Click HERE. Registration is OPEN for Food Addiction Recovery Advocate training and Acceleration Professional training session for health practitioners and coaches.
FREE information session will take place on April 22nd, May 6th and May 20th.

Why does Residential Rehab Fail To Address Processed Food Addiction?

binge eating dieting do i have food addiction dr joan ifland eating disorders food addiction joan ifland overeating processed food addiction procrastinating procrastination recovery from food addiction rehabilitation residential rehab what is food addiction Mar 10, 2023

Issue No. 38 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Processed food addiction (PFA) is a “severe addiction” that meets the 11 diagnostic criteria outlined in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual, the DSM-5. PFA recovery is also complicated by many complications that make it harder to stop lapsing. This degree of severity requires recovery support at the level of residential rehab.

However, two major challenges emerge with residential rehab. Firstly, the exorbitant costs of residential programs make them likely to be inaccessible to the majority of the estimated 2 billion people who are struggling with PFA. Secondly, and more importantly, residential rehab programs simply do not work for long-term recovery from PFA. Research shows that people go home from a residential rehab facility and experience relapse - sometimes as soon as a few days later.

Does Residential Rehab rewire the right parts of the brain?

The question arises whether residential rehab offers the kind of support that is necessary to put a severe addiction into remission. For rehabilitation to be effective it should be geared to:

Return addicted neurons to true pleasure
Return stress to calm
Stop primitive survival from seeking food and bingeing
Restore cognitive functions
Reorient mirror neurons toward clean eaters.

Here are a few experiences that recovering food addicts have had at residential rehab facilities, which may actually make loss of control worse:

Low-calorie food plans increased hunger and cravings.
Being confronted by a daily buffet of food that included addictive food substances such as sugar, caffeine, gluten or dairy.
Being away from home and family increased stress and anxiety.
Group discussions focused on food, weight gain, bingeing or past traumas and made the cravings worse.
Nobody explained the science of addiction and left me believing that addiction was my fault because I didn’t have enough discipline, commitment or willpower.
Control was short-lived while I was at the facility, nobody prepared me for how to avoid relapse in the “real world”.

Find the right level of At-home Rehab support

The solution is an effective recovery immersion program that offers “at-home” residential rehab. For rehab to be effective, it must be done at home in your own environment where you have typically used processed food before. For most recovering food addicts, the home environment is a trigger which cues addictive eating behavior.

The Addiction Reset Community (ARC), is established on the scientific research of processed food addiction recovery. The ARC support program is designed to address all aspects of processed food addiction, at an immersion level exceeding traditional residential rehab, within the comfort of your own home.

Within the Addiction Reset Community (ARC) our members and their journeys are important to us. We find their stories inspiring and hopeful for everybody in health recovery.

“The big thing for me is that it gave me reassurance that I'm not a bad person, I'm not terribly rebellious. This is really a physical thing that's going on with my body. Even though I've been involved with many medical and other things to help me become a normal size, not morbidly obese, it wasn't the right thing for me. They haven't been educated in the right direction. Education! I'm thankful for the Internet. I would never be privy to such wonderful information. My little closed-in house doesn't have access to it, but the Internet has opened up a lot for me. I feel sorry for the people who are missing this."

Many people reach out to Joan asking for advice and assistance on how they can begin their recovery journey.

Dear Joan,

I wanted to share a little of my experience with my health and the role of processed food. I went through many tests, x-rays, etc to be told I had osteoarthritis in my knees, ankles, and feet. I was informed there was nothing that could be done and I would be on pain medication (plus medication for the effects of taking the pain meds) for the rest of my life. It only took six weeks of a clean food plan to become pain-free. Almost 10 years later I am still pain-free.

Joan responds:

Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience and congratulations on all you have achieved to turn your health around. The research shows that processed foods are inflammatory and impair immune functions. So many different diseases can go into remission in recovery.

DISCLAIMER:
Dr Joan Ifland (PhD) is a global expert on the subject of processed food addiction and is not a medical doctor. Information and response shared in this Newsletter are not intended for, and should not be construed as medical advice.

Do you have a question? Reach out to us with your questions about food addiction and recovery at gethelp@foodaddictionreset.com

Are you showing signs of Processed Food Addiction? Take this self-quiz to find out now!

Recent copies of Dr Joan Ifland's Blog: