Chapter 3 Deprivation

Hello there!
Sorry for the delay in this post, I finally found some more time to be able to read! I'm really glad that I did because I am still loving what I'm reading. Anyway, this chapter is on deprivation and there was quite a few things that I liked about this chapter. It talks about how food addicts are use to getting the minimum. But, we can't go without anything, she uses this as an example: "When an emotional need goes unmet, we may try novel approaches. We may try to get it from other people. We may try to persuade ourselves we never really needed it anyway. If it continues to be unmet, does it go away? Let's look at the body. If it gets insufficient oxygen, does it say, 'oh, well, not today. Maybe I can get some oxygen tomorrow?' No, the need for oxygen is not related to the supply. Oxygen is needed whether its is supplied or not. Affection, trust, safety, and honesty are needed whether they are supplied or not. Emotional needs don't go way. But we can learn to shut them down or to substitute something else for the true need. Food addicts substitute food." I think this is an excellent way of explaining how I feel, because this is emotionally eating, and I do it constantly. She also talks about how when you eat sugar or refines starch it triggers your appetite and your obsession with food, that is the reason most diets don't work with people because even if you eat just a little bit it triggers that need and you can't stop yourself. She said that trying to go off sugar is just like trying to go off any other drug, it is very uncomfortable and hard and you need a very strong support system to be able to do it, but just like any addict they don't want help or don't know if they can handle help.

She goes on to explain some characteristics that food addicts share are, and I won't list all of them, but I will list the ones that I think apply directly with me.....
"We are impulsive: We sometimes make important decisions with very little thought or research.
We are secretive: We prefer that no one know all about what we're doing. We may cloak this by being too open about other things.
We are often in a care taking role. We see the pain of others and reach out. The problem with this is that we often end up caring for others when we need someone to care for us. We tend to give when we need to receive."

She goes on to talk about how we haven't learned to communicate and really talk about a situation we just automatically say yes or no, instead of talking about it. Even with situations with ourselves, such as pushing yourself to get a task done instead of getting what you really need such as rest.