Redefining Addiction: The Misguided Pursuit of Quick Fixes

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - we suggest that addiction is 'an act of self-care going wrong'. We think that by eating the food, drinking the wine, puffing the vape, we will feel a bit better, and we do for a bit. And then we need more to get the feeling and then, for some, it gets out of hand.

The problem of the disease model of addiction - 'addiction as a brain problem' is its solution is pharmacological - cue Ozempic. Ie let's tweak the brain so we don't want to be hungry and we will lose weight and then we will be thin. Hurray. Except not as easy as that.

James Corden has given up taking Ozempic. Here in The Independent, he says ‘I tried it for a bit and then what I realized was I was like, “Oh no, nothing about my eating has anything to do with being hungry.” ‘All it does is make you feel not hungry. But I am very rarely eating [just because I’m hungry].’

People on Ozempic who stopped realise that the problem which makes you overeat is still there as is the ubiquitous availability of the addictive foods which seem like a solution.

“People will say that they just feel like they can’t control their appetite anymore. When they were taking the medication, they didn’t feel hungry at all, sometimes for them even just noticing that they are hungry again feels really overwhelming,” Medlin explains. Once off the drug, with the food noise rushing back and turned up to maximum level, she says people become scared and don’t trust themselves to make good choices around their eating.

“Because the difference between when you’re taking it and when you come off it is quite stark. When it’s completely out of someone’s system they begin to feel panicky they’re not going to be able to maintain their weight or the sort of benefits they’ve seen.”

I think that's called 'A Known Known!'



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