Are you a food addict? How can you tell?

I don't believe I was ever a food addict, but I did consider food to be a friend -- one that I would go to when I was happy, sad, angry, stressed...you get the idea.  I was, and still am, an emotional eater.  The difference is, now I stop and think before I eat according to my emotions - and those times when I give in, I think about what I am going to eat rather than reach for the first thing I see. 

I finally accepted (could tell) that I was a food addict when......

i BUY COOK BOOKS JUST SO I CAN LOOK AT THE PICTURES!

I realized I had some unresolved food issues when I ran out of space for cook books and the randome recipe pages I'd printed off for rainy day experiments were overflowing the kitchen.

...when I realized I was going to the grocery store because I wanted to, not because I needed to.
...when I spent more time planning what foods I would buy for my day off binge  than my household budget.
...when one package, bag, container, etc. of my favorite binge food wasn't enough and I started buying multiples.
...when I couldn't go to bed and read without food.
...when I would drop a comment about my "kids at home" when I'd order enough food at a drive through restaurant to feed a family of five when I was actually single.

Lisa O.

Your food addict when you dream of eating a hot fudge sundae and you wake up with dried chocolate drippings on your chin and mouth because you have had an episode of sleepwalking throughout the night!

I noticed how ashamed I was of eating. I have not found another way to deal with emotions. I lied to myself about exactly how fat I was.

A question for the people who feel that they are/were food addicts. Did surgery help to control that addiction, or do you still struggle with it?
I don't know if I would be considered a food addict or not. I love food, I'm a die-hard "foodie" and really love all aspects of high quality food (buying, cooking, plating, eating, discovering). Since surgery, though, I'm completely not interested. I know that eventually hunger will return, but I think it goes beyond that. Eating is a complete incovenience lately, I've totally lost interest in something that use to be a major source of pleasure. Has anyone else felt that way, and if so, did it last?  Part of me is glad it is gone, but the other part wishes that I could find a happy medium in there somewhere.

There are 20 questions that addicts in recovery ask themselves.  I will share them with you.

1.  Have you ever wanted to stop eating and found you just couldn't?
2.  Do you constantly think about food or your weight?
3.  Do you find yourself attempting one diet or food plan after another, with no lasting success
4.  Do you binge and then "get rid of the binge" through vomiting, exercise, laxatives or other forms of purging?
5.  Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people?
6.  Has a doctor or family member ever approached you with concern about your eating habits or weight?
7.  Do you eat large quantities of food at one time (binge)?
8.  Is your weight problems due to your "nibbling all day long"?
9.  Do you eat to escape from your feelings?
10.   Do you eat when you're not hungry?
11.  Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later?
12.  Do you eat in secret?
13.  Do you fast or severly restrict your food intake?
14.  Have you ever stolen other people's food?
15.  Have you ever hidden food to make sure you will have "enough"?
16.  Do you feel driven to exercise escessively to control your weight?
17.  Do you obsessively calculate the calories you've burned against the calories you've eaten?
18.  Do you frequently feel guilty or ashamed about what you've eaten?
19.  Are you waiting for your life to begin "when you lose the weight?
20.  Do you feel hopeless about your relationship with food?

These are some soul searching questions to determine if you have an eating addiction.

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymouse have groups nationwide and they have some very good tools to aid someone who feels they need more support.

However, they are a diet program which I find ironic considering diets are what triggers a lot of the FA symptoms. 

I was about to tell you how much I love your list and then I recognized you! Hello my friend!  I so see myself in so many of those.  Just about the only one I never did was trying to throw up....I mean I really wanted to do it but I hated vomiting so much that I just couldn't make myself do it but I certainly did many many things equally as bad.    Hope you are doing well!
hugs, Y

Hi,

Yea the only time I felt a lot of these was when I was on prescribed diets.  That always consumed me.  I did not like food being the focus of my life and most diets would throw me right into that.