I just found this article on iVillage’s Total Health website that discusses a new drug that is currently in clinical trials that is supposed to treat drug addiction.  While testing the drug on rats, they discovered that the drug induced satiety in the rats, making them feel full and end up losing weight.  The researchers think that because the drug targets the part of the brain where addiction comes from, it affects the desire to binge eat in obese people as well because they are both addictive behaviors.  Being a recovering drug addict AND compulsive eater myself, I can certainly understand how one treatment could take care of both types of addiction. 

The thing that strikes me as funny about this is that when I was addicted to meth (about 10 years ago), I lost a ton of weight within a couple of months.  And most meth addicts I hung around with were super skinny too because you just don’t want to eat while using it.  I never felt hungry when I was on it (which of course I wasn’t complaining about at the time).  So if a drug addict decides they want to get clean and use this new addiction drug and they are already fairly underweight, will they end up losing even more weight after they get clean?!  Hmmm… just something I thought about as I read the article. 

This could be good news for others though.  Typically when a drug addict gets clean, we turn to coffee, cigarettes, and food to help get through the crazy drug cravings.  So after I got clean, I packed on the pounds because I was having to learn how to live life over again without drugs.  And it was hard the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  So I turned to food, cigarettes, and coffee for comfort.  I ended up quitting smoking about a year before we started trying to get pregnant.  That was killer but so worth it. 

Now I am tackling my weight, which has been a lifelong struggle for me.  But again, fighting this fight is so well worth it.  Coffee might be next on the list but hey, one vice at a time, right? 

Oh yes, after my total digression there, back to my point.  This new drug will probably appeal to those who are like me that turned to food after they got clean.  Since it can help fight the onset of obesity in those who are already suseptible to it. 

But then it makes me wonder if a miracle drug is a good thing or not.  If I could just take something to make my problem go away, would I ever learn the lessons I need to learn about WHY I actually got that way to begin with?  I mean, the behavior would never be corrected or even addressed, so the addictive pattern would just manifest itself in another way. 

Maybe gambling.  (Did I mention I LOVE gambling too?  Yeah, I have to watch myself there.) 

Maybe drinking. 

Maybe tv watching (ahem, guilt here as well). 

Anything that makes us feel good, distracts us from our feelings, and allows us to sink into that comfy little world of denial.  So basically until those feelings are addressed, issues are dealt with, problems are looked at, they will not go away. 

What we resist will persist. 

That’s why I have to deal with this stuff head on because I can’t afford to be selfish anymore.  I can’t ignore the truth and those things that are right in my face.  I have a family now that depends on me.  So when I choose to bury my head in the sand, it’s not only myself that I am hurting, but it’s them.  And it’s just not worth it.

Needless to say, I won’t be in line to take this new drug if it becomes available.  Although the me of 10 years ago would have been, heck, maybe even the me of 2 years ago would have been.  But not now.  Because it’s just not me anymore.