Overeating is not considered an addiction as such, specially not when compared with major drug addictions, however, we can draw some lessons from the treatment of addictions that can definitely help in the treatment of obesity.
The Power Of Habit
In the treatment of addictions there are two main components to be addressed: the physical or biological one and the mental one.
In both aspects the power of habit plays a role, biologically our body gets used to the abused substance and mentally habits have the sort of 'momentum' force that drive us to repeat customary behavior.
In the case of foods and eating, we can see how these two aspects are also in play, biologically our body gets used to the foods we like and consume day in and day out and mentally we wire our brain to like dislike and repeat eating habits.
Eating Patterns
Underneath our eating habits there are factors that are influencing the way we eat and the foods we consume, some are related to learned behaviors, like cultural, social and parental influences and others are emotional responses to individual feelings.
Learned Eating Behaviors
Our cultural background, that of our parents and family, the way food played a role in our upbringing, the food culture of the society in which we grew up and socialize greatly influences how we perceive food, meals and eating behaviors in general.
As an example of these learned eating behaviors let's just think on the different influence one person might have growing up around parents that follow a healthy lifestyle and promote the benefits of healthy eating as opposed as parents that never touch the subject and allow or promote eating of large size plates of anything that just tastes good.
Another example is being raised by fit parents that promote fitness as part of a healthy lifestyle as opposed to parents that are overweight or obese and never promote an active lifestyle.
Emotional Eating
Another big influence on our eating habits are feelings and our eating response to them.
Many of us eat or overeat as a response to a feeling, more commonly to a bad feeling like boredom or anxiety, however, good feelings like excitement or enjoyment can also be big drivers of bad or unhealthy eating.
If you are not hungry and you are eating you are probably eating for emotional reasons.
Learning From The Treatment Of Addictions
Breaking habits and learning healthy alternatives as a response to external and internal influences are a big part of addiction treatment and since some of the same factors play a role in overeating or obesity we can expect to have to deal with similar factors to reverse unhealthy eating behaviors.
As in the case of addiction treatment there are some mechanics to be followed for weight loss as well, for example when treating addiction a period of detoxification is a general rule at the beginning of the process, in the case of weight loss a detox or a crash diet can help break the current bad eating behavior in the beginning, however, mental influences like social and cultural learned behavior as well as emotional eating must also be addressed in order to obtain long term stable results.
So when considering to lose weight and keep it off for the long term consider to address these underlying factors, learn about the causes that make you eat the way you do and learn healthy alternatives to respond to them, information on these topics is abundant on the internet and many commercial online diet plans offer good help in these areas.
The good news is that all learned behavior can be unlearned, it is not an easy task but with the right information and a good dose of desire anyone can reverse unhealthy behavior.
This article is written by a contributor of Yoyobelly.com where you can find abundant information about emotional eating, its causes and solutions, as well as information on effective crash diets so you can start your weight loss efforts.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Humberto_Chacon
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