Edited.

Post Reply New Topic

I seem to have replaced a craving for alcohol with a craving for sugar. I even find myself going through the same rationalizations.

I stopped drinking in the fall that the "New Coke" came out. I drank 8 pack after 8 pack of the 16 oz bottles until I thought I was getting a cocaine high off the sugar and caffiene. Not for nothing is sugared coffee is the beverage of choice at AA meetings, but denied in a treatment facillity.

I'm sure there is a connection. I read this book on nutrition years ago that said that the chemical composition of cocaine and refined sugar were very similar. It's definitely addictive. When I was drinking the idea of a candy bar was repulsive to me. There are those that say you are craving the lost carbs but I'm not sure I agree. I wonder if the sugar and the alcohol are each replacing something that's lacking.

That's funny because my mom said it took willpower to stop smoking or quit drinking or doing drugs and then she asked me if I can stop eating sweets and never having them again. That's how much I like them just like how much addicts like their drugs or drinks or cigarettes so it's very hard for them to quit. But since I got pregnant, I was able to change my eating habits all in one day because I don't want to hurt the baby and I don't want to gain unwanted weight instead of the baby weight. People have always told me since my teens I have very good self control and I could never understand how can others not be able to do it. I rarely have sweets now because I cut back. We don't buy any and I sure don't have my favorite mac n cheese. I have to eat a different kind now that has less sodium.

I have also had difficulty not buying things so that's why I stay away from items like thrift stores or game stores or other stores if I do not plan on spending my money. So I might never understand how hard is it to not buy drinks or cigarettes or drugs if you can stay away from them and don't go to places that sell them. I know people who smoke feel all shaky and nervous without their cigarettes and I have met people who managed to live that way and wait till their body got used to being without it for it to go away. Isn't that willpower?

I also stay away from baby items because my mom said its very hard to resist them and she was right. I spent 28 bucks at a yard sale buying cute baby toys and boy were they expensive. Eight dollars, five dollars, three dollars. Toys at yard sales usually cost less than that. I think I have better willpower now because I don't always buy things I like and I tell myself no no and walk away from it. I was even a ebayaholic and I also walked away from the site when I didn't plan on spending anymore money. Can't resist items if I don't see them. Same as clothes if I don't look at them. Can't resist what I don't see. I don't even stop and look at them when I have to go to department stores or if I decide to go to thrift stores if I am in a spending mood but now that I think I have enough stuff in my apartment, I don't bother shopping and looking around or else I might end up buying stuff. I don't even bother looking at items in stores either when I have to shop what I need. I just look at what I need.

I might never understand compulsive shoppers or gambling because how hard is it to stay away from casinos or stores that sell items. Only go to stores like food stores when you need to grocery shop. Also don't get a credit card and I have seen people refusing to get a credit card because they know they will start spending spending spending. I have also met people who won't carry cash with them because then they end up spending it. I don't understand about how hard is it to not carry cash if someone is a compulsive buyer. I have known a couple people, my husband and someone I knew at my old job, who kept their money in the bank. The lady at my old job would not carry checks or cards or cash with her or else she end up spending it she says. My husband just won't carry cash unless he needs it for something.

I even had an eating disorder and my pregnancy seemed to have end it. I am eating more food now and it's health food and my weight's been the same. I even lost a couple pounds when I started. I guess my baby got more important so it ended my fear of weight gain because well just eat healthy. And I thought it was going to be hard and I was going to have to fight with myself and have my husband be in control over me but I did it on my own in one day by deciding okay I will eat different from now on and bam I did. It was like magic.


How is it even hard to stay away from things? If you don't see them, you won't buy them right?

The way it was explained to me that makes sense is this-once I take a drink it will trigger something in me and after that I cannot control how much I drink. But it is within my power not to pick up the first drink. I'm not suggesting it's easy. The power of rationalization is mighty indeed. Also, people do not become addicts overnight. It's a process and during that time you become used to the way your life is. When I was drinking in bars my sodden behavior seemed not so surprising since so many others were doing the same thing. You get so you can't imagine functioning any other way and you are convinced that you can't. You have to deprogram yourself. Some people can't understand because they are not affected by the substance in the same way.

I think I have always had the mindset of a food addict. Even when I was little I used to look forward to going to school because the catholic school I went to would give us hotdogs and hot jelly donuts on Wednesday and I would hope it was Wednesday... when we used to go to peoples houses I would hope that they would give us some chocolate or candy.. it was always on my mind.

When I was 8 I used to steal money from my parents to buy candy and ice creams etc.. so this has been going on for a very long time. My parents were very strict too but this never stopped me from sneaking food. It didnt matter what punishment they threatened me with, the craving would always control me.

I just seem to be a very cravy person, I am always going crazy craving various things. I think that perhaps there is something I can do about this but I havent found it yet.

yep, like somepeople don't have an allergy to poison oak or ivy or sumac. If I get any oil of those plants brushed on my skin it doesn't take long before it is affecting me somthing terrible, but if I don't scratch it doesn't spread nor does it take as long to clear up. But if I scratch, it sets up an itch-scratch cycle that is literally maddening. I used that example when I stopped drinking, because it made sense to me. Of course, to broaden the metaphor, I also stayed away from poison oak as well as from alcohol.

Will power never worked for me, S_G. I just don't have it in me, I guess. I had to give up the whole 'dependence on only myself' thing to get over drinking. I quit smoking when I was pregnant, too. I knew it wasn't good for the baby.

Was it easy to quit smoking? Did you had to have someone watch over you to make sure you didn't grab a cigarette? Or was it just natural that you stopped?

when I was pregnant, the mere whiff of cigarette smoke caused "morning" sickness' queesy-ness and general all around puking. When I was in labor recovery room I had three cigarettes (this was a long time ago, and yes, in a hospital) and started up again immediately as what ever caused me to smell it differently was gone.

These days, the smell of it on someone's clothing can make me want to hurl. I don't know when I stopped smoking for good as I go in and out of can't standing it and smoking over the decades. I probably haven't smoked since 1993 this time. I smoked clove cigarettes, too, and 'regular' cigarette smokers didn't like it either!

no, I never had anyone 'watching over me' to keep me from getting a cigarette. I don't know why you think I would.

Because you said will power doesn't work with you and it does take will power to quit something my mom says. She said smokers and drinkers and drug addicts have to fight themselves to not do it because they are addicted.

oh, well, I had to turn it over to a power greater than myself. I knew nothing I did before did it, so I gave over the decision to something I trusted more than myself. Perhaps you 'had to be there' because the concept sounds pretty flat when I see it on the page, but it was/is a most radical idea to an addict. It is sometimes called a 'leap of faith'. When nothing I did worked for me, not even a substantial attempt at suicide. I was not disappointed by wholeheartedly embracing this idea and the mere fact that I was successful when doing it, after countless times when I had relied on my own will power, engraved it upon my heart as the reason I had overcome my alcohol addiction. I have been true to that conviction since September 12, 1984 and it worked for me for what. . . wow, 25 years, now. Perhaps it was a self fulfilling prophecy, maybe I was deluded into thinking something greater than myself wanted me to be without the addiction that was so destructively impacting my life.

Imagine my amazement when I learned about Asperger's Syndrome and recognized it in the very same way I recognized I was an alcoholic! Proof that that principle that had guided my success in stopping drinking was still working for me? Perhaps. The point is, it worked. That is why I recommended the technique to others.

Merle