Weight Maven

Stanton Peele, the psychotherapist who often writes about the flaws in the “addiction as disease” model, posted an interesting article for Psychology Today titled Unbelievable Things About Quitting Addictions. His chief unbelievable thing? That ‘heavily’ addicted people (e.g., drug addicts) often quit addictions more readily than ‘less’ addicted ones (e.g., alcoholics).

His conclusion (emphasis mine):

Forget everything you have learned about the disease of addiction. Then, and only then, can you begin to understand it. The most important thing Heyman found in remission is values, and being in a place in life where you can express and sustain them … And why do drug addicts quit more readily than smokers and drinkers? Because—as Charles Winick pointed out in “Maturing Out of Narcotic Addiction” in 1962—maintaining a drug addict career is too arduous.

As the quote suggests, Peele bases this in part on Heyman’s analysis earlier this year of “four major national US surveys of psychiatric disorders and problems related to substance use.” Heyman’s main findings:

• addiction is generally not ‘chronic’
• probability of remission the same each year of dependence
• treatment generally not needed
• dependence on legal drugs lasts longer

I’ll grant this model of addiction is controversial, but I find the concept that dependence on legal drugs (like alcohol and cigarettes) is more difficult very interesting. It reminds me of something I wrote years ago about a potential link between our diet and the endocannabinoid system: that the effect (of anandamide, THC’s natural relative) isn’t as strong (reduced potency) but it lasts and lasts and lasts.

Seems to me that it would be quite easy to maintain a career as someone with a dependence — or addiction — to food. And perhaps that contributes to what may make quitting that much harder.