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Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

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Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#3
The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma.

Could the obesity epidemic have been all along downstream of a mental health epidemic that hasn’t been appreciated or acknowledged yet?

This would jive with my personal experience logging my weight with a digital scale for years. I tend to gain weight during or after stressful and traumatic events, and lose it when I am feeling mentally well.

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#4
post #3

The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma. Could the obesity epidemic have been all along downstream of a mental health epidemic that hasn’t been appreciated or acknowledged yet? This would jive with my personal exper…

>The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma.

Or that both addiction and obesity are downstream of dysfunctional satiety sensors, leading to a "void" that the body-mind system attempts to "fill" in one way or another.

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#5
post #3

The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma. Could the obesity epidemic have been all along downstream of a mental health epidemic that hasn’t been appreciated or acknowledged yet? This would jive with my personal exper…

>The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma. Or that both addiction and obesity are downstream of dysfunctional satiety sensors, leading to a "void" that the body-mind system attempts to "fill" in one way or another.

> A surrogate activity is an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that the individual pursues for the sake of the “fulfillment” that he gets from pursuing the goal, not because he needs to attain the goal itself. For instance, there is no practical motive for building enormous muscles, hitting a little ball into a hole or acquiring a complete series of postage stamps. Yet many people in our society devote themselves with passion to bodybuilding, golf or stamp-collecting. Some people are more “other-directed” than others, and therefore will more readily attach importance to a surrogate activity simply because the people around them treat it as important or because society tells them it is important. That is why some people get very serious about essentially trivial activities such as sports, or bridge, or chess, or arcane scholarly pursuits, whereas others who are more clear-sighted never see these things as anything but the surrogate activities that they are, and consequently never attach enough importance to them to satisfy their need for the power process in that way.

You could both be right. Perhaps addictive behaviors are just maladaptive surrogate activities that are the result of humans being intrinsically compatible with contemporary societies.

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#6
I lost taste for whiskey around the time I turned 30 on its own. It kind of makes me feel like puking now. Strangely I am kind of developing a taste for moderate amounts of specific beers and beer used to make me feel like puking earlier. Taste for occasional wine stayed as it was.

So could it be some hormonal change? Something like this drug induces maybe?

Also, when I was younger my food intake was more automatically controlled. I didn’t have to watch whether I had eaten enough, unlike now when I often have to tell myself that it’s enough now.

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma. Or that both addiction and obesity are downstream of dysfunctional satiety sensors, leading to a "void" that the body-mind system attempts to "fill" in one way or another.

> A surrogate activity is an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that the individual pursues for the sake of the “fulfillment” that he gets from pursuing the goal, not because he needs to attain the goal itself. For instance, there is no practical motive for building enormous muscles, hitting a little ball into a hole or acquiring a complete series of postage stamps. Yet many people in our society dev…

What about play and fun? I’m not inclined to take advice from that person you quoted on how best to spend ones time.

However I agree that the response above is not mutually exclusive with mine.

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#8
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A surrogate activity is an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that the individual pursues for the sake of the “fulfillment” that he gets from pursuing the goal, not because he needs to attain the goal itself. For instance, there is no practical motive for building enormous muscles, hitting a little ball into a hole or acquiring a complete series of postage stamps. Yet many people in our society dev…

What about play and fun? I’m not inclined to take advice from that person you quoted on how best to spend ones time. However I agree that the response above is not mutually exclusive with mine.

The term predates usage by Kaczynski.[0]. He just happens to provide the most succinct definition of it that has been popularized in modern society.

[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/surrogate_activity

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#9
post #8
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about play and fun? I’m not inclined to take advice from that person you quoted on how best to spend ones time. However I agree that the response above is not mutually exclusive with mine.

The term predates usage by Kaczynski.[0]. He just happens to provide the most succinct definition of it that has been popularized in modern society. [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/surrogate_activity

That's awfully ironic considering that spending one's time thinking about how we'd all be better off in a primitive, pre-industrial lifestyle is very clearly a "surrogate activity" enabled only by one's lack of backbreaking farm labor to do.

Re: Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol

#10
post #3

The fact that drugs that work for obesity are broadly effective against addiction suggests to be that obesity is often essentially a food addiction- e.g. possibly using food as a way to escape negative feelings or a response to emotional trauma. Could the obesity epidemic have been all along downstream of a mental health epidemic that hasn’t been appreciated or acknowledged yet? This would jive with my personal exper…

or has the fast food industry and unhealthy eating habits in general, which lead to obesity, been the instigator of the mental health epidemic? Fix the food, fix the epidemic?

This is one of those cases where I think it's not one creates the other. But I assume they have a strong feedback mechanism. It's the combination that makes it a lot stronger. 2 + 2 = 5 in such cases

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