After reading Lisa N's responses, I'd have to say that being overweight doesn't indicate some sort of "addiction" to food.
I will say though, that I have noticed I'm much more inclined to overeat sugary things, whereas, with a low carb eating plan, I just don't eat as much.
I've eaten whole bags of cookies at times, but I've never eaten a whole bag of cooked chicken breast cubes or a bunch of cheese slices.
Oddly, I tried sugar free jello with a wee bit of cream on top, and I still didn't feel the need to eat more than the single serving pastic cup of the stuff I bought.
I'm thinking there's a connection here, in that it isn't the sugar itself, but rather, sugar in combination with grains and fats that's been my downfall in the past - ie. cookies, cakes, donuts and the like.
I don't necessarily think it's a true "addiction" per se, but I do think high carb foods can be numbing and/or calming if eaten in large quantities. Maybe this phenomenon is more like a distraction, rather than a real addiction. A means of distracting ourselves from whatever's going on in our lives. Yet, I don't think this is the case with everyone...(the distraction idea).
So...in this respect, things like shopping too much, overeating, gambling, even overexercising are perhaps more like compulsions rather than true addictions. And perhaps the so-called "compulsion" is a way to avoid, a way to distract or dissociate from what's really going on. I think maybe those who are addicted to drugs or alchohol perhaps start out this way, and then..because of the substance they're dealing with, it progresses into a true addiction - where you see the need to increase consumption, you see the physical withdrawal symptoms and so on.
This is an interesting thread, and I've learned something here I think. And that is, perhaps we really do overuse the word "addiction", and furthermore, I'd have to say that I agree with the idea that using the word "addiction" might be a means of absolving oneself of some personal responsibility. Like it's some kind of medical problem (which is a very real facet of true addiction) rather than a compulsion/habit or what have you.
Getting back to this "personal responsibility" idea...it's not that we should take offense to this concept, but rather, maybe we need to think about the possibility that we could be using the term "addiction" to further avoid the problem. So maybe when we think of the overeating situation, perhaps we could look at it as tool or mechanism that we're utilizing in order to avoid something else. Futhermore - referring to the overeating as some sort of "addiction" is perhaps another layer of avoidance.
When I'd overeat high carb/high sugar/high fat items, there was only so much I could eat. Sure..I could eat a whole bag of cookies, but then...I wasn't fixating on when I'd eat the next one or anything like that. I've never heard of anyone who overate needing to check into a medically supervised detox center, nor have I heard of severe physical withdrawals when a person decides to get serious about curbing the "avoidance" problem.
And the funny thing is...overeating in order to avoid things, leads to a whole new problem - the problem of being fat. Perhaps the pain of being fat is a replacement for the *real* problem (whatever it may be). Maybe we've exchanged our real emotional pain for the pain of being fat. Perhaps being fat is easier than dealing with whatever's really going on. Perhaps we can tell ourselves that the thing that's bothering is the fact that we're overweight, because then we've got this idea that it can be fixed, whereas not all of our real feelings can be so easily "fixed".
Maybe I overate in order to avoid feeling something. Then...as I got fatter and fatter, I had a whole new problem to focus on - the problem of being overweight. Perhaps thinking about being fat is a heck of a lot easier and simpler to focus on than the realization that my relationship was going down the tubes or that I hated my job. Instead, I could focus on how bad it felt to be fat. Voila - another way of avoiding me, my life and my experience.
For myself, it may have been fear of change - because if my relationship wasn't working and my job was awful, and I acknowledged those things to myself - then I'd have to do something about those things wouldn't I? And these parts of my life were (at least in my mind at the time) my whole identity. Making huge changes to those facets of my life was a rather scary prospect.
Everyone wants to "belong" somewhere, whether it's a job or a relationship or what have you. Make a change, or take those things away (even if it's for the better in the long term), creates a gap ...a temporary phase in which we don't "belong" anywhere. Take away "A" and get on the bridge to "B" or "C" or "Z". Except, when we leave "A", we don't exactly know where we'll end up. We might have an idea of where we'd like to go, but in making a big change, we've taken away the structure around our lives, and sometimes we believe the structure is our identity, rather than our spirit. This makes acknowledging our real feelings to ourselves (hence leading to a need to take some kind of action on our own behalf), a very scary prospect.
Maybe I'll just eat and eat and eat instead. Then...I'll be fat, and I'll think that's my real problem in place of what's really going on. It'll help me stay where I am, so that I don't have to leave the structure, or make a change and get on a path to ...who knows where. Yikes...break out the Oreos and bring on the ice cream
Not sure if I'm making any sense here, kinda thinking outloud.
Interesting discussion though