Category: Food Addiction

Join Dr. Pretlow for a webinar held on Sun., Jan. 14, 7 p.m. ET, on the topic of “Treatment of Child/Adolescent Obesity as an Addictive Process.”

Body-focused repetitive behaviors qualify as a coping mechanism, because they are used to cope with stress. But having a BFRB habit is not a promising path.

What do Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs) have to do with childhood obesity? Only everything!

Psychiatrists and psychologists are uniquely situated to treat obesity, but there are many non-psychiatrists who can also help reverse the obesity epidemic.

A psychologist often acts as a gatekeeper at the doors of a bariatric surgery decision, and there are many factors involved in bariatric surgery screening.

The technology that enables long-distance monitoring and counseling can help make a dent in the intimidating childhood obesity statistics.

Although it’s a survival mechanism, FOMO has side effects. When the experience of eating is the thing a person feels deprived of, obesity can easily result.

Standup comedian Lisa Lampanelli’s play “Stuffed” revolves around women and their food and body-image issues.

But if fat is officially not funny an awful lot of professional comedians have not received the memo.

FOMO is a treatable problem that can be approached in a number of ways by allied healthcare providers who are neither MDs nor psychiatrists.

Many mental disorders evolve from common roots, and mental health professionals are eminently equipped to treat compulsive overeating and under-eating.

Even though it’s not established that obesity is an addictive process, this does not preclude using an addiction-model methods, proved effective to treat it.

Since most obesity results from overeating, which should be defined as an eating disorder, is it most effectively treated by the mental health professionals?

Disordered overeating and obesity in youth stem from psychological problems. Disordered overeating that leads to obesity is, by definition, an eating disorder.

Dr. Pretlow makes a good case for the idea that obesity is primarily a psychological problem, and even a layperson knows that depression leads to overeating.

Is obesity an eating disorder? Yes. Obesity and caloric intake are inextricably entwined, but it’s also possible for people who don’t overeat to become obese.

To overcome FOMO, abolish the scarcity mindset and cultivate the abundance mindset. Bring mindfulness to the table for every meal.

Dr. Pretlow’s article, “Addiction to Highly Pleasurable Food as a Cause of the Childhood Obesity Epidemic…” was named one of the top 25 articles by EDJTP.

Part data-collection technique and part therapeutic modality, Ecological Momentary Assessment is adaptable to many situations, including treating obesity.

In developing the W8Loss2Go addiction approach for weight loss, Dr. Pretlow has noticed that some kids resist weighing their food portions.

The steps of the W8Loss2Go program are withdrawal from problem foods, withdrawal from snacking or grazing, and food scale-weighing.

Often kids seem unable to figure out how to entertain themselves except through recreational eating.

Young people are fed up with nutrition information. What they cry out for is a way to cope with the desire to overeat.

Can inpatient rehab methods that treat childhood obesity be replicated in a way that makes them widely available at a lower cost?

Dr. Fernando Fernandez-Aranda spoke at the WPA symposium on the traits shared by patients with obesity and eating disorders.

Dr. Caroline Davis, who co-chaired a WPA symposium with Dr. Pretlow, believes compulsive overeating can be successfully treated with addiction-based methods.

At the WPA symposium Dr. Avena talked about physiological similarities between drug and food addictions and looking at overeating through the lens of addiction.

Dr. Pretlow would like to see more psychiatrists and psychologists regard disordered overeating and the consequent obesity as a psychological problem.

Is obesity a psychological or physical issue? It’s time to take a hard look and think about where, among the confusing plethora of terminology, it might belong.

Language matters. There is an obesity epidemic, and there is nothing wrong with calling it that.