other musings on addiction

I was thinking of my mother a lot yesterday, missing her, our complicated relationship, and how dysfunction/addiction/depression/procrastination are all kind of different aspects of the same thing, some kind of essential loneliness that comes from? Our needs not being met to varying degrees by imperfect human beings, who each have their own essential loneliness and dysfunctional tendencies to deal with and manage as best they can.

The range of dysfunction/function is interesting, from barely alive to dancing thru life with passion and verve. Addiction is a key piece in determining where we live in that range, it's the 'escape mechanism'. And it's so accessible in the form of food choices as to be nearly unnoticeable and inescapable. Food choices are insidious, as we are told most of our lives they are not an issue to be concerned with. 'Anything goes' has been the general sociatial message for food choice in the west, but it is (by far) the easiest way to crash our energy, dull our senses, and induce 'coma'.

Those of us with 'real' addictions, who consume overt toxins (with no redeeming nutrition value) have the same problem, but food may be the least toxic of consumed substances, even if it's 100% fast food greasy.

The most interesting thing about the function/dysfunction scale, and where we live on it, is how changeable it is. When we change our energy levels, our levels of functioning (mood) change simultaneously.

Being in Costa Rica for 7 weeks with FoodNSport illustrated for me very clearly how few of us ever experience eating all we want of the most nutritious (and delicious) foods - and that create no food induced energy fluctuation!

What is this desire to escape, where does it come from?

I think the answer lies in the direction of doing as well as possible with food choices, the goal being to stay in the 20% range of best possible choices all the time (even when socializing and traveling), and better when home in our own kitchen. This step improves both energy and mood tremendously, and it's the first step, the most important.

But to move the body is the secret weapon. The addiction to endorphin and 'healthy' mild euphoria, substituting toxic addiction with 'healthy' addiction (which too can be overdone)... the other major piece of the puzzle lies in that direction...