I believe that food addicts need the same type of support offered to alcoholics and drug addicts. They need to detoxify first first and then learn about their disease, while dealing with the thoughts and feelings that arise once they are off their drug. Quite often, psychological issues do not become obvious until food addicts have been abstinent for a long period of time. That's why ongoing support is needed to prevent addicts from relapsing in a panicky effort to cope.

What the inventors of Alcoholics Anonymous got right was the idea of total change, reinforced constantly by ritual and companionship, plus practical advice. People who use heroin need these same things, and more. Emphasis on more.

When people tell me the heroin problem is so big, so tragic, so complicated, I say so what. So what. We can learn our way through this. If you want to know what humanity can accomplish, drive to the airport. Until about 100 years ago, everyhuman being was stuck on the ground.

Science has proven that sin has the power to change us for the worse. In a healthy brain, rational thought can override impulsive behavior. Not so in a brain affected by addiction. This is how Satan steals our ability to choose wisely. Addiction costs us the ability to exercise our agency.

When people tell me the heroin problem is so big,so tragic, so complicated, I say so what. So what. We can learn our way through this.

Endorphins are the chemical catalysts for our experience of key emotions that make human life, or any other mammalian life, possible.

[W]e might say that three factors need to coincide for substance addiction to occur: a susceptible organism; a drug with addictive potential; and stress. Given the availability of drugs, individual susceptibility will determine who becomes an addict and who will not[.]

What [my patients] care about is my presence or absence as a human being. They gauge with unerring eye whether I am grounded enough on any given day to co-exist with them, to listen to them as persons with feelings, hopes and aspirations as valid as mine. They can tell instantly whether I’m genuinely committed to their well-being or just trying to get them out of my way.

I'm closing the door now, I'm saying goodbye, because I want t o live HEROIN--so it's you who must die!"--Nicole D'Settēmi's Poem "Lethal Love Letters (dear Heroin)

In truth, most addicts find relief the moment they stop hiding. The moment they publicly admit they have a problem. For most high-functioning addicts, the moment they realize there’s a God and it’s not them, relief floods into their tortured hearts.