William Anderson
VerifiedMA, LMHC
Counselor/Therapist
Sarasota, Florida, USA
Answers questions in Addiction Treatment · Addictions · Anxiety
What I do
My professional mission has a focus of helping the individual conquer their overweight and obesity problem, and helping the world reverse the obesity epidemic. I am uniquely qualified in this field because of my professional training and experience in counseling, psychotherapy and behavioral therapy, but more so because of my personal experience. I suffered 25 years of chronic obesity and weight loss failure, and then discovered the solution, Therapeutic Psychogenics, finally losing 140 lbs. permanently, and have maintained my ideal body weight and excellent health easily since 1985. I have been training others in these successful methods and writing about them for over 30 years. My methods are taught world-wide as "The Anderson Method" by individual therapists as well as being the behavioral component in hospital-based weight loss programs and are explained in my book "The Anderson Method".
My story
I’m a licensed psychotherapist who grew up overweight and obese, the fattest kid in school as a child and over 320 lbs. as an adult. After twenty-five years of failing at diets and exercise, I discovered a unique method for permanent weight loss based on principles I studied in psychotherapy and addictions. I call these techniques Therapeutic Psychogenics, and I call my program The Anderson Method. I’ve helped thousands to succeed with weight control with my program, I now train other therapists in these methods, and I’ve written a book about it, also called The Anderson Method. I have a private practice in Sarasota, Florida, and a website, you guessed it, www.TheAndersonMethod.com .
Why life is worth living
Life is worth living because you can do something good with it.
Treatment Offered
Specialties
Therapy approaches
Patient population
Modalities
Answered Questions(85)
How can I help my little brother addict with suicidal thoughts.
How can i help my litlle brother who's an addict ; depressed ; have suicidal thoughts and lost the meaning of his life
Read answer →I am tormented by gross thoughts about food that I can't stop and it's interfering with life. How do I stop them?
When I was a kid I found I couldn't leave my bowl of cereal alone or I couldn't eat it. If i was present and watching it I knew nothing bad had happened to it, If i left it for any reason my mind would suggest all the things that could be in there that I couldn't see, typically worms, and I would have difficulty choking it down. As an adult, this has morphed into, i see something i find gross, (worms and house centipedes mostly) the next time I go to eat my mind will give me vivid images of finding, ( or worse, NOT finding) those things in my food to the point where even if i do manage to put the food in my mouth I'm fighting my gag reflex to swallow and keep it there. The result is that I won't/can't eat the rest of the day and only manage light amounts the next. Extreme distraction at the time of eating helps, watching a isn't typically enough but reading a book or very compelling or passionate conversation can. Why does my brain do this to me? Why does it hate me? How do I get it to STOP? I have a very fast metabolism and am already teetering on being underweight.
Read answer →What can I do to help my friend? She told me that she made herself throw up and she stopped eating for two days cause her sister called her fat.
my friend told me that she made herself throw up and she stopped eating for two days cause her sister called her fat but she told me she's going to stop and knows it's unhealthy for her. What can I do to help her and would exercising with her help her stop?? She also seems really stressed out lately, is there anything I can do to help her get through this??
Read answer →What can I do to help my friend? She told me that she made herself throw up and she stopped eating for two days cause her sister called her fat.
my friend told me that she made herself throw up and she stopped eating for two days cause her sister called her fat but she told me she's going to stop and knows it's unhealthy for her. What can I do to help her and would exercising with her help her stop?? She also seems really stressed out lately, is there anything I can do to help her get through this??
Read answer →Do I Have an Eating Disorder? My Friends Say I am Too Skinny.
Do I have an eating disorder? Even though I know I am very thin and most people say I am too skinny I still feel good when I wake up in the morning and I look even skinnier than usual. I am kind of confused by this because I can see that this is messed up…I know it is not good, but when I get worse I feel better…WTF? I am not sure if this means I have an eating disorder because I am not blind to this situation I can see that I am too skinny but at the same time I am always thinking about not eating too much so I won’t get fat.
Read answer →My Girlfriend is over 500 pounds and I'm worried about her! What do I do?
My longtime girlfriend has gained so much weight, I don't know what to do. When we started dating 10 years ago she was maybe 180lbs, but over the years her weight has really crept up and is now over 500 pounds. She is really starting to have trouble getting around, but still she loves to eat like its not a problem. I am looking into getting a scooter for her so that she doesn't have to struggle so much to get around--but the most the 'heavy duty' scooters carry is 500! She's already past that! I'm worried that this will keep going, I don't know what to do. I really don't want to hurt her feelings about it and show her that I love her no matter what size she is!
Read answer →Why Am I a Food Addict?
If my food addiction is because of my trying to fill a hole in my life with eating how am I supposed to fill a hole that I have never in 41 years been able to fill so far? It feels kind of hopeless. I honestly don’t understand why I eat so compulsively but I can recognize that my ability to control myself gets worse when I am upset or emotionally drained. I have a lot of self worth issues that come from a verbally abusive mother who never once said a kind word to me. She died 4 years ago but her critical voice lives on inside my brain. Part of the problem for why I feel so depressed is because I never had the guts to confront her for what she did to me before she died. I don’t feel I am worthy of love even though I am married to a wonderful person. I know in my brain that she loves me but in my heart I keep looking for the real reason that she is with me. It is so embarrassing to be so fat that I have to eat small portions in front of other people and then go home and pig out later on.
Read answer →What can I do to help my mom who is very obese? I am scared she is going to die but she won’t listen to me!
What can I do to help my mom who is very obese and I am worried about her health. I think she is addicted to food. She is 36 and she has diabetes and high blood pressure. I do not know how much she weighs because she will not tell me but it is probably around 300 pounds. She tells me she does not have a problem but I think she is addicted to sugar for sure and junk food. I am scared she is going to die but she won’t listen to me!
Read answer →I'm a 395 pound recovering alcoholic and afraid I'm going to die. Should I get bypass surgery?
I need gastric bypass surgery. I am very obese and I want gastric bypass surgery. My sleep apnea is bad. My heart is a ticking time bomb. I have panic attacks and I am terrified of hospitals. I am 26 years old and I am also an alkie. I am 13 months sober. I weigh 395 pounds. I work at home and I get scared in public places. I am scared I going to have a heart attack one day soon unless I do the surgery. I think I damaged my heart with cocaine. My blood pressure is really bad. I need to do this but I can’t do it. I haven’t even talked to a doctor yet. If I am really tranquilized with Ativan or will I be OK and not get a panic attack. I am sober so I never take pills.
Read answer →My daughter gets weight loss tricks from pro anorexia websites. How worried should I be?
My 14 year old daughter gets weight loss tricks from pro anorexia websites. I have told her to stop this but whenever I see her doing some new trick like chewing on ice chips while watching TV or making diet coke popsicles or drinking a huge amount of water and trying to be sneaky about it before eating then I know she has disobeyed me and is looking again. If she was too thin I would be very worried but she is what I would call a healthy weight and what she would call too fat. I do not know what to do. I talk to her about food and nutrition and I know that she believes me but there is a stronger part of her that wants to believe her friends and these website girls with their tricks. I am a single dad and I am out of my depth trying to fathom the emotions and pressures she is living with as a teenage girl. How worried should I be?
Read answer →Am I a food addict?
I have realized that I have what I guess is considered a food addiction but I am only addicted to food when I am in times of stress. At other times I eat too much but it is mostly out of habit and accustumation but when I am very stressed out I NEED to eat a lot. So I do not know what is my real problem. Is it that I have a food addiction problem that is related to stress or if I have a stress problem that leads to food for coping? Is it important that I figure this out? Here’s the big problem though. Whenever I try to diet I get really irritable and stressed out and when I am stressed I always can’t control my eating. So it is like a catch 22. What can I do?
Read answer →Do I have bad eating habits or an addiction?
I usually eat out of a drive through on the way home from work. Because of all the sugar and I tend to get hungry an hour or two later, so I have a second dinner with my family again later. I am overweight and my family gives me a hard time about this so I usually hide the fact that I already ate once on the way home from work. It is also embarrassing. I feel very hungry after work and I have a hard time resisting eating. I have tried to switch to snacking on sliced vegetables on the drive home instead but this doesn’t reduce my desires for more satisfying food. I am actually getting concerned because I am really trying to eat less and I can’t. I have an hour or longer commute and if I try to not eat I just can’t stop thinking about eating the whole time. Do I have bad eating habits or an addiction? How can I tell the two apart?
Read answer →Would a 45 year old man ever get something like anorexia?
Would a 45 year old man ever get something like anorexia? My brother was overweight his whole life. Last year he had a health scare and he turned his life around. He quit smoking stopped drinking, gave up red meat etc etc etc. I do not know the numbers but I would say he has lost 70 or more pounds. He used to be very overweight but not crazy fat. Now he is a very thin person. Not quite ghoulishly thin but barely recognizable as the person he was 2 years ago. Now he is hyper focused on healthy eating. He won’t eat processed foods, non whole grain foods, farmed meat or fish and the list goes on. He seems to subsist mostly on organic yogurt, nuts and fruits and salads. I am worried because he has these rigid food rules that he won’t break, ever and because he is getting so thin that you would think there was something wrong with him, like he has AIDS or something. He went from fat guy to losing weight guy to really healthy looking guy to guy that really looks like he needs a cheeseburger. I have talked to him about my concerns but he has brushed them off. My other siblings are also concerned but no one knows what to do.
Read answer →I think I am a food addict. Is Overeaters Anonymous going to be helpful for me?
I think I am a food addict. Is overeaters anonymous going to be helpful for me or are these types of meetings missing the point?
Read answer →I feel so guilty about everything I eat. I thought I would feel happy when I got skinny but I don’t.
I have been trying to lose weight for 2 years. I have lost 40 pounds, so obviously I was very unhealthy and overweight before and everyone tells me how great I look now. I am still 10 pounds above my goal weight so obviously it is not as easy to drop pounds as it was in the beginning. The closer I get the harder it is. I understand this intellectually, but when I weigh myself each morning and I see I have not lost any weight or if I have gained weight I feel really panicked and terrible and I try to eat as little as possible all day. When I was losing weight in the beginning it felt great all the time but now I only feel OK if I am losing and to lose I have to be pretty vigilant and when I am not losing I feel like crap and I feel so guilty about everything I eat. I am not sure what to do now. I thought I would feel really happy when I got skinny but I don’t (:
Read answer →I feel like I need sugary drinks. Am I addicted to sugar? I am 17.
I feel like I need sugary drinks. If I can’t get one I feel like I am dying for it. I am not overweight but I am worried about my weight and I am gaining weight. I try to cut down but I can’t. Am I addicted to sugar? I am 17. How do I get unaddicted to sugar? My mom and aunt have diabetes too. So this is not a good thing for me at all.
Read answer →What does it mean if I feel very uncomfortable eating in front of other people?
What does it mean if I feel very uncomfortable eating in front of other people. I am overweight. I have no problem eating per se but I will never eat until I am full. I always eat very sparingly and then eat much more on the way home alone. Does this mean I have issues with food that go beyond typical overeating?
Read answer →Can 9-year old child have a binge eating disorder?
Can a small child have a binge eating disorder? What is the youngest age a person can be and have an eating disorder. My nephew is 9 and he doesn’t seem to be able to control his eating at all. When I watch him eat it doesn’t seem right. It is like he is trying to get in as many calories as he can in every meal..far more than he could ever need. His parents are both very obese and so is he but they don’t shovel it in like he does at meal times. It is disturbing to watch. They are worried about him but they do not know what to do and they do not have much money.
Read answer →I'm addicted to coke and alcohol with a history of major depression. How do I get clean without getting depressed?
I have had 2 major depressive episodes in my life. I am currently very addicted to alcohol and to cocaine. I was not very depressed but I always have anxiety and some other issues that I think I self medicated with drugs and alcohol. I think that now the drugs and drinking are just making me feel worse which is why I want to stop. I want to stop but honestly what keeps me going is the fear that coke withdrawals are going to push me back into another major depression. What’s the best way to stop using cocaine for a person with my psychiatric history to minimize the chances of a depression relapse?
Read answer →Help! I've gained 40 pounds since starting the overnight shift! What do I do?
I started working the overnight shift 3 years ago. I am on my own all night long and I get a lot more money than working in the day but ever since I started doing overnights I started gaining a lot of weight. I am not eating more than I used but I have gained 40 pounds in the last 3 years and whenever I try to diet it does not work at all. I have tried every diet. I am convinced it is because I am eating when I should be sleeping. I am also depressed now. Do I have to quit my job to lose weight and stop feeling so depressed? I have high blood pressure so I am worried about my weight gain.
Read answer →Is military school a good option for my 14 year old son who weighs over 320 pounds?
Is military school a good option for my 14 year old son who already weighs over 320 pounds. We have tried everything to get him to lose weight and to live healthier and he just refuses to change. He is a sweet mild mannered kid and he is smart and funny but he just east too much and won’t exercise. He is already type 2 diabetic and his doctors are already pushing us toward bariatric surgery. To my mind he has a disease that is killing him and I am ready to do something extreme to try to save him. There is a military school about 45 minutes away that will take him and the admission counselor assured us that that would get him into shape within a semester. He is a very sensitive boy and he would hate it and probably get teased a lot. My wife is very worried about this and not sure he should go. Do you think this is a good option for someone who is so dangerously overweight at such a young age?
Read answer →Help! I found out I'm a food addict! What do I do?
I took the food addiction test on this website and it shows that I am an addict. This makes a lot of sense because diets have NEVER worked for me at all. So now that I am a food addict now what? Who do I go to see and are there medications or anything that can help to curb my cravings? I am willing to ‘rehab’ but I am not sure where to go.
Read answer →Is it OK to overeat and then exercise enough to work it off?
My husband has asked me to stop exercising before bed and he is concerned that there is something unhealthy about my weight control habits. Is it wrong to keep track of everything I eat and calculate the calories and then calculate my daily resting caloric expenditure and then calculate how many calories are surplus and then make sure I do as much exercise at night before bed as is needed to make sure my intake and outtake match almost exactly? It is something I have been doing for about a year and it has helped me to control my weight very effectively, and in the past I have struggled to control my weight. This way I can eat as much as I want without guilt because I know I will work it all off before I go to bed.
Read answer →My obese daughter uses her allowance to buy junk food and my mother gives it to her. What should I do?
My 8 year old daughter is 4 foot 6 and she weighs 135 pounds. She is not interested in exercise of any kind. I have been trying to model healthy eating and exercise habits but she doesn’t seem to care. I do not want to put her on a diet because of the message that sends but when I let her choose how much to eat she eats too much and she eats too much junk food as well (even though we don’t have it at home she has an allowance and her friends and grandma also supply it). How do I get her to lose weight without putting a lot of negative pressure on her? I don’t want her hungry but something has to change.
Read answer →Should I believe a crackhead who says he'll quit?
I just caught my brother in law smoking crack in our garage. My sister has already thrown him out of the house once before for his drugs and because he was bringing it into the house and around their two young kids who are only 14 months and 4 years old. He begged me not to tell his wife. He told me he was trying to quit and he was just having a hard time, but I am not sure if I should believe him. He is a really great guy that I like a lot and that was very good to my sister before the drugs got bad about a year ago. He swore to me if I didn't say anything he would start going to NA meetings and find a treatment program this week. I don't know if I am being foolish to believe him or if I finally have some leverage to help him? What I want to know, is , is this a stupid idea? If i force him into a treatment program with this threat of my telling his wife hanging over his head is it going to do him any good, or am I just putting my nephews at risk for no reason?
Read answer →I can't resist my cravings and urges to binge. It's ruining my life! Help!
I am a food addict (binge eater or whatever you call it) and my big thing has always been to do fast food drive throughs and eat like mental by myself in parking lots. I am talking about 3000 or 4000 calorie meals at a time and doing this more than once a day. I a trying to get under control but whenever I drive by fast food places I just crave so strong that I can't resist it. I have tried driving different routes but I just can't avoid all of them on my way back and forth to work and there is no way I can get to work on the us in my physical condition. How do I overcome these 'triggers' of mine when i can't avoid them and I can't resist them.
Read answer →Is Bulimia something that only girls get, or do boys get it too?
Are there a lot of teenage guys who binge on food and then make themselves throw up? I am 17 and I do this 3 or 4 times a week. I am very ashamed of this and embarrassed because everyone thinks this is just something that girls do. I do not know why I need to do this all the time.
Read answer →Eating Disorder or Drinking Problem?
If a person barely eats because they don't want to gain weight because they are partying hard and drinking a lot every night do they have an eating disorder or is that considered just a part of having a drinking problem.
Read answer →Where do I find out how to deal with food addiction?
I am what you would probably consider a food addict. I am trying to control my eating through will power and it is very hard. Is there a better way to approach this? Right now I am trying to limit my calories and increase my exercise levels. I am trying to do the sensible dietary plan that my doctor recommended. The thing he didn’t talk about though was that on this sensible diet plan I will be obsessing about food literally very minute of the day. I am hungry and I am miserable and I do not think this is going to last for me for long.
Read answer →My mom is addicted to plastic surgery and it's getting crazy. How can I stop her?
Can a person be addicted to plastic surgery? My mom won’t stop getting stuff done to her face, her boobs, her but even her ankles. I have lost count by now but she has had way more than 10 operations over the last few years. We have no money to pay the bills but she always finds money for surgeries. And in my opinion the surgeries she is getting now are no longer making her look better. She is starting to look weird, like a person who has had too much. I have tried talking to her about it but she does not listen and it is always just one more thing that she needs to fix. Are doctors really allowed to just keep taking money for this? Can’t they at some point say that this is not necessary and not a good idea? I don’t know what I can do to get her to stop doing this. Do you have any advice for me?
Read answer →How can I stop myself from night eating?
How can I stop myself from night eating? I can control myself all day long but at night when I am watching the TV food is all I can think about. I am even dreaming about the food I will eat at night during the day time. I am overweight and it is getting worse but no matter what diet I try I always break down after dinner and eat way too much. It’s like the pleasure I have to look forward to to get me through the day. What can I do to break free from this? It sounds like it should be easy but I have tried so hard and I always fall back into the habit of pigging out after dinner. It's like an addiction to me.
Read answer →Are Steroids Addictive?
Are steroids addictive? My brother started using them in high school. He justified the decision as he was going to get big so he’d get a football scholarship. The scholarship didn’t happen but the steroids are still ongoing like 5 years later. Now he’s like the hulk but he can always find some reason why he needs to take just one more cycle. I know this isn’t good for his health but I have tried to respect his decisions over his own body. Now I am wondering how in control he really is.
Read answer →Can an Intervention be Arranged for Obesity, for a Food Addict?
Have you ever heard of anyone running a food addiction intervention? My husband is getting very overweight and he does not seem to be able to control his eating. I try to limit the junk food that comes into the house but he is constantly hiding chocolate bars and other sugary foods around the house and in his car. He refuses to talk about the issue seriously and he just makes a joke or a game out of it, like he is trying to outwit me for fun to get his candy. He is about 6 foot tall and he is almost 400 pounds now, but I do not actually know how heavy he really is since our scale does not go up high enough. If he does not change I am going to be a widow before he is 40 and he is going to leave our 2 young kids without a father. Should I try a food addiction intervention? Is there such a thing? I am almost ready to leave him if he won’t at least try to get healthier. I can’t stand watching this anymore. What kind of treatment does he need?
Read answer →My friend makes herself throw up to stay thin. Is that bulimia?
How many times does a person need to throw up after eating before she has bulimia. My best friend throws up sometimes after eating a big meal to stay thin. She says she doesn’t have a problem because she only does it like once every 2 weeks or so. Is this something that is going to get worse for her like an addiction or is she right that she can control it. I am 17 and she is 15 but I don’t know what to advise her. She is a very mature person.
Read answer →I think people want to kill me when I smoke pot. Am I OK?
If I get out of touch with reality (not in a good way) sometimes when I smoke strong pot does this mean that I am one of the kinds of people that are at risk of schizophrenia? I know that marijuana can increase a person’s risk of getting schizo in their 20s. When I smoke sometimes it is fine and fun but sometimes I get really scared and I think I am going to die or that people around me want to hurt me.
Read answer →Will Weight Loss Surgery Cure Food Addiction?
I am pretty heavy. I try to diet a lot but I always cheat. 99% of the time when I cheat it is on pastries and cakes and things like that. I just crave them so much when I am trying to diet that I always sneak a few bites and then once I sneak a bit it seems like I almost always finish the whole thing. I have been reading about sugar addiction and now I wonder if the reason why it is so hard for me to stick to a diet is because I am actually addicted to sugary foods. How can I know if I am addicted to sugar or not? What’s the treatment for food addiction? Is it a different treatment than what is provided to people who are very obese? I am scheduled for bariatric surgery next month and I believe that I am probably a food addict. If I am a food addict is the gastric band going to be enough to help me lose weight and maintain that weight loss?
Read answer →My husband has been using narcotics and lying about it. How worried should I be?
My husband had a wild youth and I knew that he used to do a lot of drugs and drink and smoke cigarettes. Since I have met him he has done none of those things, other than have the occasional beer. About a month ago I found some hydromorphine pills in buried in his home office drawer in a place I don’t normally ever look. He told me his friend had come over to watch hockey and they had taken one and that his friend had left them and he hadn’t had one since. I was surprised but I accepted this as not a big deal. This morning I went into his jeans pocket while he was in the shower to get the keys for his truck and I found some more pills. When I asked him about it he told me it was no big deal and that he just takes one now and again after a hard day. Now I don’t know what to believe. He seems normal, not like high all the time or anything but the fact that he has been hiding this from me makes me scared. How worried should I be about this? If he was addicted to these pills would it be obvious or would he be able to hide it?
Read answer →How do I get help for my depressed brother who won’t go for help?
My brother has a rough last 6 months or so. We lost our mom to cancer after a long and very tough battle and then he was blindsided by a job loss and his longtime girlfriend ending their relationship, all with the last couple of months. Since that time he has been really knocked off kilter. He has always been a once or twice a week visitor at my place for dinner with my family but about 6 weeks ago he started coming around a lot less and for the last few weeks he hasn’t come at all. His friends also say he hasn’t been around much lately. Now, every time I call in the middle of the day I catch him still in bed. He has never been a lazy person who would stay in bed all day so I know that this is a sign of something seriously wrong. When I ask him what’s up he says he has been having trouble sleeping lately so he is watching a lot of TV at night. When I ask him if he’s been looking for work he says that he has been, but judging by his appearance every time I go over and the growing stack of empty beer bottles in the garage I am not sure that he could have been looking very seriously. I think, and my sister agrees with me, that he is depressed, and it is kind of understandable why he would be. I broached the subject with him and he agreed that he was feeling kind of down lately. I suggested that he go talk to someone about this and he kind of agreed that it would be a good idea but he hasn’t made any moves to actually doing anything about it. I feel like he knows that he needs some help but for some reason he can’t bring himself to actually go out and get it. I am very frustrated and worried. It’s like seeing someone with cancer admit that they have cancer but not be willing to go to the doctor for the treatment that could save their life. How can I make someone who doesn’t want to help themselves (because of their depression) go and get the help that would make them feel better. It’s like a catch 22.
Read answer →How do I get my son to stop eating junk food?
My 7 year old son only eats basically carbohydrates. He won’t eat any vegetables and he’ll only eat deep fried meats – if it’s not crunchy and battered (nuggets or fish sticks for example) he’s pretty much not going to do it. A lot of the time I can’t get him to eat any kind of meal; he will only eat snack type foods like chips or crackers. I know this makes me sound like a terrible parent to let him have chips for dinner but I am so desperate a lot of the time just to see him eat anything that I will let him eat what he wants, just so he’ll get some calories in. He is very skinny now although the doctor says he is not dangerously underweight. I do give him a multi vitamin each day so I hope that helps. How can I make him eat a more varied diet? I have been trying to encourage him to try to eat different things for years and it just is not working. If it is something he doesn’t already ‘like’ he won’t even try it. This has been going on for years and it is not getting any better. Everyone told me that this would get better as he grew up but it doesn’t seem to be happening. I am really worried that he is never going to change his ways and he is going to be very unhealthy or not grow properly. I don’t know what to do. I am ashamed to admit this but I was so frustrated last night I even tried force feeding him. It was awful. What can I do to make him eat even a little more variety?
Read answer →I'm a stress eater. How do I stop?
I’m a stress eater and since I am now working in a very stressful job I am gaining a lot of weight. My work is challenging and rewarding but I am worried about the effect it will have on my health if it causes me to continue to gain weight at this pace (25 pounds in this last year). How do I stop eating as a way to cope with stress? It sounds like this should be an easy thing to do but I am just constantly gravitating to the kinds of comfort foods that aren’t good for my waistline.
Read answer →I get high every day. Is this normal? Do I need to get help?
I am in college at a big party university. I have experienced pretty major trauma I guess dealing with several deaths of family members, including my dad, and a close friend all within the last year. My best friend just had to leave school to go to rehab due to an overdose. Over the past we did coke pretty regularly but not on a daily or even weekly basis. Whenever we could get it we did, and then it would be gone shortly. This year we started buying just one time after another and our tolerance built up so, we decided to try something stronger. We did crack together once but that was it. I haven't done coke in about two and a half months now, and I stopped drinking mostly. My drinking was definitely out of control for a little but now i have no interest in getting drunk and blacking out. I never drank and did coke together though. I smoke marijuana multiple times daily and usually til i fall asleep and I see it is kind of out of control. It is my incentive for nearly everything i do school wise. I sometimes snort my adderall and klonopin, and in the summer I was snorting Xanax and vic and blew-through both prescriptions quickly. I have remained away from coke but I still snort these other things and I always contemplate buying coke just one more time but hold myself back from finding it. I don't know if I should just focus on quitting weed but I really don't want to right now at all. I have found myself fending for more pot, worrying about Incan get more so I don't run out. Sometimes I'll really get the urge to snort something or do coke so I'll just snort an adderall. Sometimes it definitely helps me deal with emotions about my life. I don't know if or how this would be treated or if they treat weed because you can't get physically addicted. But I beg to differ on that because recently for a short period of time I wasn't able to smoke at all and I felt horrible for two and a half days. Exhausted stomach ache headache irritable. Anyway I just don't know what to do that fits my situation to fix the problem if there even is one. Do I need to get help?
Read answer →I'm in trouble with cocaine. Should I switch to crack?
I have only been doing cocaine for a couple of years and I already have a big hole in my septum and you can even see that my nose is starting to flatten out. It really hurts and I know that it is permanent and it makes me really feel down when I think about it. I am trying to quit but it’s really hard. I am using a little less than I used to. I always swore I’d never use crack because that was a line I would not cross. Should I switch to crack instead of snorting while I am trying to quit so that I won’t do more damage to my nose? I cannot afford any expensive rehab right now.
Read answer →Help! I'm using fast food like it's a drug! I'm addicted!
I have a problem with out of control eating. It seems like whenever I get fretful about life I get this jiggling feeling in my mind that won’t go away until I eat. I have a good appetite but when I am eating after I get feeling worried about stuff I always want to eat alone and I can eat a lot. I might eat 3 or 4 whole wendys combos in my car in secret and then go and have dinner with my family just like normal. I know this is not a good way to deal with my problems but I don’t know how to stop. No one knows that I do this and I am too embarrassed to tell anyone about it. What can I do to stop eating like this? I am gaining a lot of weight. There is a weight watchers meeting at church that I go to sometimes but I don’t think that it is really what I need to help me.
Read answer →I've been dieting and now I'm starting to binge. How do I stop?
I have been dieting pretty strictly for about 8 months and I have lost more than 30pounds during that time but the problem is now I am starting to gain some of the weight back and I seem to be losing control over my eating whereas before I have always been very strong about limiting my calories. I have been trying to eat no more than 800 to 1000 calories per day and I have been quite serious about journaling what I have been eating and making sure to stick to my goals. But then what happens is that every few days or so I start feeling upset about something and I get these really strong cravings to eat carbs (I am doing a mostly low carb diet otherwise) and I’ll end up having this total pig out session where I eat as many calories in one meal as I might eat in 3 days of normal dieting. I have been too embarrassed to write down what I eat in my food journal after these sessions, even though no one looks at this but me. I have never had a binging problem before. How can I get this under control?
Read answer →Will my past LSD use cause birth defects? I'd like to have children, but I worry.
I used to do a lot of LSD. I have done more than 500 hits of acid, along with a lot of other drugs, but LSD was always my drug of choice. I have heard many times that doing a lot of LSD can cause chromosomal changes in your body and that these can be passed on to your children. I do not know if this is true or not. I am now in my late 30s and a few years away from the drug life I used to live and I want to have children now with the great guy I am engaged to be married to. But I am worried about my past and whether or not I am going to be putting a child at risk. Should I be worried about mutations?
Read answer →I need to lose 100+ lbs., and I don't want to take years, or fail at it. Which is the better surgery?
Right now I weigh 360 pounds after losing about 40 pounds in the last year. I am happy with the 40 pound loss but I am still far from my goal of a healthy weight. I have a family history of obesity and heart disease at a young age and even though I am only 32 I am worried that if I don’t lose weight now I am going to die very young. I have been obese for my whole life. My dad died from a heart attack at 44 and he wasn’t nearly as big as I am now. Obviously at 360 I am still morbidly obese and at the rate I am losing weight I will remain morbidly obese for another 5 years or so before I get to my target weight of about 180 (this is accounting for some slowdowns as I have less weight to lose near the end). While I know that weight loss is supposed to be a slow and steady thing I am just worried that I don’t have enough time to lose that weight and that I could be dead by the time my diet and exercise program gets the results I need. I am thinking about asking about bypass or lap band surgery. Is one better than the other? My doctor says that I should not take the risks of surgery if I am having success with my weight loss program but I am not sure I can wait so long. I am also just so tired of looking disgusting and feeling so tired all the time. I understand that you cannot give me specific advice since I am not a patient of yours, but in general would you say that my logic is sound? For someone with a risk of early heart attack do the immediate weight loss gains of bariatric surgery outweigh the risks and is this a better option than the slow ‘natural’ course of weight loss I am currently following?
Read answer →I am very fat and want to lose weight as fast as possible. Is 600 calories OK?
I am very fat. I am 23 years old and 5 foot 9 and I weigh 240 pounds…and it is not muscle. I am tired of being fat and I want to lose this weight as quickly as I can. I am determined to do it this time. I plan on doing a calorie journal and tracking everything I put in my mouth. I was thinking about aiming to eat just 600 calories per day, or about 200 calories for 3 small meals per day. I know that this is a fairly small amount of calories but I am thinking it is safe since my body has so much fat that it can burn for fuel. Is there any danger to eating such a small amount each day?
Read answer →Anorexia and cocaine addiction. Which do you treat first?
My 22 year old daughter called my wife and I to pick her up from a hospital emergency room 2 nights ago. When she called she had already been treated and was getting released and she was fine, but she had been scared that she was going to die. She was dropped off (by her so called ‘friends’ who didn’t stick around to see how she was doing) after she started having heart palpitations and she thought she was having a heart attack. Some medication and time under observation was all the hospital treatment she needed because she started feeling better pretty quickly after the doctors started in with treatment. I was also left with the bill, which is OK when you are paying for your daughter’s lifesaving care, but it is illustrative of how I am often only called after the fact to pick up the pieces. My daughter is a very beautiful girl who is starting to look like a skeleton. We have been trying to get her some help for what we feel is her obvious anorexia but we have not yet been able to get her to admit that she has a problem. On the drive home from the hospital she admitted that she had a problem with eating and she asked us to get her some help but said that her biggest problem was cocaine and said that she couldn’t stop using it on her own and that it was after using too much cocaine that she ended up in the hospital. I feel like we have a window of opportunity here to get her into a treatment program and this is something we haven’t had for a while. But I am confused about what she needs. It seems to me that if a person has a cocaine addiction and an eating disorder that you have to treat the cocaine addiction first because you just don’t eat when you’re high on cocaine all the time. But some of what I am reading online seems to suggest that the eating disorder needs to be looked at first. I am confused. Should I look at sending her to a drug rehab which has services for people with mental health issues or to an eating disorders facility which offers substance abuse counseling…or to something else entirely?
Read answer →How Can I Help my Overweight Daughter? Should I Send her to a Camp for Overweight Teens?
My daughter is an overweight 14 year old. I was an overweight teen so I remember how painful it can be too be the butt of fat jokes in high school hallways. I wish there was something I could do to help her lose weight so she doesn’t have the same experience I did growing up. How can I get her to lose weight without pushing her too hard towards things like anorexia? My wife and I are also overweight so when we tell her to be careful with what she eats our words may not have as much impact as they would if we were very fit. I am considering sending her to a summer camp for overweight teens. My daughter is 5 foot 6 inches and she weighs about 180 pounds. Is this the best way for me to help her lose weight? Is there anything else I can do to get her to start eating more healthily?
Read answer →I'm Not Losing Weight Even Though I'm Doing Everything Right. Why? I Don't Want to Risk my Recovery.
My question is a two part question. Part one being I have a great exercise routine however am not losing weight. i food journal and track what I eat with my bodybug and am coming in with around 1000 calorie deficit from what I consumed to what I burned, which should mean I am losing weight, but I am not. Sometimes I have burned between 1000 and 1200 more calories than what I ate. So why am I not losing weight. The second part is now that I have reached this place, my recovery which was in a really good place I think might be beginning to slip. I am once again thinking about food, working out, all the time analyzing what I am eating, what I am not eating. Am I in a dangerous spot? if so how do i get out? I have been in recovery for close to 10 years, why now?
Read answer →I Want to Get Off Narco and Vicodin. How Long Will it Take to Feel Better?
I am about 2 and a half years into a norco and vicodin habit (about 20+ per day). I am so ready to get out of this fog and get back to just living. It’s hard to believe that I used to always want to get high but now I’d give everything just to be able to feel normal without having to use. I was determined quit by Christmas and I tapered down for a couple of weeks and then just white knuckled it through like a week of detox – and then after going through all that I relapsed just as I stopped feeling so sick all the time. The problem was that I just felt so mentally down. It felt like I should feel great for having accomplished this awesome thing and making it 7 days and I just didn’t any joy or satisfaction at all. I now realize that this is all a part of the withdrawal process and that the recovery of my endorphin system will take some time. I am ready to quit again, but I want to know how long before I can expect to feel a little better mentally after I stop using the pills. I am 26 years old and I am in pretty good health…other than being a total drug addict…
Read answer →I Used to Have Anorexia and Obsession with Diets. I've Recovered but the Paleo Diet Sounds Healthy. Should I Try it?
I had bad anorexia in my early twenties that I got under control with the help of a really great therapist who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. I am now 37 and I am doing really well. My weight is healthy and I don’t obsess about calories (much) and I am feeling really good about who I am and about what I can and can’t do in the world. I have started seeing this guy and he is really into eating paleo. He is really smart and he is really healthy so it is working for him. I have not told him yet about my past struggles with eating disorders and about how diets of any kind are really dangerous things for me to get into. Anyway, he has been explaining more about Paleo and about how it is not actually a diet but more of a lifestyle change for better health, better disease resistance and for more energy. He is encouraging me to give it a try and I am thinking about it. Do you think that eating paleo is dangerous for someone with a history of anorexia? I am tempted to try it, and in some ways I already am since I am eating so many meals at Rob’s house and there isn’t much in his fridge that isn’t paleo friendly.
Read answer →I'm Trying to Quit Drinking and Using Cocaine. Should I Move?
I am trying (and mostly failing) to control my drinking and cocaine. I have a great apartment that is in a very vibrant part of downtown. I can walk to a dozen really great coffee shops and art galleries and great stores and restaurants within 10 minutes from my front door and I can walk to work in 15 minutes. I also share the apartment with a friend who rents it from his Aunt at a very reduced rate, so it is a much nicer place than I could otherwise afford. The problem is that when I walk out at night it’s not a dozen coffee shops that are in my immediate vicinity, it’s 50 great clubs and pubs and bars that line the streets. I love the nightlife so this has always been great, but now that I am trying to quit drinking and drugs I find the constant temptation very difficult to deal with. Should I move out to the suburbs? I am worried that I will move to somewhere boring and terrible and I’ll feel the same temptations I do now…but I’ll be living somewhere I hate. Will moving make it easier for me? Or am I blaming my neighborhood for an addiction that is really just inside me and so wherever I live doesn’t really matter?
Read answer →Should I Take Medicine for Panic Attacks? I Have a History With Addiction.
I have been having a really hard time for the last few months with social anxiety and panic attacks. I have always been shy but this is something very different. My doctor is recommending a couple of different anti anxiety medications (I forget the names) but she said I would become dependent on them If I started using them and I wouldn’t be able to stop very suddenly. This really worried me, because I have had problems in the past with addiction. My doctor does not know of my past with addiction. I am not sure if I should tell her either. I am worried that if I tell her about my past she will be reluctant to prescribe me with certain medications and I want to be the one to decide what I should use based on the best available medical advice. Should I be very worried about using anxiety medications that have a risk of abuse if I have a history of addiction? Am I right in thinking that if I tell my doctor she may be reluctant to prescribe to me?
Read answer →My parents think I'm anorexic. They are constantly pushing food and saying I'm too thin. It's driving me crazy. What can I do?
Is there anything wrong with liking to be thin? I am 18 and I am slender and I work hard to stay that way. I do like to visit some extreme dieting and ana lifestyle websites for ideas and support but I am not an anorexic and I would not let myself cross that line. How do I get my family to understand that even though I watch my calories and don’t like to eat too much fat that I am not an anorexic and that I have always been light for my height. I am tired of everyone always staring at my plate while I eat and with my parents always encouraging me to eat more than I want to or need to. Looking good is more important to me than a giant helping of mashed potatoes and I am proud of myself for having the discipline to control myself and to overcome temptation.
Read answer →I used all my parents' school money for coke. I'm afraid to tell them. I'm broke and can't even function. What do I do?
I am 20 and I have been using a lot of cocaine for the last year. I have not lived at home for the last 2 years but I was home for the holidays and it really opened my eyes to the life I am living how and how it’s not a good life. I was so ashamed to be snorting coke in my room before Christmas dinner but I just couldn’t stop myself. I was never a problem when I was living at home and I have a good relationship with my parents. I have borrowed a fair amount of money from my dad this fall. I told him it was for design school and equipment but I really just partied through it all. I am so ashamed and I know I need to get some help but I can’t imagine telling my parents and having them know how I have been lying and basically stealing from them all this time. I would love to get clean on my own but unfortunately I have no money for rehab and I can’t seem to stop using on my own. I want to get clean and then get a job and then pay them back and then maybe I will tell them or probably I never will. But I need to start by getting clean. How can I get help when I don’t have any money?
Read answer →I'm Miserable With my Eating and Myself, but I Don't Think I Have a Real Eating Disorder. Should I Bother an Expert?
I have been struggling with what I believe to be an eating disorder for many years now, but everything I research about different types of eating disorders doesn't seem to fit me. I am afraid to get help, because I don't know if I actually qualify as having an eating disorder, because I am at a healthy weight. I am now 22 years of age, but I have struggled with my body image and eating habits all my life. When I was younger, I was diagnosed with childhood obesity. Now that I am older I am now at a healthy weight for my height, 5'7 and 140 pounds. However, I struggle every day with my eating habits. I began to make myself purge my food when I was in about 14. I don't have to do it after every meal, its more of if I eat too much, or if I eat unhealthy. Some days I have better control than others, and for a couple of years I was able to stop. For the past year and a half, however, I have started to purge more frequently, and I know the dangers of this behavior, but I can't seem to stop. I don't eat massive amounts of food though either. I try to eat as least as I can, but also as healthy as I can. I feel such a relief after I purge, but I hate that I have to do it or else I feel so guilty and like I can actually feel the fat being added to my body. I can't stand the thought of ever being fat again, and I am so tired of constantly worrying about what I eat and how my body looks and my thoughts constantly being consumed with food. I don't know what to do because I don't know if I would actually be considered as having an eating disorder or not. I know something isn't right, but I just don't know what.
Read answer →It's my Husband's 4th Deployment. The Kids are Driving me Nuts. I'm Eating like Crazy and Gained 20 lbs. He's due Back! Help!
My husband just left last month for his fourth overseas deployment. We have three kids and I find it very difficult when he is gone. I do not get depressed like a lot of military spouses but I do feel anxiety more often and of course I worry about him and mostly I just feel overwhelmed whenever he goes at the job of taking care of these kids and the house and the bills and his parents and everyone and everything all alone. And to really complain about it just feels so selfish. During his last 8 month deployment I gained about 15 pounds. My husband was shocked when he came home because I have always been pretty fit but I just started feeling overwhelmed all the time and I just ate a lot as a way to cope I guess. Now he has been gone for a month and it’s been the holidays and I have already gained another 5 pounds. I really don’t want to get huge and unhealthy but I can’t seem to control myself when I get stressed out, which is like every day. How can I stop comfort eating when I really need that comfort?
Read answer →Am I destined to be overweight? I'm 5'9", 280 lbs. and no matter what I do, I can't lose weight.
I have been overweight my whole life. My parents are very heavy and my grandparents were very heavy. I am now 24 years old. I am 5 feet 9 inches tall and I weigh 280 pounds. It seems like no matter what I try I do not really lose much weight. Because everyone in my family is so overweight is it reasonable for me to assume that we have some sort of metabolic condition that runs in the family that makes it difficult for us to lose weight? I am frustrated with trying to lose weight and enduring miserable diets that do not work.
Read answer →Am I a hopeless junkie?
I have been injecting heroin for the last 8 months or so after a year or so on pills before that. My friends tell me that I’ve been going long and hard enough now that I am at this point basically a lifer and that I’ll be doing Heroin or vacating on methadone until the end. Sometimes that doesn’t sound so bad and sometimes it makes me feel really sad, like I am almost mourning my own death while I am still here. Do injecting heroin users ever really get clean for the long term without resorting to using methadone?
Read answer →My daughter, a freshman, just lost 20 lbs. Could she have an eating disorder?
My daughter has lost a lot of weight these last 6 months or so. She is newly at college and I think the pressures may be getting to her. She puts a lot of pressure on herself to succeed. She has lost what I would consider an unhealthy amount of weight since she moved out on her own 6 months ago. She has always been concerned about maintaining a healthy weight but it was never something I worried about. Six months ago she was at a healthy weight. Now, she to me she looks like she has lost 20 pounds and has a gaunt appearance to her face. She did not need to lose 20 pounds, since she was already fairly lean before. I am concerned she has developed an eating disorder. She is not the type to use drugs at all. But when she comes by for Sunday dinner every week she always eats a normal amount and acts quite normally around food. I have been trying to get her to explain the weight loss but she says she has just been exercising more and doing yoga and that she just had a check up with her doctor and that she is in great health. Is there any way a 20+ pound weight loss on an already lean frame in 6 months is the result of normal exercise and yoga? What can I look for as proof that there is something worse going on here?
Read answer →Do I have an Eating Disorder? I have some strange eating problems.
i can only eat unhealthy food mostly,junkfood,high fat,high sugar etc,i have tried many times to eat healthy but keep failing,i heave up at the taste of some foods,dont like meats ,fish or fruit & veg.Could i have an eating disorder?
Read answer →I like to drink wine most nights. Is that addiction?
I left a response under a question that was directed to you. And it led me to ask is having a few glasses of wine or champagne on a weekly basis considered addiction? I will have a drink Friday night (3) glasses ; Saturday night (3-4) glasses. Sunday nothing. Monday maybe some champagne with dinner and then Wednesday maybe (1-2) glasses off wine. repeat. Is this odd? or okay? I definitely feel happier when I pop that cork (chuckles to self) but in the back of my mind I hear my mother saying "OMG You'd better watch yourself You need some prayer" And Im thinking to myself Im young in my mid 20s vegetarian holistic lifestyle yoga buddhist lifestyle let me have my fun. So I guess I figured since I live alone and have no one to bounce the idea off of; let me ask a professional? Am I just paranoid?
Read answer →My life is going down the tubes. Could it be the weed?
I’ve grown up with a really tight circle of friends. They are more like brothers to me than just friends and I owe my life to these guys. They have literally saved my life on more than one occasion. They would never turn their back on me and I can never imagine turning away from them. We all smoke a lot of weed. it’s like a huge part of what we do. I have started to realize that I don’t really want to be high all the time. I’m 23 now and I can see some of the people I went to high school with are starting to get good jobs and stuff and I’m still just sitting around with nothing to show for myself. I need to get serious about my life but as soon as I get high in the morning any good plans I had to get stuff done and make some progress just gets shelved for another day. So I keep telling myself that I need to slow down with the weed, but I just don’t seem to be able to do it. I mean I want to, but when I’m offered I just can’t seem to say no. I mean sometimes I’ll say no, but eventually I’ll always fold and say yes. I have enrolled at JC for the last two semesters and both times I’ve screwed it up because I missed too many classes and did too little work. And this is all because I was high every day. I can’t keep doing this to my life. So I feel like I am stuck. I can’t stop hanging out with my friends, there’s no way I could do that to them. But I also want to quit weed and get my life together, and I just can’t seem to stop smoking when I am around them. How can I be a stronger person and learn to just say no without having to turn my back on the people I love.
Read answer →Am I a Food Addict? I'm Very Overweight and Can't Stop Overeating.
I don’t know if I have an eating disorder but I am a very overweight man. I am 33 and 5 foot 9 and weigh 275. I know that I need to lose weight for my health and as I am approaching middle age I can’t let this go anymore. The problem is that I am obsessed with food. It’s all I think about. I’ll finish breakfast at home with my wife and start plotting out which of the drive throughs I’ll hit on the way in to work for a second breakfast my wife doesn’t know about. And in the evenings it’s worse. I watch TV and eat and if I am not snacking I am just dreaming about all the things I want to be eating. I am trying to exert some will power over myself but my thoughts about food and my cravings are really relentless and I can’t seem to control myself and I am getting bigger by the year. How can I diet and lose weight if I can never stop thinking about and eating food even for 20 minutes? Is there something wrong with me, like some sort of mental illness that makes me act like this? Or am I just someone with no will power? How do you lose weight when diets won’t work?
Read answer →Is there such a thing as an addictive personality?
Is there such a thing as an addictive personality? I have heard this term used for a long time but I don’t know if this is a real medical term or not. I think that if it is real then I must have one. I used to smoke a ton of weed and then one day I managed to give it up – but then I got really into online gaming and WoW and that became like another addiction to me. Then I gave that up and decided to get healthy and got really into exercising and now my GF is giving me a hard time about how much time I spend every day in training; it’s almost like I’m addicted to exercise now like I used to be addicted to weed and I’m just going through life substituting one addiction for the next. I’d like to be able to do something in moderation for once, like a normal human being – but I’m not sure how to change myself, like a leopard can’t change its spots, and being like this just seems to be the way I’m hardwired. I get into something that could be an OK thing (even weed) and then I just lose control over how much I do it until it becomes a not OK thing, and then I move onto the next thing and repeat the pattern all over again.
Read answer →Is there really such a thing as food addiction?
Can people really get addicted to sugar? I swear if I try to go a day without sugar I am craving like crazy for it, but I never thought that it was like a real addiction, like cocaine or heroin etc. If it is a real addiction, do you have to give it up completely to get sugar-sober like an alcoholic?
Read answer →Is Cocaine really addicting? Can't I just use it on weekends?
I’ve been a recreational cocaine user for the last year or so. Doing it only on weekends and I honestly never have much trouble keeping it away from the work week. I understand that it is a very addictive drug but I think I have it under control and as long as I ensure that it never creeps into the working week I think I’ll be OK. I don’t think that I have a drug problem and I have never really had an addictive personality but I have noticed over the last month or so that things just aren’t as fun without coke. Maybe that sounds like an obvious statement, but what I mean is that I have always been able to party on the weekends and then still have a good time during the week with my touch football team and going out to movies with my GF etc. Lately though, these activities all seem kind of gray and boring and I feel like I am just going through the motions during the week just to get to the weekend. Is the way I am feeling likely because of my cocaine habit or is unrelated? I don’t really want to give up my weekend fun but if it’s starting to affect my everyday life then maybe I’ll have to consider making some changes.
Read answer →Help! I'm on Tramadol and can't get off. What do I do?
I am hopelessly addicted to Tramadol. I was prescribed then for back pain by a doctor who told me they weren’t addictive. I never found that they worked all that great for pain but I found that I really loved the speedy high they gave me and I began taking them for energy and good mood all the time. I was supposed to be taking 2 50mgs pills per day and I quickly rocketed up to like 20 or so per day. They’re easy to get on the internet and all was well until I ran out for a couple of days before my next package arrived and it was hell. I figured that even though my doctor told me they weren’t addictive that I’d have to go through a little something after taking so many but I was shocked at how horrific I felt. I was so irritable and I had these very unpleasant restless legs and I felt really anxious and down. As I write this it doesn’t so sound like it was so bad but honestly, it was the worst 2 days of my life and I have never been so relieved to get that package come in the mail. That was over a year ago and since that time I’ve been too scared to try quitting on my own again. I no longer have any medical reason to take these pills at all and they now totally dominate my life. I used to be a pretty even keeled person but now I am either in a good energized place when the pills are working or in an anxious and irritable and uncomfortable place in the dips between. I just want to feel normal again. They are also totally affecting my memory and my ability to think. I just want to have a clear head again and I am also starting to have trouble affording my habit. How do I get off these pills??? I don’t think I need rehab or anything like that because at this point I am totally not using these pills to get high anymore, just to keep those terrible feelings away. I have tried tapering down but I am useless at it and always bounce back up.
Read answer →What Works for Panic Attacks?
I get panic attacks sometimes but my doctor says I do not have panic disorder. He recommended that I try biofeedback to learn to control my body at the onset of an attack and that by learning to relax my body as anxiety builds I’d be able to stop panic attacks before they really get started. Is biofeedback an effective treatment for panic? It sounds a little bit crazy, actually, but I will try anything that might work.
Read answer →What's a good diet pill?
Are there any diet pills that are safe but effective to use. As I understand it much of what’s on the market is pretty much caffeine based, or maybe even some sort of speed. The last thing I need is to be more anxious and jittery than I already am, but if there was a safe and effective diet pill it would be a godsend to me. I am 22 years old, 5 foot 4 inches tall and 160 pounds. I try to eat healthy but I invariably fail and I eat a lot of junk food almost every day. If there was a pill that could reduce my appetite so my crvaings weren’t so hard to manage maybe I’d finally be able to lose weight.
Read answer →My wife died. I have two young kids, things are bad ..... Help!
My wife passed away last year and I am a single dad to 2 preteen kids. I have had episodes of depression earlier in my life and I am concerned that I am sliding back into another depressive state. It would be very difficult for my children were I to become seriously depressed, after they lost their mother just last year. Are there any preemptive steps I can take to stop this slide into depression before it is too late?
Read answer →How do I Stop Pigging Out?
I’ve always been very careful about what I eat and about getting enough exercise and I have always managed to stay at about 110 pounds or less (I am 5 foot 6). Over the last few months I have gained almost 20 pounds. I know I look really fat and I even have a roll of fat that hangs over my jeans. It makes me feel disgusting to look at and I need to get back to my healthy and happy weight. The reason I have gained weight is because I have started having these food binges like 2 or 3 times a week. I’ll eat normally at work all day and then I’ll get home from work and lock the door behind me and go to the kitchen and eat a totally ridiculous amount of food. Usually bread and crackers and pizza and things like that and a lot of milk and ice cream and basically whatever else I can get my hands on. After I finish eating I always feel physically terrible and so guilty and pathetic too and I swear I’ll never do this to my body again. But the problem is when I get the urge to go and pig out it’s like I can’t control it and then once I start binging I can’t stop myself until it runs its course. What can I do to get back in control over myself? I have always been a very disciplined and in-control person so it’s killing me that I can’t even control myself to stop eating like a pig.
Read answer →How Do I Get Over Social Anxiety?
I am a successful founder of an internet startup (my profile here is "fake" sorry). I have been struggling with social anxiety. One of the many paranoias I live with daily is that everyone can tell I am uncomfortable. I guess you can call it a vicious cycle. I am behaving a lot more reserved (and sometimes hostile) towards people than is good for me. I particularly despise groups and their dynamics. (I can't even tell you why I feel that way.. I had loving parents and benefited from a great upbringing). A close friend of mine has suggested I try Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). Apparently ACT really helps with keeping anxieties in check over a long-term, but I do wonder whether a counselor can overcome the threshold of my mental defenses (I have a good BS detector). Isn't Cognitive Behavioral Therapy just another form of manipulation? Maybe I just don't like people and should learn to live with it, just improve my social skills (to better conceal my dislike of people). What do you suggest, will ACT change me and make me more sociable or can I achieve similar results by getting a simple job at Starbucks to learn better social skills?
Read answer →Can I do a Sweat Lodge Without Going to Rehab?
A friend of mine experienced a Native American sweat lodge ceremony when he went away to drug rehab. He said it was a life changing experience and that it helped him to let go of a lot of stuff from his past. I have a drinking problem and I am dealing with a lot of shit from growing up in a house with a sexually abusive and physically abusive dad and a mentally abusive mom. I do not want to go to rehab but I am interested in maybe participating in the sweat lodge ceremony. Is there a way I can do this? Do you think that doing the sweat lodge might help me to come to terms with my past so that I can get a better handle on the problems I am dealing with today?
Read answer →Is hypnosis a "real" clinical treatment or is it hocus-pocus?
Can a therapist use hypnosis to help me overcome bad habits? I have a real problem with biting my fingernails and I have never been able to control myself. Is hypnosis a real thing that is used by medical therapists?
Read answer →How do I get quality professional treatment for my daughter with an eating disorder?
Have a daughter with an eating disorder asking for help, took her to University of Iowa that stated they had an 'eating disorder" treatment center where it is a child psychiatric ward with no other eating disorder patients. Tried to discharge her to get help somewhere else and they pushed a court order on us stating she refused treatment which she never has, she has been asking for treatment. She does not believe she is getting the correct care and is very very scared in this environment. What can we do, we are looking for different centers in the Midwest but do not want her in a similar place. She does not feel safe and we feel helpless. So much more to story but any suggestions to midwest treatment centers and also ones that accept insurance?
Read answer →Does the training for The Anderson Method give CEUs?
Mr. Anderson When we talked on the phone a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to ask if you offer CEU's for your training? If so, are the approved through the ASWB?
Read answer →My wife is devastated by our pet's death, an emotional wreck. Is this normal?
This is going to sound a little strange, but our dog died a few weeks ago and my wife is taking it really hard. She really loved that dog and since she couldn’t have kids she sort of treated it like a child in some ways (it’s hard to explain). Anyways, I was quite sad when we had to put her down and I knew it was going to be much harder for my wife, and it was. But now even weeks later she barely wants to leave the house, she cries at any time of the day and most of the time she just wants to stay in bed or on the couch staring at TV Shows she never usually watches and there isn’t much I can do to change her mind and get her to cheer up or to come out and the things we normally enjoy doing. Is it normal to be this affected by the death of a pet? It seems to me like she is depressed and the death of the dog sparked it off but now it is something beyond grief. Do I need to get her to see someone or will this work itself out in time?
Read answer →Should I try to quit drinking and smoking at the same time?
I am supposed to go for addiction treatment next week at a facility that doesn’t allow smoking at all on the grounds. I think I am more afraid of the idea of living without smokes than living without drinking. I have at least given up drinking for short periods in the past but I have never been able to give up smoking. They say that there is evidence that quitting smoking at the same time as you quit drinking improves your chances of not relapsing. Is there any truth to this? I have never heard this anywhere else.
Read answer →Am I risking relapse to coke if I try to lose weight?
I was addicted to cocaine for a very long time. I was pretty thin during those days and I just took it for granted that I didn’t have to worry too much about managing my weight. Now, I am about 11 months clean and I am getting so fat. I have gained 53 pounds in less than a year. I think that I am eating like I used to use drugs. At first I wasn’t too worried about it since I was pretty much only worried about keeping things together and staying clean. Now I can see that this is becoming kind of a big problem, but when I’m in my room in the evening watching TV I just always feel like I need something to make me feel good, and now that something is food as it used to be getting high. Should I tackle weight loss now or should I wait until I’ve got a little more clean time under my belt first? I can always lose weight down the road but if I go back to using again I bet I’ll be a dead man within a couple of years.
Read answer →Too much exercise?
Can there be such a thing as too much exercise? My roommate likes to party and she can drink like a fish but then the next day she always calculates how many calories she needs to burn from the drinks and food she had the night before and then she works out like a freak for hours until she decides she is back to even. This can take her 2 or 3 hours and she does this most days of the week. It sounds weird that exercise would be harmful but there is something kind of obsessive and crazy about it – like there is no way that she would EVER miss doing that mega workout to burn those calories off, even if it were like finals week or whatever. Should I be concerned about her? Right now it‘s something we joke about but it seems less funny lately…
Read answer →Making myself throw only up once in a while. Is it dangerous?
I only make myself throw up after I really pig out, like after Pizza hut buffet. How can this be so dangerous when I only do it 1 day a week or 2 days because it is not like I am making myself throw up after every meal. I am not fat and I want to stay that way so what is the big deal it is not like I am starving myself to death or anything like that!
Read answer →Having No Luck at all with Weight Loss
I’m 18 years old, 5.8 feet tall and weigh about 280 pounds. I have always been heavy, and actually my mom and dad are pretty big too and I’ve never really been able lose much weight. Lately though, I have been making a real effort to get healthier. I broke up with my girlfriend of 2 years about a year ago and since then I haven’t had so much as a date and I am pretty sure that it is my looks that are the problem. But even though I have been trying to get out and exercise and to eat less, I am having no luck at all with weight loss. I think I may have some sort of eating problem. My family has always been a bit weird with food. Now, even though I’ll go for a fast walk for a half an hour and really watch what I eat all day, I almost always wreck things and all the good work I did with a huge pig out at night. Not every night but a lot of times I’ll get back from school and I’ll just be replaying some conversation or whatever in my head and getting myself all pissed off or upset and then before I know it I’ve eaten like a whole large pizza and a box of cookies. It almost seems like I go into some sort of trance, I mean not really, but that my mind kind of turns off when I get upset and I don’t think about the fact that I am really tired of being the fat guy and that I am working really hard to lose weight…I just get focused on the food and eating the food and I don’t feel or think much of anything else while I’m doing that. And then afterwards I feel like garbage. I feel guilty and I feel pathetic and since I’m such a loser anyway I might as well have that quart of ice cream. How can I stop acting like this? I want my life to be better and I am willing to eat healthier and exercise, but how can I ever lose weight if I can’t control myself whenever I feel stressed out?
Read answer →Training with you
I read about your methods on your web site. I am a clinician who specializes in co-occurring disorders. I bought your book for my kindle pc, but unfortunately have been unable to download it yet due to technical problems with my computer. Can you tell me what I can expect if i do training with you? I was overweight until I made a major lifestyle change following my first child's birth. I stayed at a very healthy weight after having three more children. I had a major food relapse while my father was sick and dying. I then had my fifth child. I have carried 30 to 50 extra pounds for the last six years. What if I train with you and I fail?
Read answer →




































