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Amy Miller* couldn’t stop. When she ate, she devoured
two meals’ worth of food. When she shopped, she bought
double the number of clothes she needed. Eventually, she
gained 100 pounds and amassed a wardrobe that filled her
apartment — as did bills from credit card companies and
threatening letters from debt collectors who finally
garnished her wages.
“Behind both my eating and my shopping lay the same
underlying problem,” says Miller, 30, a youth advocate
in Chicago. “Raped by an acquaintance when I was 17, I
was so ashamed of what happened that I never told my
friends and family about it. Instead, I turned to
compulsive behavior to distract myself from my pain.”
Miller suffered from what psychologists call addiction
transfer: having multiple addictions or hop-scotching
from one compulsion to another. Like others with her
condition, she experienced a rush of elation followed by
a letdown whenever she succumbed to her addiction
(defined as the drive to do something despite negative
consequences). And like other sufferers, she had an
emotional wound fueling her compulsive behavior.
Women are more likely than men to have co-occurring
addictions and to develop serious health problems and
even to die as a result. If you’re among the 26 percent
of Americans who struggle with addiction — or the 20
percent of addicts who have multiple compulsions — you
may fear that your problem will never improve. But
experts say that full recovery is possible if you make
the right choices — and if you get the right help.
Just Can’t Get Enough
Whether addicts are hooked on drinking, drugs, sex, or
shopping, their problems often follow the same
ever-worsening trajectory.
Take Meredith Finnegan,* 28, a mother in Jacksonville,
South Carolina. “Growing up in a home where there were
problems with hoarding and other compulsive behaviors, I
didn’t have healthy role models, had a lot of anger, and
developed an eating disorder when I was 14,” she says.
“By the time I got married, I was still bingeing and
starving myself. Then I miscarried my first child and
developed alcoholism on top of food addiction. I would
down seven gin and tonics in a night. I was totally out
of control.”
Multiple addictions can have an iron grip on their
victims, prompting them to ingest, imbibe, gamble, or
buy beyond reason.
“The part of the brain affected by addiction is not
regulated by cognitive thought,” says Nancy
Waite-O’Brien, Ph.D., a spokesperson for the Betty Ford
Center in Rancho Mirage, California. “Addicts can act
like they’re crazy because logic has nothing to do with
their behavior. Their drive to numb their feelings
overrides rational behavior.”
Consider recent reports of bariatric surgery patients
who have their stomachs stapled, shed hundreds of
pounds, then, in lieu of binge eating, develop
addictions to anything from slot machines to
shoe-buying. Consider the stories we’ve all heard of
women spiraling out of control: the college student who
blows her tuition on methamphetamine, or the junior
accountant who cooks the books to fund her own shopping
sprees.
Your Brain on Drugs
Why do some people develop depression, post-traumatic
stress disorder, and other emotional problems that can
lead to multiple addictions? “The answer depends on a
whole host of factors,” says Lisa Najavits, Ph.D., an
associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical
School and the author of A Woman’s Addiction Workbook.
“It’s partly genetic, partly social, partly upbringing,
and partly triggered by trauma or stress that can lead
people to cope in ineffective ways.”
Though addiction can strike nearly anyone, studies show
that certain groups of women are especially vulnerable:
rural women, female veterans, college-aged students,
bisexual or lesbian women, and women in helping
professions. Further, “between 70 and 80 percent of
women who develop addictions have a history of childhood
abuse,” says Dr. Waite-O’Brien. “These problems are
especially common among those who were sexually abused.”
Regardless of what triggers an addiction, the same brain
chemistry lies behind it. “Addiction is all about
dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that gives us
the sensation of pleasure and spurs us to form regular
habits,” says Gene-Jack Wang, M.D., chairman of the
medical department at Brookhaven National Laboratory in
Upton, New York. “Something happens to lower an addict’s
dopamine level, and she discovers that compulsive
behavior will elevate it and give her a feeling of
pleasure.”
When Wang and his colleagues studied addiction in the
lab, they discovered that binge eating elevates dopamine
by 150 percent; cocaine does so by 500 percent; and
methamphetamine raises it by 1,100 percent.
Whether an addict boosts her dopamine level five- or
eleven-fold, it eventually comes crashing down
again — usually to below its original baseline level. “As
this cycle continues, addicts can come to have lower
dopamine than other people,” says Wang. “In an effort to
raise their dopamine again, they may shift from one
addiction to another that has a different — or more
dramatic — effect.”
The Road to Recovery
For an addict to get her brain chemistry back in balance
and break the vicious cycle of addiction, it’s crucial
that she reaches out to recovery groups, trained
counselors, or both.
“Even if you abstain from compulsive behavior, that
alone is not enough,” says Dr. H. Westley Clark, M.D., a
spokesperson for the Rockville, Maryland-based Substance
Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. “Getting
the right help can not only stop addiction and restore
dopamine, but can show you how to manage your life
long-term so you no longer feel you have to fill a void
with dysfunctional behavior.”
People fighting addiction can join a 12-step group such
as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, or
Gamblers Anonymous. In these programs, addicts ban
together, meet regularly, and follow set steps to
recovery. These groups not only have a social component,
but a spiritual one, holding that belief in a higher
power is key to effective healing.
People fighting addiction can try inpatient treatment,
outpatient treatment, or counseling with a trained
social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist (preferably
a professional who specializes in chemical dependency
and is a member of NAADAC, the Association for Addiction
Professionals). “If you have a mild problem, it may be a
matter of months before treatment is successful,” says
Dr. Najavits. “But you may require long-term
intervention, which is usually more successful in the
end.”
Once the support system is in place, there are other
steps people can take to keep their dopamine level up.
1. Follow your bliss. “If you feel
competent and dominant at what you’re doing, dopamine
levels will rise,” says Wang. “So find a job you’re good
at, and stick with it. If you’re a good cook, make
delicious meals. If you’re a good artist, grab your
brush or pen and paint or draw.”
2. Stay active. Studies show that getting
at least 30 minutes of exercise per day can keep your
brain chemistry humming at its happiest — and its
healthiest.
3. Reach out to family, friends, other
church members — and God. Social interaction boosts
dopamine, and a recent Columbia University study found
that having a personal relationship with God is
inversely associated with substance abuse.
Even if you stop compulsive behavior before hitting the
low point called rock bottom, getting sober is seldom
easy. Our culture is one of addiction, where 30 percent
of adults are hooked on cigarettes, 23 percent binge
drink, and 8 percent take illegal drugs.
The good news is that by getting the right help and
making the right choices, it’s possible to beat
addiction — and addiction transfer — for good.
“I saw a psychiatrist for two years, and met women
through my church who shared similar stories of sexual
assault,” says Miller. “When I realized I wasn’t alone
and this wasn’t shameful, I began to finally process my
feelings. I stopped overeating and shopping, dropped
that 100 pounds, and even managed to shed my credit card
debt.”
For Finnegan, prayer did the trick — as did three years of
going to Overeaters Anonymous meetings that she still
attends regularly. “When I was actively binge eating and
drinking, I always felt something was missing,” she
says. “But recovery has taught me that I don’t have to
seek assurance from outside myself. I don’t need to fill
an emotional void with addiction, because I have all
I’ll ever need — and more.”
*Names and identifying details changed to safeguard
privacy.
For More Information
Alcoholics Anonymous
www.alcoholics-anonymous.org
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
http://www.samhsa.gov
Molly M. Ginty lives in New York. Her work has
appeared in Ms., Marie Claire, Redbook,
Women’s e-News and Lutheran Woman Today
magazine.
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