March 26, 2021
By Brooke Randolph – creator of Sober and Hungry
DISCLAIMER: This information is meant for people with established sobriety, generally defined as a year or more of continuous abstinence from drugs and alcohol. While good nutrition habits are encouraged in early sobriety, it’s important to focus on your recovery from your primary substance use before tackling addiction transfer or overeating/food issues. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
You know the signs:
Intense cravings.
Mental chatter all day long.
Swearing that you won’t use today, only to find yourself at 5 PM grabbing anything that will satisfy the urge.
Nope – I’m not talking about alcohol.
I’m talking about food and the all-too-common experience of addiction transfer.
Over 60% of people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction identify as cross-addicted to another substance. Increasingly, that substance is food. While the impact of any given binge-eating episode isn’t as severe as, say a night of binge drinking, the emotional experience is just as demoralizing. In fact, the shame from an inability to control overeating maybe even worse.
What is Addiction Transfer to Food?
Addiction transfer occurs when we find ourselves behaving compulsively with food after quitting drugs and alcohol.
A lot has been written about the addictive qualities of highly palatable foods – i.e., foods with high sugar, salt, and fat content, usually processed and packaged. But ask anyone with compulsive behavior with food, and they’ll confirm – even “healthy” foods can be overeaten.
This means that food addiction can’t be defined by the types of foods that we overeat. Instead, it’s defined by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that fuel the overeating cycle.
When “stuffed and high” means “happy”.
When we overeat, our brain releases an abnormally large flood of dopamine. This is a feel-good reward chemical that gives us that “ahhhhhh…” feeling.
When we STOP eating highly palatable foods, we deprive our brains of that flood, reverting instead to a normal drip of dopamine. While bodies are readjusting, we feel, frankly, awful.
We spend so much time, energy, and money trying to control and fix these physical sensations in our body. This is what diets promise – “CURE cravings! EASY weight loss! NEVER be hungry!” It doesn’t work. Fortunately, we’ve been misplacing our control – we don’t have to control these sensations. We need to control our response to them.
- To Start Healing, Press Pause
This urge/panic/overeat cycle is so ingrained that it’s invisible. We have to interrupt the cycle, so that we can change it.
When you feel the urge to overeat – hit Pause. Take a deep breath and notice how your body feels: Tight. Short breaths. Obsessive or extremely negative thoughts. Nerves on fire. Tense. This is your body in fight-or-flight – this is your body in panic mode.
Your mind may be racing, so go into your body instead, and release all tension. More deeply. And even deeper than that. Keep breathing out the fight.
Notice how nothing bad is happening to you, other than physical sensations in your body.
Distracting thoughts are not harmful.
A feeling of hollowness in the body – not harmful.
Tingly nerves – uncomfortable, but not harmful.
Lethargy or lower energy – not fun, but also not harmful.
- Let Your Body Do What It Needs to Do
Again, our power lies in our emotional response to what’s happening. Notice where you’re demanding comfort even though your body needs to experience some discomfort in order to change. How to treat your body with kindness so that you can stop overeating? Let it know that it’s ok to feel uncomfortable:
“I’m uncomfortable right now.”
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘬.
“I want something that I’m not getting.”
𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘬.
“I’m not doing anything to change the way my body feels right now.”
𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘬.
The craving will still be there, but it’s more manageable when you’re not demanding anything different from it.
The more you practice this, the more you allow your body and mind to heal. And eventually, your serenity will be stronger than your food addiction.
- Learn How to be Emotionally Comfortable with Physical Discomfort
This is going to go against everything that feels “normal” to you. It’s totally radical to take contrary emotional action. But it works.
You can’t fight your food addiction away. You can’t willpower it away, diet it away, or flee from it.
You have to relax it away.
Once you learn how, it’s simple, repeatable, and a highly effective tool to start the journey out of this very real issue. This is how you can begin to “rewire” your mind when it comes to overeating triggers (both physical and environmental). When you’re able to truly pause and respond instead of automatically react – that is where your power is to stop overeating and start changing your relationship with food.
