well in my opinion it's considered a soft addiction NOT to be confused by ANY stretch that it is an easier addiction to deal with. i am an addict/alcoholic and food addict. i put down the substances but not the food yet.

sugar is indeed addictive but i wouldn't say i'm an addict to sugar i would call myself a food addict. there is an obsessive/compulsive behavior to any addiction. it is an eating disorder.

so yes being a food addict is a soft or process addiction no less difficult than recovery from any other chemical substance.

it is my experience that i would give up the drugs 10 times over before i would give up my food. it's the hardest in my opinion b/c we still have to eat. we cannot abstain completely. when you get off of drugs or alcohol you have to stop using and it sucks big time but it gets easier with time. it wasn't getting easier for me when i was committed to OA for several months.

i'm not sure if' iv'e confused you more or helped at all. it is not a chemical addiction it is a process addiction. and sugar does effect the brain which creates a vicious cycle, there is a withdrawal from sugar. sugar addiction is not considered a subtance abuse issue it is a process addiction.

My over eating comes from abuse. Sort like when a dog is starved. I feel great anxiety because I was neglected and starved and a child. also before that there was never enough food to go around. I just eat when I get groceried and my choice to buy sugar and stuff not good for me because after i left home it was chep and carbs, ans sugar, and salt. were sometimes the most inexpensive. I just eat and eat, afraid irrationally that somone is going to take our phone. also my mother later on locked food away from me. which made food restricted to be as if it was bad somehow or no more like again she was taken it away. Try to starve me. My parents have had so much abuse both mental and physical.