When Weight Loss Surgery Releases Other Addictions

What would it be like, to be able to control anentirely place it under wraps.
obsession for chocolate? Take it up a notch andWeight loss surgery produces profound body shaping
think about people seeking to control full-scale eatingand body image transformations, yet "window dress"
disorders, drug addiction, gambling, smoking,your body and the mind continues to seek other
drinking...even compulsive shopping!avenues for obsessive compulsive focus. In the case
When "food becomes my comfort" and someoneof bariatric surgery getting thin only creates a
crushes the bathroom scales at morbidly obese"re-direct" of the baseline impulse-control disorder into
levels, body image goals and eating disorders cannew areas where new urges and craving take over.
easily morph into a full flowering of addictiveThink of it. A person loses 200 pounds of built-up
compulsions. This person is psychologically armed andweight, then turns to drinking two bottles of whiskey
dangerous to themselves. The question is what cana day!
they do to regain control over these impulseRemedies Research - Altering Brain Neurology. Unlike
disorders?shrimp and bovine cattle, humans possess nature's
Filling an inner void typically involves the steadystate-of-art brain. 4 million miles of nerve fibers and
build-up of an obsessive compulsive drive. Self worth,neurological horsepower to drive over 10 billion brain
body image and any number of ego-enhancing drivescells, each with as much as 25,000
push a person into ritualized behavior, most of whichsynapse-connection to other cells. And so, what
aggravates rather than soothes the soul.about gaining control over addictions, whether eating
Weight loss surgery, bariatric surgery where up todisorders like binge eating and anorexia, or gambling,
90% of the stomach is surgically tied off in order toor drug abuse?
limit food intake, would seem to be all about excess* Bio-Chemical Intervention. Some research already
food and binge eating resulting in at-risk obesity. Yet,reveals that certain classes of obsessive behavior,
gastric bypass surgery is purely "mechanical" andlike binge eating disorders, associate with depressed
doesn't deal with underlying neurological dependencelevels of the regulating brain hormones serotonin and
issues.neuroepinephrine and dopamine. Increasing these
However, deeper down in psychological space, otherhormones acts on the brain's neurological structure,
factors are at play, as new research into addictiveeffectively blocking certain receptor sites, altering
behavior suggests. Thinking that their days of bodybio-chemical messaging. Result? You get an immediate
image phobia and obesity are now over followinguptick in "feel good" sensations.
weight loss surgery, perhaps 30% or more of men* Drug Addiction - Blocking Receptor Sites. When
and women increasingly discover that something"addiction transfer" takes a person from body image
deeper remains, namely the drive towards any-and-allobsessions to drug abuse, there's a risk of falling into
addictions. What's next? Drug abuse, alcoholism,equally life threatening addiction as with opiates.
gambling, over-the-top consumerism and compulsiveFortunately, these addictions are being attacked using
shopping behavior.new neural receptor-blocking drugs such as suboxane.
Addiction Transfer - Where Eating Disorder MorphsHow does it work? The neural pathways associated
Into Another Obsession. In the psychiatric theorywith 'drug craving and pleasure' are traced by
spectrum with genetics (nature) on one end andsuboxone, which occupies these neural receptor sites,
behavior-reinforcement (nurture) on the other end,thus silencing the addictive craving, and bio-chemically
latest research news is that people with anroad-blocking the site so that heroin cannot enter,
"addictive" tendency keep it, re-dress it, but neverthus renders it useless.