS Trained Relapse Prevention Specialist, a certified food ad-diction professional, and facilitates groups, workshops, and Primary Intensives throughout the United States.
Assessment Testing and evaluation for possible chemical dependency on food. Individual appointments – in person or on the phone.
Expert Support (3 days with phil) Groups of five or less meeting from 9-5. Phil Werdell has worked with over 4000 middle and late stage food addicts.
professional Training A three-year experiential training pro-gram preparing graduates to do in-depth work with middle and late stage food addicts.
Consulting Work with organizations that want to better serve food addicts, such as in-service training for staff and developing addiction model programs.
For more information, currently scheduled events orregistration go to www.foodaddiction.com or call Raynea McCumber as 941-378-2122.
One Woman’s Story: Journey of a Food Addict in pictures
phil Werdell, m.A., Director of the ACORN/Food Addiction Institute Food Addiction Professional Training Program, has worked professionally with over 4000 middle and late stage food addicts. Mr. Werdell is a graduate of Yale University with postgradu-ate work in food addiction. He comes from a 25-year career building innovative liberal arts and graduate programs. As a food
addict professional, Mr. Werdell was lead counselor for the residential food addiction treatment program at Glenbeigh Psychiatric Hospital of Tampa and the outpatient program of Rader Institute of Washington. He is cofounder of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services and the Food Ad-diction Institute, an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to support the healing of all food addicts. Phil is the author of dozens of articles and books including, Food Addiction: Beyond Ordinary Eating Disorders; Physical Craving and Food Addiction: A Review of the Science; Food Addiction Recovery: A New Model of Professional Support; Bariatric Surgery and Food Addiction: Preoperative Consid-erations; and, “From the Front Lines: Food Addiction Treat-ment” for the new medical textbook, Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook, Brownell and Gold (2012).
