Addiction Transfer

I have a friend......... No seriously.  A guy that I work with had the surgery about 2.5 years ago.  I don't know if he had an issue with alcohol before the surgery but he just got his second DWI in the last 3 months.  He has also had an issue with drinking at work (yeah, a prison) and comming in drunk.  Anyway, he's a mess.  This is just a heads up for anyone who is not aware.  Addiction transfer can happen.  Mine is running and shopping.  Good luck all Scott

Scott,

A Drunk prison guard? Man, that's  worse than a drunk bouncer!

 
Okay, you know what it is, but to avoid appearing too gauche, I'll say working out.

Lately it's been 3-4 times a day M-F. Friday's are the craziest: 45 minutes in the early morning, 15-20 minutes mid-morning 15-20 minutes at lunch and two hours from 6-8:00 p.m. The other days, I usually don't have the long workout at night. Part of it's due to addiction transfer, part to worry, part is a more is better response to female attention. But I think a lot of it has to do with the sports and health mental training and hypnosis that I did last year. CD's with names like "Mental Toughness", "Peak Performance", "Resilience" and many others.

My latest undertaking is sprinting before deadlifts and squats - Or early Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.    

Dave

I don't seem to have a transference yet.  I'm pretty early in the process.  I have so many ghouls ans gobblins in head already, maybe transference dosent have room

Hey Scott, good subject, I think so far mine is coffee.  I need to cut back a little.  Otherwise so far, so good, 13 months out now.  I dont mind sharing that I have been getting therapy to deal with this issue since the last thing I want to do is go back to my old ways.  Take care of yourself. John

I'm addicted to working out now...and I'm ok with it. I go M-F to the gym for 1.5 hours, then I usually run 1.5 miles in the evening after putting the kids to bed.

I've also gained a recent fondness for jeans. They were always the bane of my existence, but since WLS I've actually lost into a size I can find on the rack (it's hard to find 28 length jeans).

...and sex. But that's more of a hobby than an addiction. Or is it just a third work-out? You be the judge.
--Jake

This is very real and takes many paths. You might not believe this but I have developed a thing for watches. I have bought close to 20 watches in the last 3 months or so. I guess it is a shopping thing and I have focussed on watches. I know some of you are saying why do you need more than one watch? I look at them as jewlery instead of looking at there functionality.  I was riding to Charolette, NC. last weekend and had a watch to come off while I was doing 70 mph on I-77. A screw had came out of the bracelet from where I had sized it. I was riding with about 20 other guys and I motioned them past and turned around and found it on the second go around,took about 20 minutes.  The watch retails for about a grand and I paid a little more than half that for it, so I had to go look for it. Well I found it and believe it or not it still works. The hole time I was looking for it I was asking my self why did I pay that much for a watch just to have it scattered on the highway. So I have cut my self off, no more watches. I think I am going to try to transfer my addiction to working out.  pan head

Best luck with that addiction re-transfer! If you need to get rid of an 1K watches, I know a safe place for them

There was a post on the main forum yesterday from a woman who was 5 years out..that talked really openly how she got addicted to alcohol, and her whole life basically fell apart after WLS.  It was really eye opening to say the least.   I hope your friend gets the help he needs before he kills himself or someone else while he's drunk and driving.  Scott

what timing you bring this post up. remember a couple months ago our therapist from the surgeons office asked me to speak at the next meeting about addiction? well that meeting was today and they forgot to remind me! anyway, they were finding a lot of their women clients lost weight and took up drinking at an alarming rate. the men however faired better.

now i'm not over the top like Dave seems to be going....lol. i do work out seriously but then again i always have when lifting is involved. i had another addiction problem, my pain meds. so far so good. i see and addiction specialist and i'm doing well. nothing works as good as the pain pills but i'm working on a ton of meds that can take their place. so it's one experiment after another to see what works.

back to addiction. we're compulsive people. we ate like madmen and knew what would happen if we continued yet kept eating. transference is easy. everybody here probably has some demon they'll revert to or start up. the whole key is to acknowledge this and seek help. some of our addictions are relatively harmless like working out. others are more sinister. just look at your friends mess. so i would say keep coming here and spill your guts. i did and everyone here has kept me accountable and on track. but like me, find professional help. addiction is serious stuff and something that can pull you into the abyss. a serious subject for sure. thanks for getting it out there.......carbonblob

It has been a while since I have posted, but this issue hits close to home. Sory for the long post in advance, as I am sure to ramble here for a while. Transference is very real. Some Psychs believe no addition can be completely broken and that transference to a less destructive behavior is desirable. Others disagree. Your mileage will vary. I know I cut out alcohol completely a few months back, because my evening red wine was becoming 2 or 3 glasses every night! I did not like where it was going. Someone else wrote about compulsive behavior, and I fall in that category very well. I find my anti-depressant, Bupropion, helps with my compulsiveness and helps keep the "Black Dog" off my doorstep.  Bupropion is marketed as Zyban to help people quit smoking with pretty good success. For me, my transference has been to work. I wi**** was to working out, but no such luck yet. I find as long as I keep myself occupied , I do not think about eating or my other issues. Food was a defense mechanism for many of us and through our actions of WLS and committing to our diets, we have taken away a tool that many of us have used for years, if not our whole lives, to cope with underlying issues. The laws of physics still apply to us, however, and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Taking away the coping mechanism does nothing for the underlying problem, so something has to give. I think this is why a lot of people "freak out" after WLS. I believe it has far less to do with "sudden weight loss" and more to do with removing a tool that was keeping the "black dog"  at bay. Hence transference for many people. Working on the underlying issues is important as well, at least for me. However, with as many issues as I have, I'm happy to keep the beast at bay with a good psychiatrist, a little transference and even "better living through chemistry". The support of the "Men's Group" has been very helpful for me as well, and I owe all you a thanks for that one! Keep passing the open windows, my friends, and fight the good fight. JP