Whisper’s Insatiable Desire - Food and Other Addictions

by Elizabeth Vogt, CADC, and Jennifer Anderson, Ph.D., LCSW

I have a cat named Whisper who loves plastic bags. If Whisper is anywhere in the house and hears a plastic bag rustle, he takes off running to find it. When I return home from the store with arms full of grocery bags, he appears out of nowhere and parks himself in the kitchen, watching for an opportunity to make his move. As soon as I am not looking or if I walk out of the room to put an item away, he pounces on a plastic bag and chews feverishly to ingest it. He has a tiny window of opportunity to get his fix before I catch him and shoo him away. When he ingests plastic bags, he becomes either constipated or gets diarrhea.

Whisper is not able to control himself around plastic bags. He eats them despite the consequences. My husband and I have had to intervene on several occasions to take care of the consequences of Whisper's habit. It's a messy clean-up job.

I call Whisper my “addict” cat. Our solution is total abstinence, so we do our best to keep plastic bags out of his sight. At least our lives are better. I don’t know about Whisper’s. Lately, he seems to have replaced plastic bags with rubber bands. He loves to chew them apart, which seems like a potential cross-addiction.

What might explain Whisper's behavior?

The Disease of Addiction

The disease concept of addiction describes something physiologically and neurologically different happening in the brains of addicts compared to the brains of non-addicts. Dale Carlson, in his book Addiction: The Brain Disease (Carlson & Carlson, 2010), defines addiction as “dependency on a substance or behavior, a drink or a drug, a person or possession you think you’ll die or go insane without” (p. 5). The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM, 2011), in its 2011 public policy statement, defines addiction as an "inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behavior and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response."

My cat’s behavior reminds me of food addiction. I have a keen understanding of what life may be like for someone diagnosed with a food addiction or binge eating disorder. Life becomes small, and living becomes an obsession and a preoccupation with food - much like drugs and alcohol are obsessions for someone addicted to those substances. Despite one’s determination and desire to change or behave differently, an individual’s thoughts become self-absorbed and focused on the substance of abuse.

Often, a person with an addiction believes the solution to the problem lies in one’s ability to manage or control when, where, and how much one consumes the substance. In the case of food addiction, individuals believe that if they were thin, or able to control their food intake, all of life’s problems would be solved. Individuals with food addiction want desperately to believe they have a sense of control over their lives and, therefore, physical control over their bodies. Food behavior becomes a metaphor for demonstrating such control, or a lack thereof, in the life of a food addict.

Food, Other Substances, and Cross-Addiction

Compulsive overeating occurs when someone uses food to assuage, manage, or cope with feelings, much like when one uses drugs or alcohol to cover emotional pain. Compulsive eating becomes another way people cope with life. Over time, compulsive eating may lead to a food addiction.

Food substances, specifically sugar and artificial sweeteners, have been shown to be more addictive than alcohol, drugs, and nicotine in laboratory studies (Lenoir, Serre, Cantin, & Ahmed, 2007; Huynh, Fam, Ahmed, & Clemens, 2015). People who have become addicted to food may experience emotional and physical reactions, such as an intense desire to obtain specific foods, or have powerful cravings for sugar and flour products or processed foods. Like Whisper chasing after a rustling plastic bag to eat, a food addict in the midst of a powerful craving easily loses control over eating to satiate a desire. For an individual with a food addiction, the “drug” of choice is food. One’s body experiences a different reaction to sugars (all natural and artificial sweeteners fall into this category) and flour than other people.

After working with people in a medically managed treatment center in a hospital setting who were detoxing from drug and alcohol addictions, I observed how the use of sugar and flour products, caffeine, and nicotine increased and seemed to become a substitute for alcohol and drugs. Patients became agitated when the coffee machine was turned off at 3:00 in the afternoon, and they relied on the soda and snack machines for a “hit” or a “buzz” of caffeine and sugar. Patients began ordering two and three servings on their breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. Women binged absentmindedly, eating desserts directly out of the refrigerator and freezer during their detox. Men brought pound bags of bulk candy to group therapy to pass around and then stuffed their mouths full of chewy, gooey, sugary items. Patients in this setting sometimes gained 10 to 20 pounds over a 2- to 4-week period. Switching from drugs and alcohol to sugar appeared to be a move as seamless and automatic as it was for Whisper to switch from plastic bags to elastic bands. Food, caffeine, and nicotine abuse and addiction become normalized in the absence of drugs and alcohol.

By eating processed foods, particularly sugar and flour products (refined carbohydrates), an individual may be risking recovery and potentially relapse, despite years of abstinence, because of the addictive nature of specific food substances. Until an individual analyzes her or his behavior and relationship to all substances, including food (sugar, flour, fat), caffeine, and nicotine, the potential for returning to drug and alcohol use will be high. Foods like sugar may have the potential to lead someone recovering from drug and/or alcohol addiction to a relapse.

When I was growing up, obesity was rare. Today, childhood obesity is an epidemic, and adolescent children in the U.S. are getting bypass surgery (Couric, K., et al., 2014). Being overweight and/or obese has become normalized in the U.S.

The evidence that sugar is more addictive than drugs and alcohol suggests not only the importance of refraining from eating such substances, but also seems to be of primary importance if an individual is serious about recovery from any substance use disorder. A daily meal plan filled with addictive foods would seem to exacerbate one’s recovery. Moreover, such a plan could potentially trigger a relapse or lead to a cross-addiction.

How the Body Reacts

The prognosis for recovery from an eating disorder like bulimia nervosa, binge eating, and anorexia nervosa utilizing the medical model seems poor because eating disorders are treated as behavior disorders. The medical model seems to fail in its attempt to help people suffering from food addiction achieve wellness. (See director Laura Greenfield’s award-winning documentary Thin [2006].) As the medical community begins to consider eating disorders to be the result of an individual’s inability to handle refined carbohydrates (processed sugar and flour products) and fats, it will be doing a service to this population.

Anyone experiencing uncomfortable or unwelcome food behaviors will benefit from paying attention to how one’s body reacts and one’s thoughts are affected by specific food items, being mindful to notice when certain foods cause mood swings, emotional reactions, changes in thinking, increased fear, negativity or anger, or cause cravings and/or a desire for more food. The next time you reach for a bag or a box of sugar and flour products, think of Whisper and the consequences of his plastic bag addiction. Often, the consequences of addiction are enough of a motivating factor to make a small change that can lead to future improvement.

Resources

To learn more about compulsive overeating or food addiction, follow a link below.

References

ASAM. (2011). Public policy statement: Definition of addiction. Retrieved from https://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/public-policy-statements/1definition_of_addiction_long_4-11.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Carlson, D., & Carlson, H. (2010). Addiction: The brain disease (A. Mauer & J. DeFrancesco, Eds.). Madison, CT: Bick Publishing House.

Couric, K. (Narrator, Executive Producer), Soechtig, S. (Director, Producer), Marson, E. (Producer), Olson, S. (Producer), Monroe, M. (Writer), David, L. (Executive Producer), Scully, R. (Executive Producer), Reisman, H. (Executive Producer), Walrath, M., & Walrath, M. (Executive Producers), Gibson, S. (Co- Producer), Lazure, K. (Co- Producer). (2014). Fed up [Documentary]. Santa Monica, CA: Atlas Films.

Greenfield, L. (Director). (2006). Thin [Documentary]. New York, NY: HBO Video.

Huynh, C., Fam, J., Ahmed, S. H., & Clemens, K. J. (2015). Rats quit nicotine for a sweet reward following an extensive history of nicotine use. Addiction Biology, doi:10.1111/adb.12306.

Lenoir, M., Serre, F., Cantin, L., & Ahmed, S. H. (2007). Intense sweetness surpasses cocaine reward. PLoS One, 2 (8), e698.

Elizabeth Vogt, B.Ph., CADC, an MSW graduate student at George Williams College of Aurora University, has an undergraduate degree in psychology from Northwestern University. She works in the field of addictions and has a special interest in food addiction and its effect on mood and behavior.

Jennifer Anderson earned her doctorate from Indiana University School of Social Work. Her area of research is in IPE program design. She has received multiple awards and recognitions for her service and collaborative efforts. She teaches practice and theory courses for the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, where she holds the rank of Assistant Professor. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Social Services Research, is a council member for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and serves as a track member for CSWE in the area of Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.