Gambling Away Your Future
Just take a chance - you might win big! The lure of easy money is powerful. What if you could spend a single dollar and win millions in the lottery? You start out buying one ticket, then another and another - but you never win anything substantial.
You might win twenty dollars and use it to buy more tickets. Once you get the gambling bug, it’s a short step from buying a lottery ticket at the convenience store to pulling a chair up to the slot machines in a casino.
With so many online gambling sites, it’s easy for anyone to gamble – even those who are underage, and teenage gambling addictions are growing. The sites say you have to be over 18 or 21, but who’s checking the IDs? (more…)
March 8, 2008
Food Addiction Therapies
If you have come to the point where you recognize that you need help with your food addiction, you are probably wondering what food addiction therapy means. Food addiction therapy is similar to other addiction therapies in that it is meant to educate you about your food addiction, help you to overcome the food addiction and to support you during the time of transition to a healthier relationship with food.
The goals of food addiction therapy are to help you lose weight safely while returning to a healthier eating routine and to help you to recognize and deal effectively with the emotional triggers for your symptoms while offering long term support. (more…)
March 6, 2008
Combating Those Fast Food Addictions
Although there is still debate in the scientific community as to the causes of fast food addictions, many people willingly admit that fast food addictions exist. This is because you can become addicted to anything – shopping, your lover, checking your e-mail, video games, let alone fast food. This is due to the nature of the human brain. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can fight fast food addictions with your brain, as well.
Go To the Doctor
If you suspect that you might have any kind of addiction, talk to your doctor as soon as you can. He or she will not be shocked. They will have heard everything. They might say there is no such thing as fast food addictions, but that is meant to calm you down and not chide you. Doctors can help point you in the right direction for any kind of dieting problems. Even so. it will still be up to you to actually do something about your fast food addictions.
It Will Not Be Pretty
Withdrawal symptoms from fast food addictions, or any kind of addiction, can be painful and powerful enough to take over your life. You may feel ashamed that something has such a hold on you that you start to devote most of your time and money into planning and getting hold of the fast food. Everyone has their crosses to bear – so don’t waste time pitying yourself. Turn that energy into anger and MOVE.
Keep yourself distracted while your body is going through any pains, shakes, headaches or any other kind of withdrawal symptom. Don’t sit still, unless your doctor has prescribed you tranquilizers to help you get through this often exquisitely painful time. But since many doctors believe that fast food addictions are urban legends, you will probably not have the crutch of tranquilizers.
One of the best things you can do is clean. Clean anything, even if it’s only one coffee cup. Many people find they get a sense of accomplishment turning dirty things into clean things. You can point to the cleaned object and prove that you did something constructive. You can also walk, swim, do needlepoint, play with the dog, write articles for web sites or do just about anything else to keep your mind and your body from its pain. You want to exhaust your body so you won’t stay awake longing for a burger or fries all night, which can be a miserable feeling.
March 4, 2008
Do You Have a Chocolate Addiction?
Chocolate was only meant to be eaten or drunk as a special treat on sacred occasions, much like tobacco or alcohol. These were considered luxuries by the ancients partially because of the intense time to make them but mostly because of the havoc a lot could wreak upon the body. Everything is meant to be in balance, including what we eat. If you only drink one glass of wine on Saturday nights, you are not an alcoholic. If you knock ‘em back the moment you wake up to when you fall unconscious, then you definitely have a problem. If all you eat is chocolate, you may have a chocolate addiction. (more…)
February 29, 2008
Addiction to Dangerous Relationships
The most wonderful date of your life may become your nightmare if you’re in the sights of a dangerous man. He may be charming and exciting – boasting about his exciting and lucrative career, but in reality, his profile is not how he makes it appear.
Your grandmother used a term, “bum’s rush” to describe someone who shows up and takes over your life, ruining it before disappearing. Yesterday’s bum is today’s modern predator – and some of these men (and women) have worked hard to attract their prey. (more…)
February 2, 2008
Food And Drug Addictions: What are the Similarities?
Both food and drug addictions can have devastating effects on people’s lives. In this way, they are obviously similar. The methods used to treat the two different types of addictions can also at times show striking similarities. However, there are other facets, both of the addiction process itself and of its treatment, where food and drug addictions are very dissimilar.
Wide-Ranging Addiction Effects
Both Drug and Food addictions can have a profound effect on many parts of an addict’s life. It can seriously damage a person’s physical health and have a profound effect on their lifestyle. (more…)
January 25, 2008
Food Addiction and Obesity: the Relationship
Scientists are seeing similarities between food addiction and obesity and are now considering that obesity can be caused by food addiction. The same symptoms that accompany food addictions are observed in cases of obesity. At the core of food addiction and obesity is an unhealthy relationship with food.
A Complex Relationship with Food
Food addiction symptoms that occur with obesity relate to how a food is used, why it is used and how the food behavior makes the person feel. Food addicts have deep feelings that are involved in their relationship with food, have a problem controlling the amount of food eaten and have a love-hate relationship with food.
The types of feelings that accompany obesity and food addiction are guilt, self-loathing, secrecy about eating and depression. (more…)
January 23, 2008
Fast Food Addiction: Take it Seriously
In 2003, an American study concluded that fast food was “as addictive as heroin”. This is still considered a controversial conclusion, but one fact remains – people can get a fast food addiction. Fast food is usually loaded with fat and sugar – things our bodies put away in storage just in case of famine. The fat and sugar combined can give a high, like legal and illegal drugs … and a crash.
Withdrawal Symptoms
You usually don’t know you have a fast food addiction until you go without and the withdrawal symptoms hit. The only way to get rid of them is to eat fast food. That sets you up for being dependent on fast food for the rest of your life. These symptoms can be as painful and powerful as “clucking” (a term for the withdrawal symptoms of alcoholics or heroin addicts). (more…)
January 19, 2008
Addiction to Food: Two Theories
The subject of addiction to food is being put under close scrutiny by scientifically minded people and they are exploring it to find out the root causes and perhaps will come up with something quite like the thrifty gene theory, which alludes to people having a gene that is more susceptible to consuming more calories in response to some perceived worry that a famine might strike in the immediate future.
Thrifty Genes Theory
There is another theory as well which believes that eating too many fats and sugars is some form of rational addiction because the price paid regarding withdrawal from the condition is far more than the price of continuing to overeat. What’s more, the price one is thinking of is really the physical as well as psychological costs and which decision one makes is governed by weighing the pros and cons of each alternative path that one chooses to travel upon. (more…)
January 17, 2008
Addiction to Chocolate: Take Great Care
Having an addiction to chocolate is quite common and from an early age people start eating candy and chocolates, which, if not checked, can lead to a heavy dependence on it that can, in turn, lead to serious health problems. No doubt, there would hardly be a person that does not relish eating chocolates and with many varieties available, the problem is further compounded and not eased. In fact, such is the pervading presence of chocolates that they are also used to flavor medicines, especially those that are given to young children. (more…)