Learned about alcohol addiction in med school today, and realized how problematic my relationship with food has been

We have these classes in med school on doctoring skills - speaking to patients, counseling patients, etc. and today we covered alcohol abuse.

We started off by reflecting on the reading material we had for the week, and one student spoke up about an alcohol abuse screening questionnaire (the AUDIT-C). He said that he was surprised that the questions focus only on the number/volume of drinks a person has, rather than how the alcohol is affecting their lives. For example, someone who has a glass of wine with dinner will trigger the screen, but someone who gets blackout drunk after critical life events might slip under the radar because it happens infrequently.

He said "I thought that alcohol addiction means that you crave alcohol - you think about alcohol, and it's almost physically impossible for you to stop or say no to a drink"

I go home and start my daily battle with food where once I start eating, it's like I can never stop. I'm sitting at my table after overeating, hating myself and wishing I didn't just eat everything I did... and holy shit I've just realized that I am literally exhibiting addictive behavior.

It sounds stupid that I haven't realized this before, now that I'm typing this out. I guess I've struggled with food for so long (I remember sneaking downstairs to steal food from the fridge when I was in like, 5th grade) that I've lost some perspective on what's normal.

submitted by /u/oacanthium
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/alxij3/learned_about_alcohol_addiction_in_med_school/