Sugar/Re: ratfactor sdf (zaibatsu), 04/30/2019
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User ratfactor over at SDF recently wrote about sugar 
addiction[1]. I'm using the word addiction in all 
seriousness and in the full sense of the word; if you don't 
know anything about food addictions, then read up on them, 
it's a real problem.

ratfactor, I have the same problem(s) with sugar, perhaps to 
a similar degree. My cyclical downhill slide looks a little 
like this:

1. Recover from last cycle of hitting the bottom, get back 
   to a somewhat reasonable state of health, and forget how
   bad things felt at the bottom.
2. Start to justify small treats here and there: Just a 
   little won't hurt; Normal people do it all the time; 
   There's nothing wrong with enjoying life; etc.
3. Begin using the sugar as a reward and/or consoluation.
   For me this starts at the grocery store. I don't 
   particularly enjoy shopping, but I do most of the 
   shopping for my family. The drug dealers conveniently
   place the drugs right at the checkout line, so I'll
   grab a candy bar as a reward for putting up with the
   stress of a crowded store (or whatever stress or excuse
   my addict brain invents.)
4. The next step for me is looking for excuses to go 
   shopping so I can buy something with sugar in it. I'll
   find my brain asking "what do we need at the store?"
   for no reason other than to get close to the drugs. This
   is when my conscious brain realizes that I'm on the 
   downhill slide, but that's not generally enough to stop
   me.
5. I'll eventually hit "bottom" and I'll manage to stop
   myself before I end up in the hospital.

Based on ratfactor's post, I think they will understand that 
the above is not a joke, it's the reality of addictive 
substances, even ones as simple and common and legal as 
sugar. 

"Bottom" for me presently looks like this:

- Migraine headaches
- Slight weight gain
- Mood swings & mild depression
- Excessive napping, especially after eating

My biggest problem is that I don't gain weight easily, so 
people around me generally view me as healthy, even when I'm 
not. In my culture, which focuses entirely too much on 
appearance, most people would consider this a blessing, but 
it's just another risk factor.

All told, none of this is truly horrible, nor entirely 
comparable to "bottom" for hard drugs or alcohol. Even so, 
it's a bottom that can degrade quality of life very quickly, 
and can lead to an early death.

Ratfactor seemed to have some solutions. I don't really have 
any for now, aside from remaining aware. I saw a billboard 
in Phoenix once, with a frustrated woman next to an ashtray 
and a phone. The text on the billboard was a note from 
her future cigarette-free self to her present self, and it 
read "Dear Self: Never quit quitting." For this and other 
addictions, that billboard has been a sort of beacon for me, 
as silly as that might sound. I figure, if I never give up 
trying to overcome my problems, then I've already won.

[1] gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/ratfactor/phlog/2019-04-29-sugar