Behavioral Addiction
Addiction is a physical and mental condition caused by exposure to an addictive stimulus. The result is numerous behavioral, mental processes, and social functioning changes. Addiction is manifested by a strong compulsion to reach for the addictive substance to derive certain benefits or sensations from it or avoid unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Addiction can develop in almost anyone, regardless of age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status.
Whether a person is addicted to a substance or an activity, one can see symptoms, such as a lack of control over the frequency and amount of time spent on addictive activities, inability to stop their actions, obsessive thoughts about the addictive stimulus, lying, loosening ties with loved ones, neglect of interests and responsibilities, continued addiction despite apparent negative consequences.
Behavioral addictions are also sometimes called “functional addictions.” Some disorders are not related to substance use but to the uncontrolled performance of certain activities. These activities aim to make oneself feel good, reduce inner tension, and improve well-being.
Socially acceptable activities or activities very often become the subject of addiction. Formal addiction in this category is compulsive gambling. However, informally, this category includes a variety of behaviors that, because of their intensity and consequences, are harmful and contribute to impaired functioning in many areas of life.
Active addiction and substance dependence undoubtedly share common features, but there are also many significant differences between them. Firstly, detoxification (cleansing the body of toxins) is the first step before starting psychotherapy for substance addictions, whereas, in the case of active addictions, this is unnecessary. In the case of activity addiction, physiological health usually does not deteriorate as drastically because the body is not “poisoned” by ingesting substances (but disorders such as sex addiction or food addiction can certainly worsen health).
There is a risk of death by overdose due to substance addiction. With some types of behavioral addiction, it is impossible to disconnect from the stimulus of addiction completely; for example, a shopaholic will not give up shopping completely because it is necessary for survival. Substance addiction treatment is more focused on pharmacological agents that alleviate the symptoms of addiction. With active addiction, there is no physiological increase in tolerance to the addictive stimulus. The dose must be increased with substance addiction so the body does not signal withdrawal syndrome.
Food Addiction
The current pace of life in megacities is conducive to the spread of this disorder – there is a great chance of becoming addicted to fast food when there is not much time to cook. That is the first point. The second is that for billions of years of evolution, food has only been a source of energy, and it was difficult to obtain. Only in the last hundred years has it become a means of survival and a resource of pleasure, and not as rare as its predecessors. Developing a food addiction is simple – evolution has not prepared humans for such availability and variety of food. Plus, it helps to “eat” other problems.
Overweight people are those who have a food addiction. Some slim people who have never been overweight brag that they eat whatever they want, but when one takes a closer look at what they prefer to eat, it becomes clear that they either dislike fat or sweets or only consume them in moderation. Their bodies are happy to be able to control their appetites, at least temporarily. People who are quite young and physically active are another exception. They occasionally consume a lot while burning considerably more.
Middle-aged and older people rarely have the luxury of letting their bodies do the work for them; instead, they must exert self-control. They require less food and desire to consume more because their metabolism is already slowed. Once they loosen their control and the portions start to increase, the caloric content of the food increases. Without any constraints, some people’s appetites and addictions grow quickly (often due to pancreas features); for others, slowly, but obesity also increases.
Habits govern people’s lives, and when a useful habit is already formed, or a bad habit is eliminated, struggle and penal servitude are not required, and minimal restrictions are needed to maintain balance. In situations of temptation, the will is required more; in other situations, it is not required at all – there is no desire.
Epidemiologic Data
Addiction is commonly associated with the most destructive habits – alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and games, on hearing as a purely psychological phenomenon – addiction to man or gadgets (Karim & Chaudhri, 2012). Food addictions are also linked to food in general or specific products. The mechanism of food addiction is virtually the same as drug addiction, but of course, it has its own characteristics. Food addiction is a fairly severe eating disorder. Suspecting it, it is better not to self-treat and refer to the appropriate specialist. Thus, it can be concluded that the inhabitants of large cities, the middle class, and working people suffer most from this addiction.
Food addicts are divided into two groups. The first includes vulnerable, anxious persons with lowered self-esteem who are ashamed of being overweight. They have difficulties in interpersonal relations and show signs of depression. The second group consists of overbearing, self-confident people who tend to suppress others, including their appearance (Grant et al., 2010). They are forced to see a doctor because of obesity and its consequences.
Food addiction is a psychological addiction, and on the other hand, the satisfaction of hunger. As food becomes more addictive, it artificially stimulates feelings of hunger. The overeater enters a zone of increased metabolic balance. A feeling of hunger begins to appear immediately with a drop in blood glucose concentration after another meal. Physiological mechanisms become misaligned.
Prevalence of Food Addiction Among Women
Moreover, several authors believe that eating disorders are inherently exclusively female versions of addiction, while chemical dependency and gambling are more masculine. Indeed, eating disorders are much more common in women than in men.
There are two reasons for the popularity of food addiction among women:
- Food occupies a larger place in a woman’s life since a woman also more often performs the role of a housewife and mother, buying and preparing food.
- Women are more passive and submissive, especially in childhood, because of greater tutelage.
Clinical Characteristics and Phenomenology
Allocation of this group is connected with the fact that, on the one hand, food consists of various chemical substances, but on the other hand, unlike psychoactive substances (surfactants), it is a necessary component of life support. In the literature, it is possible to meet the expanded interpretation of food addiction, which includes both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Bronleigh et al., 2022).
From the standpoint of the phenomenological approach, an important psychological factor in addiction is the negative “self-concept,” which is formed in adolescence. The formation of “self-concept” begins with ideas about one’s “real self” and includes an assessment of one’s body, appearance, behavior, and abilities. The acceptance of one’s body forms the acceptance of oneself as a person (Bronleigh et al., 2022).
This, in turn, affects self-esteem in all areas of life. The discrepancy between the “real self” and the “ideal self” serves as a source of conflict and leads to increased tension, which the adolescent relieves not always in a good and socially acceptable way since other ways are often not available to them; often, overeating becomes such a way. Human eating behavior belongs to instinctive forms of activity; innate needs determine it.
Different reasons can cause its disorders; they are diverse and have expressed age specificity. Modern psychiatric practice, continuing the traditions of the past, singles out eating disorders in many mental disorders as a component of the clinical picture. In addition, there are special diagnostic rubrics that did not exist in previous psychopathological classifications.
During moments of frustration, individuals may turn to food to cope with unpleasant emotions, fixating on taste sensations and displacing negative experiences. This can lead to a prolonged eating process or rapid consumption of large quantities of food. Initially, it may involve indulging in delicacies, but over time, it becomes a conditioned reflex.
Diagnostic criteria to consider for a clinical professional:
- Recurrent episodes of emotional eating during frustration or stress.
- Prolonged eating or rapid consumption of large quantities of food.
- Development of a conditioned reflex to cope with negative emotions through food.
Common co-morbid conditions:
- Anxiety disorders.
- Depression.
- Other eating disorders (e.g., binge eating disorder).
Furthermore, heightened attention to weight and rigorous exercise are related to a proclivity for addictive and obsessive-compulsive disorders. More than half of persons with eating problems take psychotropic drugs regularly. Bulimia patients stand out because they are more prone than anorectics to prescribe and raise their doses of psychiatric medicines. The authors explain such disparities to bulimia patients’ higher impulsivity (Boswell et al., 2021).
Compared to healthy people, chemical dependence patients and those suffering from eating disorders have much greater rates of alexithymia – the inability to articulate their emotional experiences in words. There have also been attempts to identify the basic psychodynamic process of addiction: food, drugs, and alcohol reduce the effect of ego deficiency.
Etiology
Addiction formation depends on many psychological factors: personality and temperament peculiarities, ego stability, and stress tolerance level. The tendency to addictive behavior is associated with character accentuation; as a rule, epileptoid, unstable, and conformal types are prone to it as pseudo-adaptive and unconstructive coping behavior, formed when destructive primitive coping mechanisms prevail and constructive strategies for overcoming difficulties are lacking.
Thus, to protect oneself from this addiction, one needs to completely reconsider one’s attitude toward nutrition and work through all the psychological traumas that will prevent one from building a good relationship with food in the future.
Social Determinants of Health
If society is characterized by social stability and a high level of well-being of its citizens, if the social policy is aimed at increasing life expectancy, promoting and creating conditions for a healthy lifestyle, and combating addiction, then this contributes to the health of both the individual and society. Access to psychological help and healthy food is vital in this issue. Employment is also essential in the formation of food addiction (Mott & Lumsden, 2019). The stress that can arise from a lack of employment forms the basis for the emergence of addiction.
Treatment
Process
The help of a nutritionist will not be enough, as well as independent attempts to limit the amount of food consumed to get rid of this disease. Food addiction treatment should be entrusted to qualified psychotherapists. It is important to understand that this addiction is a consequence of internal psychological problems, and only their complete resolution can lead to recovery. The ways and methods of treating this type of addiction are quite similar to getting rid of other bad habits since the essence of the disease is the same – problematic behavior (food consumption) that helps the patient to relax and forget about all the hardships.
The primary role of the psychotherapist is to detect the inner problem that the person is trying to hide by eating a lot of food. Addiction does not appear in an empty place; it is usually preceded by some stress, failure in life, constant dissatisfaction with a constant, complexes, problems in communicating with others, withdrawal, and many other difficulties.
Usually, two specialists—a nutritionist and a psychotherapist—treat people with food addiction simultaneously. Such sessions usually teach patients to reconsider their food attitudes. Only after discovering the root of the problem can a solution be found. The specialist will do the necessary work to relieve the patient’s stress and increase his self-esteem. After this procedure, food addiction treatment will be based on finding a new source of pleasure.
For this purpose, additional psychological sessions are conducted to achieve complete harmony and relaxation, lightness in the body, and positive thoughts (Mott & Lumsden, 2019). Some prefer to get rid of the problem in a group with other patients, while others need a personal appointment. Specialists of our center will consider each patient’s peculiarities and choose individual sessions and courses so that the recovery is effective and full-fledged.
Results
Thanks to these sessions, constant thoughts about food and the desire to abuse unhealthy foods disappear. The patient learns to separate his inner emotions from the foods on the store shelves. Gradually, the patient’s food culture and lifestyle begin to adjust. He ceases to consider food one of the main ways of obtaining pleasure. This process is quite tricky and, therefore, can be quite slow.
However, it always leads to positive results, which is the most important thing. Perhaps the most important and necessary factor that allows food addiction treatment to be effective is the patient’s desire to get rid of their addiction, their willingness to recover, and their desire for a positive therapy outcome. A patient must want it for real, strongly and firmly, and our specialists will help him to direct this desire in the right direction.
References
Boswell, R. G., Potenza, M. N., & Grilo, C. M. (2021). The neurobiology of binge-eating disorder compared with obesity: implications for differential therapeutics. Clinical therapeutics, 43(1), 50-69. Web.
Bronleigh, M., Baumann, O., & Stapleton, P. (2022). Neural correlates associated with processing food stimuli in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of fMRI studies. Eating and Weight Disorders-Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity, 27(7), 2309-2320. Web.
Grant, J. E., Potenza, M. N., Weinstein, A., & Gorelick, D. A. (2010). Introduction to behavioral addictions. The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 36(5), 233-241. Web.
Karim, R., & Chaudhri, P. (2012). Behavioral addictions: An overview. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 44(1), 5-17. Web.
Mott, L. A., & Lumsden, B. D. (2019). Understanding eating disorders: Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and obesity. Taylor & Francis.