Phouka:
Please believe me when I tell you I KNOW your struggle. Intimately and with perfect empathy. I’ve been in it for 30 years.
The problem with the chemical crutch is that unlike a real crutch, the “injury” (your compulsive eating) does not heal! You are looking at the fat as the injury, when it is merely the symptom. You can make the symptom go away temporarily, but the injury remains, usually worse than before.
Think of it like a football player with a busted ankle…the team doc shoots his ankle full of Novacain…the symptom of pain is removed for awhile, so he goes out and plays. When the Novacaine wears off, his ankle is in WORSE shape than it was before, the chemical mask worsened his injury! Diet drugs are the same thing, and anyone who has done or studied the research on it will tell you the same thing.
I don’t know how old you are or how much dieting you’ve done, but it’s pretty much accepted at this point that serious, morbid obesity (which you and I suffer from) is extremely uncommon EXCEPT for the United States. Why? Because we get a little chubby, and diet like maniacs, binge and gain, starve some more, binge some more…the net effect is that you end up fatter than you ever would have been had you never starved yourself in the first place. Because they have no effect on the underlying problem, diet drugs just enable you to drop alot of weight easily and wuickly, then dump you back on the tarmac of your problem and walk away. When you get up, you find you are STILL addicted to food just as much as you ever were, you binge, you gain. Meanwhile, your metabolism is flipping out…starve, gorge, starve, gorge. Your body will become more and more efficient at getting and keeping fat. You will turn around one day and find tha tyouare 200 pounds overweight instead of 100.
PLEASE…I know how much we all want that easy solution, and we rationalize that it will help us learn how to be different. But it makes about as much sense as saying “if I hangglide every day for a year, maybe I’ll sprout wings and learn to fly on my own!” You may understand the sensation of birds when they fly (read:thin people who have no issues with food), but that doesn’t mean you’ll become one.
There is NO evidence WHATSOEVER that drugs “help” compulsive overeaters CHANGE. There is LOADS of evidence that they help you get FATTER.
Please…I’m sharing this with you because I want to spare you the wasted years…you need both emotional therapy, and behavioral therapy. You need to address the reasons for the eating, and get real, useful tools to help you alter your behavior. You CAN do it.
I really, sincerely, wish you all the luck in the world.
PS: TIPS:
Set realistic goals for yourself. It sounds like you have alot of factors at work keeping you heavy…don’t dream of being Calista Flockhart. Think HEALTH first. Take small chunks: “My goal, my ONLY goal right now is to lose 5 pounds. Period. I won’t think about anything else.” Get in touch with your body, how you feel. Listen to it. LOVE YOURSELF.
There is an author that I think can really help you, her name is Geneen (sp?) Roth.
Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating – Geneen Roth; Paperback
When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair : 50 Ways to Feel
Thin, Gorgeous, and Happy (When You Feel Anything But) – Geneen
Roth, et al; Paperback
Why Weight? : A Guide to Ending Compulsive Eating – Geneen Roth;
Paperback
She has really great things to say…
Good luck.
This is a non-smoking area. If we see you smoking, we will assume you are on fire and act accordingly.