When I was about five years sober, an AA buddy and I were talking about the quantities of sugar that showed up at AA meetings. (It’s even recommended in the old AA literature to be sure to have coffee and cookies on hand for those in recovery.) My buddy, who had been sober a long time, talked about her own need to have a multitude of candy bars “just in case.”
Then she mentioned a man she had known at meetings in LA. I’ve forgotten his name so I’ll call him Joe. Joe had been sober for 30 years but was diabetic and could not give up sugar. He had a foot amputated but he could not give up sugar. He was losing his sight but he could not give up sugar. In the end, he died in his late 60s of diabetic complications.
I don’t want to become Joe. I don’t want to be Joe. And yet I understand that seduction, that need, that pull, and my own inability to say no.
How will you keep from becoming Joe with whatever your food addiction is?