If you’re a fan of the TV show, “How to Get Away with Murder,” you remember the episode. Addiction psychologist and former heroin addict Isaac Roa (portrayed by Jimmy Smits) — the therapist for recovering alcoholic Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) — has a relapse and ends up in the hospital.
In short, the therapist got depressed, bottomed out and returned to heroin, his substance of choice.
What happened to Roa’s character in “How to Get Away with Murder” reveals that health care professionals with substance abuse disorders have had their share of relapses, as you can learn from this study and this research project.
Of course, the alcoholics and addicts the therapists are helping often have relapses, too, as this USNews.com article points out.
But I’ve been talking about drugs or alcohol.
Although, the term, relapse, is usually used to refer to people, who’ve fallen off the wagon after a period of recovery from alcohol, illicit drugs, or non-prescribed meds, it’s high time to expand the definition of which substances can hook you.
Indeed, you also can relapse with either sugar and/or processed carbs, as I’ve witnessed with my clients and myself.
In fact, after I came clean about my Carb Relapse in late 2012 after after my Mom died and I’d been eating cleanly for 14-plus years, your incredibly supportive response helped me realize that I was onto something.
Millions of you, too, may have had relapses, but not with drugs. You may have relapsed with sweets and quickie carbs.
[shareable cite=”Connie Bennett, The Rebound-After-Relapse Coach™”]Relapses aren’t just about drugs or alcohol. You can have a sugar or carb relapse, too.[/shareable]
After all, in recent years, researchers have found that you can get addicted to sugar.
You may recall headlines of popular stories such as this one from Forbes: Research Shows Cocaine And Heroin Are Less Addictive Than Oreos. This research was sponsored by StopOverdoseIL.org: Cocaine Addiction, Abuse, Treatment Resource.
Did you also know that processed carbs (quickie carbs, fast carbs, toxic carbs, much-like-sugar carbs, as I call them) can hook you?
In fact, research reported in the American Journal 0of Clinical Nutrition found that processed carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, rice, baked goods and other starches, light up the same pleasure centers of the brain as when a person takes drugs such as cocaine and heroin, The New York Times reported.
Although scientists are at odds about whether or not sugar is as addictive as cocaine, we former or current sugar and carb addicts can attest to the fact that both sweets and quickie carbs can hook you bigtime.
Anyhow, these days, I’ve come to realize that relapses can be quite empowering, instructive and life-changing.
Stay tuned next week for my post about 3 Ways to Rebound After Your Sugar or Carb Relapse.
Talk to us. Have you recently or not-so-recently had a sugar or carb relapse?