How does someone get addicted to such things as anorexia, bulemia, cutting themselves and things like that, when you aren't putting anything into your body as if you were doing drugs or drinking alcohol?

:confused:

Addiction can happen, does happen, in other forms besides alcohol and other drugs.

This website - The Addiction Experience (http://www.peele.net/lib/addexp.html) - explains the non narcotic addcition quite well:

"If we recognize that addiction can appear in any type of involvement, we have to realize also that no activity - including drug-taking-is necessarily addictive. What makes an involvement not addictive is being able to control it and fit it into the rest of one's life. This means knowing when to stop doing something that is becoming harmful, which leads us in turn to what we might term the characteristics of non-addiction. People can resist addiction when they gain enough satisfaction from their lives to guarantee they don't have to seek one thing which alone must provide them with contentment. If people have involvements which mean something to them, there is less chance that a destructive involvement will dominate them, because there will be other activities and people they will not sacrifice. People need to have good feelings about themselves so they will not consciously hurt themselves; they need pride so they will not want to be out of control, both for their own sake and for others. They need to accept themselves in order to combat the guilt and anxiety which are at the center of the addiction cycle. Finally, they need to be able to acknowledge their problems to begin to deal with them before they grow to life-defeating proportions."

The article goes on to state when an addiction exists. This is a very good article and worth the reading.

The addictions that you speak of... anorexia, bulemia, cutting, etc. are more of a control issue that becomes an addiction. They are addicted to control. Control of their bodies. It is more of a psychological addiction of sorts rather than a physical addiction.

Whatever the addiction unless one gets down to the root causes of their own discomfort, its really hard to overcome.

I would assume that it would be the way the person thinks. I could be wrong, but, if the person isn't doing drugs or drinking, that's what I would think.

With cutting people usually have emotion pain in their life that they can't control or express and cut themselves to relieve the emotional pain in a physical way. They get a sense of relief from it.

Mayfairlady is right about cutting. I'm one who does it. I wouldn't say that I'm addicted to it (and maybe that means I am). I maybe do it only once or twice a year, but I have 2 brothers who are very addicted. Some of us just don't have the capability of dealing with emotional pain. It's not something you can see or heal or stitch up or anything like that. When I cut myself, it's usually somewhere not visible, but somewhere that I'll feel when moving around, my leg/arm whatever. And definitely somewhere that I can see. When I do it, I'm putting into physicality a pain somewhere that can't be seen (if that makes sense). It hurts, but I can deal with that pain. Our bodies release adrenaline among other things and it's sort of a rush. It can very easily become addicting because you do it once after you break up and then you know how to get over the pain of a failed relationship. Then later on you come across something else that you don't know how to deal with and you remember it worked for something else so you try it again. Pretty soon you're not even looking for other ways to get over pain and anger and depression. You know something works and so you keep doing it. I hope I helped explain at least cutting.

I think that addiction comes about differently for different people. For me, it would probably be due to my low self-esteem and not knowing where my life is headed, meaning I feel more in control when giving in to it.

Any kind of self mutilation, from what I gather, comes from a disregard for our bodies and a lack of control of the world surrounding them. You are grabbing ahold of something that is tangible, your own, and something you most likely despise and giving life to your pain. Or should I say death? Either way, the coping mechansim is self destructive and can spiral out of control if self esteem issues are not dealt with promptly.

You must learn to love yourself and recognize your importance in the world. The world is ours, individually speaking, when we realize that, our fears tend to slowly melt away. Find someone to talk to about your fears, and your pain. People of the world need to start talking, venting, and voicing their fears, one to the other. I am glad I discovered this forum, it is so great. But we need to be doing this in person, heart to heart .