Sugar is the only addiction I have had and it was hellish to kick it. I've been abstinent for seven months now but I still feel cravings sometimes. I've been calling myself straight edge before that, but didn't really feel that I was true. It took a while to realize that i was addicted and I think that when I stopped using sugar and other refined carbohydrates was the first time i could really call myself straight edge. I mean, I was a bit silly to call myself edge when I in fact had an active addiction.
A lot of people are sugar addicts, I've seen figures that about 75% of all people are sugar sensitive and can develop sugar addiction, but I haven't heard a lot of edgers talk about sugar as something they abstain from. I searched this tribe for the word sugar and found nothing. People seem to discuss whether caffeine is edge or not, which I think it clearly is not. Caffeine is a drug. But what do you all think about sugar?
A lot of people are sugar addicts, I've seen figures that about 75% of all people are sugar sensitive and can develop sugar addiction, but I haven't heard a lot of edgers talk about sugar as something they abstain from. I searched this tribe for the word sugar and found nothing. People seem to discuss whether caffeine is edge or not, which I think it clearly is not. Caffeine is a drug. But what do you all think about sugar?
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Sweden
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Unsu...
Re: what about sugar?
Wed, November 29, 2006 - 5:39 AMYou can get addicted to anything, from sugar to mashed potatoes, so if it's a problem to you, it's kind of hard to say to anyone that you're clean . . . Anyway, I wouldn't call my case an addiction, but when I stopped drinking beer and whatnot, I had hellish cravings for chocolate for a while, probably because alcohol contains a significant amount of sugar and carbohydrates. That went away quite quickly, though. -
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Re: what about sugar?
Wed, November 29, 2006 - 7:02 AMWell, sugar is not "just anything" when it comes to addictions. It's not like being addicted to railways or the feeling of grass beneath you feet. It is something that chemically tampers with peoples brains.
A lot of people are addicted but they just don't think of it as an addiction. They think "mm, I feel like having a cookie...and another one" but never consider sugar as a drug, just something that they like a lot. Most alcoholics also refuse to admit they are addicted but at least most of them will say that alcohol is a drug.
I think that situation comes from sugar addiction not being as accepted yet as a condition. No one ever told me the risks of having a glass of chocolate milk every afternoon or those cookies that disappeared so quickly from the cupboard or that piece of apple pie with extra vanilla sauce. The only things I knew was you could become fat and get caries, but that's nothing compared to all the depressions, cravings, candida, tinnitus etc. I guess I'm a bit angry about that.
Sugar is also the first drug for most people. Before they start drinking alcohol and before they start smoking and way before they do all the other drugs they do sweets. And the brain gets used to being tampered with, making a sturdy path for other future stimulants.
About your chocolate, it does not just contain sugar. It has that theobromine also, a mood improving stimulant said to be similar to the feeling of being in love.
And actually from what I've heard sugar sensitive people should be careful with mashed potatoes also.. -
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Unsu...
Re: what about sugar?
Wed, November 29, 2006 - 8:51 AMYou're absolutely right. I should've been more careful with my first sentence there. It's definitely something that messes with your brain and is a threat to your body just like any other drug, and that most people who consume sugar in large quantities cannot see that they have a problem if they have one. I was just thinking of your original post from a certain perspective and wasn't trying to underestimate the addictiveness of sugar. Given that, it doesn't come as a surprise that according to studies a lot of people choose chocolate over (for example) sex with one's own partner or other social relations if they have to choose. That just doesn't seem right, and should ring at least some alarm bells somewhere and certainly fills the criteria of a mind-altering substance.
I've been somewhat lucky in that as a child I never was that much into sweet things like cookies, pop or candy, and that chocolate incident later on was a first to me and I don't want to experience that feeling ever again. Fortunately it didn't last long.
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