The word ‘addiction’ was once reserved for the hardest and most dangerous of substances – mainly class A drugs or at least those that were illegal. It would typically elicit an image of a person in a helpless and deplorable state of existence.
Psychologists have since been testing whether this should really be our overriding definition or whether there is actually sometime of addiction in some of the things that we take for granted. For example, they found examples of Internet addiction, gambling addictions and addictions to pornography and sex. Some experts have even discovered that the same portion of the brain that’s affected by addiction is affected when a person eats. This has led them to believe that an addiction to food could be possible.
There is something of an issue with this idea. We all know that food is a necessity for survival, and while the stomach can send signals to the brain that it is becoming full, the brain doesn’t know how to send signals to know that it has had too many harmful substances, such as alcohol, cocaine, heroin or other drugs.
While the psychology community continues to dispute and argue over this area of addiction, a newly revised version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will include binge-eating disorder as a new form of addiction.
Addiction can be defined as the continued or compulsive use of a substance, despite negative or harmful consequences. Those who do not believe in the concept of a ‘food addiction’ rightly insist that food is a biological need and does not qualify when typical addictive behaviours are considered.
Comments are closed.