Progression of the Disease of Food Addiction:
I. Early Stage
• You really enjoyed eating.
• You occasionally ate more than you wanted, but you could control it.
• You envied those who could eat more and control their weight.
• You noticed that you were sometimes more interested in food than your family, friends or peers.
• You occasional binged and didn’t tell anyone.
• You often remembered the first time you ate a particular food or foods.
• You thought of food as a comfort.
II. Middle Stage
• You had special foods or treats which you ate quite frequently.
• You became heavier than was healthy for your size or build.
• You dieted more than once in five years
• You experimented with other ways to control your weight: fasting, purging, hypnosis, diet pills, etc. o You lost weight
then gained it back and more.
• You made friends who liked to eat the way you did.
• You sometimes ate especially fast or especially slowly.
• You had the experience of not remembering that you ate something.
• You found there were times you want to stop eating but you could not.
• You often snacked or grazed before, between or after meals.
• You were often preoccupied with food or dieting between meals.
• You wanted to want to stop grazing or overeating.
• You thought of food as your friend.
II. Late Stage
• You had foods that you had to eat almost every day.
• You often felt guilty, ashamed or depressed after eating.
• You sometimes lied, cheated or stole to protect your food.
• You had doctors, dietitian or counselors tell you that you needed to loose weight or change the way you eat and you
didn’t.
• You suffered from consequences that you really didn’t want from overeating, and you could not stay stopped when
you tried.
• You were therapy or a 12 Step program for your eating disorder and were unable to get abstinent or kept relapsing
• You really decided to stay stopped- more than once – and were not able to do so.
• There were times almost every day between or after meals that you are preoccupied with food or eating more.
• You sometimes wanted to be eating or alone with your food more than being with good friends or relatives.
• Your overeating affected your relationships, work and/or spiritual life.
• You ate while driving even after you have had close calls.
• You considered yourself shameful or immoral for how you ate.
• You thought of food as your lover or the only place you could really go for comfort.
IV. Final Stage
• You often did not enjoy eating as you once did but ate anyway.
• You kept eating long after it has stopped being enjoyable.
• You were hospitalized, jailed or institutionalized because of food related behavior.
• You sometimes thought that you would rather die than stop eating your binge foods.
• You felt it was utterly hopeless for you to be able to have a healthy relationship with food.
• You could not always tell when you were telling the truth about food
• You stopped going to doctors, dieticians or counselors because you knew you couldn’t do what they suggested.
• You tried a 12 Step program but could not get abstinent even for week day.
• You thought of food as the most important thing in your life – even though it is creating havoc with your whole life.
• You only wanted to eat more even when you are physically unable to eat another bite.
• You lost jobs, relationships or the ability to function effectively because of your weight or eating behavior.
• You considered taking your own life as the only answer left.
• You acted as if food was a false god .(i.e. the most important thing in your life) or demonic force in your life.
Death
If you have ten or more of these characteristics, you probably are addicted to food. You are probably at the furthest stage in which you have three or four of the characteristics.
Copyright© Phil Werdell 2002
