Cape Town - The relationship between people and food is often a complex one. There are those who don’t give much thought to food. And then some who are addicted to it and identify as compulsive eaters.
Like other addictions, compulsive eating is seen as an illness. According to Overeaters Anonymous, their members range from extremely overweight to average and underweight, and this is why being an overeater is not defined by weight. Some are able to maintain periodic control over their eating, while others are unable to control it.
All members are equipped with the 12-step programme to aid in their recovery.
Cape Argus spoke to three members of Overeaters Anonymous (none identified by their real name) about their journeys toward physical and mental health.
‘Food is my drug’
Dana, 34, has struggled with weight almost all her life. She was an overweight child, then in her teens she became bulimic.
“At the time, I never linked it to my emotions. It was just a way of controlling my weight,” she says.
The binge eating and purging carried on for more than a decade. After she graduated from university, she started drinking heavily. In her twenties, Dana was faced with an eating disorder and alcoholism.
She went into therapy, and was prescribed antidepressants. That helped her stop the purging, but Dana carried on bingeing. As a result, she put on weight.
“I was sick of being fat. So I went to OA,” she says. She mistakenly thought Overeaters Anonymous was a weight loss group, and gave up after two sessions.
Meanwhile, she also suffered from depression and anxiety. It got so extreme that she avoided people and social settings where she would have to talk to people – she couldn’t even pick up the phone to speak to people.
Then she went to Alcoholics Anonymous and saw the benefits of the 12 steps. This is when she started understanding the OA process. Six months ago, she went back to OA.
“After a while I started feeling comfortable, and started opening up. I discovered who I am, and why I’m doing this. Overeating is a lot like alcoholism,” says Dana.
During AA, she was able to quit drinking almost immediately. “Food is my primary addiction. My alcohol is food,” she says.
For Dana, the triggers are baked goods such as bread, cake, pastries and biscuits. She explains that just like an alcoholic can’t have one drink, she can’t have one slice of bread. What compounds the situation is that she has three small children, and therefore can’t ban bread or biscuits from her home. If she runs out of bread, she’ll eat her children’s biscuits.
While she hasn’t reached abstinence yet, she has made big strides.
Dana is less angry and irritable with her husband and children. She makes phone calls, and speaks to people. “The change is big. I’m going out more, doing things on my own, and just having a life.”
‘It’s not about the weight. It’s about the obsession’
Bronwyn, 44, is an overeater. When she was younger, she was always skinny because of the “poor person’s diet”, she jokes.
She just didn’t have money to buy lots of food. She was always obsessed with exercise. She would cycle to university, and go to the gym every day.
She married and moved to another country. In a strange environment and spoilt for choice when it came to food, it wasn’t long before she started putting on weight. It was only when she saw a picture of herself 9kg heavier that she noticed. “I was shocked, horrified,” she says.
She lost the weight, but yo-yoed for years.
She saw a dietitian and was taught about counting calories. “I became obsessed with calories. I had graphs in the bathroom showing my goal weight and how I was getting there,” she says.
Then she got pregnant, and she “got really big”. She looked at the scale and saw 77.1kg. Bronwyn became depressed, and often thought about suicide. She brought her weight down to 65kg.
“It’s not about the weight. It’s about the obsession. It made me crazy,” she says.
When she found Overeaters Anonymous, like many, she thought it was about how to lose weight. Instead, she got a sponsor who helped her through the 12-step programme. That was seven years ago. She was encouraged to see a professional to help her with a healthy eating plan.
It took 18 months for Bronwyn to become abstinent. Abstinence means different things to different people. For Bronwyn, it meant sticking to her eating plan and keeping away from her trigger foods. She has also learnt to eat mindfully and not while she’s reading or watching television.
Bronwyn says that once she starts eating certain foods, she can’t stop. “I have to finish it all.” Her triggers are Provita biscuits with cheese; popcorn; and chips. Her husband often hides his stash of food, but Bronwyn finds it. She polishes his supply, then replaces it.
She explains the process involved a lot of guilt. “I’ve come to learn that my action was the mistake, not me,” she says.
‘The emptiness needs to be filled by something else’
Linda, 54, is addicted to eating high-sugar foods. She binges on cake, desserts and chocolate.
She is pre-diabetic, insulin-resistant, has high cholesterol and is clinically obese.
As a teenager, Linda used to binge eat at parties and events where there was a lot of food. But she was active enough for it not to affect her weight.
At 21, she was 10kg overweight and went on her first of many diets.
Linda joined OA three years ago, and it’s been a battle for her to become abstinent.
“It’s frustrating, but while I haven’t reached physical health yet, I am healing mentally,” she says.
Since she started attending the meetings, Linda has seen emotional and spiritual changes. “I feel like this is a safe place to do all the work. Every week I grow stronger.”
Linda reached abstinence for six months before relapsing, but feels certain that she is close to reaching abstinence again.
Her daughter was a cause for concern; Linda thought she might pass on her eating habits to her. But as an adult, her daughter chooses to eat healthily, and doesn’t have issues with food. A great relief for Linda.
Because of her health concerns, Linda realises the urgency of her need to become abstinent.
She has learnt to feel her emotions rather than suppress them with food.
“I’ve learnt that when food calls me, it’s often an emotional issue. I’ve learnt that the emptiness inside needs to be filled up by something else, whether it’s friendship or just downtime,” says Linda.
What is compulsive eating?
According to Overeaters Anonymous, compulsive eating is a progressive illness which, like alcoholism, can be arrested. Compulsive eaters have trigger foods which, once they take the first bite, they feel powerless to stop eating.
As to why people eat compulsively, Dr William Rader, a psychiatrist who works with alcohol, drug addiction and compulsive overeating, wrote: “In most cases the individual develops the compulsive overeating mechanism for dealing with life at an early age, and then starts to push problems down with food. Once people become overeaters, every aspect of their lives is affected.”
The 2010 Membership Survey Report, conducted among 2 400 members in the US, revealed that 87 percent of members were women, with men making up 13 percent. When asked when food became a problem, 41 percent said it was when they were between 1 and 10 years. A further 24 percent said 11 to 15, while the third highest age group, at 10 percent, started at 16 to 20.
Warning signs:
According to Overeaters Anonymous, symptoms are varied, but include:
* Obsession with body weight, size and shape.
* Eating binges.
* Grazing.
* Preoccupation with diets.
* Starving.
* Excessive exercise.
* Inducing vomiting.
* Inappropriate use of diuretics and laxatives.
* Chewing and spitting out.
* Inability to stop eating certain types of foods after taking the first bite.
* Fantasies about food.
* Constant preoccupation with food.
* Using food as a reward or comfort.
For more information about Overeaters Anonymous or meetings, visit www.oa.org - Cape Argus