Addiction....

Addiction. What exactly is addiction? Well the American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines it this way:


American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary -
ad·dic·tion (-dkshn)n.
Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control.

So now that I have the definition, what exactly does this mean? What does it mean to me? "Dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control"? Hmmm.... let me think about this.

I have an addiction. My addiction is not readily accepted by society or the medical profession as an addiction. I have an addiction to food. There - I said it!

Reading the definition of the word addiction puts my addiction into prospective for me. It helps me understand that I do have an addiction, I am not using the word "addiction" as an excuse and I am NOT going crazy!

My addiction is a hard one to control. Food is readily available to me no matter where I go. I'm not looked down upon no matter what I eat or how much I eat of it. I'm not arrested for dealing it, I'm not fired for having it with me at work and if I have food in my car and am pulled over by the police I'm not taken in for having it in my car.

I try to control my addiction but sometimes the urge is to strong to control and I overeat or eat the wrong foods. I struggle every day with my addiction.

"Hi! My name is Beth and I'm a food addict!".

There I said it! Maybe now I can do something about it. I'm sure trying.