I'd just like to remind people that addiction and substance abuse can take many forms.

For example, would you say that a person who goes home every day and has a drink out of habit has a problem with alcohol?

What about someone who goes out every weekend and has 16 drinks but doesn't touch it during the week? What if they only do it once a month? Once a year?

What about someone who only has a drink when they're sad?

We all know that someone who drinks all day every day is an alcoholic, but is it possible that these other people have a problem too?

So please, don't belittle someone's "addiction" because they have a different relationship with food than you do.

Yep! And you can find them all at an AA meeting.

Food addiction and compulsive overeating takes many forms: anorexia, bullemia, binging... Food addicts may be at work all day, just waiting to go home, draw the curtains and be alone with their favourite binge foods or they may eat their favourite food out in the open, all day.

There is a lot of stigma attached to being labelled as an addict, when it can actually be quite freeing if you come to terms with it.

An interesting fact - many alcoholics become addicted to sweets, especially chocolate when they quit drinking. If anyone wants to delve into the subject, Potatoes Not Prozac is an interesting read.

Karen

Absolutely right.

I was married to a recovering alcoholic for 10 years.

And only the addicted can truly declare whether, and the degree to which, they are addicted.