Expert: Joanne - 6/11/2008

Question
My name is Coleman Remington, age 17, and I live in Oregon. All my life I have loved food, my mom and grandma are both amazing cooks and were both personal chefs. Until about a year ago my eating habits have dramatically changed. Two spring breaks ago, march 2007, i went to Florida with my dad and his fiance (my parents got divorced about 2 years ago) and i developed a tolerance to "not eating" it felt like someone turned a light switch on in me, I can now easily control not eating. I used to as a kid think I enjoyed food way to much and always looked at myself being overweight, but not fat. Up until a couple months ago I considered myself overweight, but I've dramatically gotten skinnier. I have nothing against eating, or being fat. I have accepted my body build how it is, and I will never be as skinny as those fast metabolism freaks. My issue is that I can go a whole day without eating and not realize it anymore. I'm not trying to avoid it to lose weight, or thinking about all the calories or fat I'm putting into my body, I just simply forget or have no desire. Food seems to have loss it’s amazing taste to me. When I take one bite, I will say ah this is pretty good, but after the first bite I feel full immediately. I then have to force down little bites of food as it seems my body is rejecting it, saying "too full". I have been a marijuana user for about a year now, and I have found it to help me tremendously on getting rid of the "fullness" factor. When I use marijuana I can tell when my stomach nerves gets relaxed, because I feel like I can eat almost a full meal, without my body saying "full" after the first bite. I started using marijuana on a regular basis, and for quite some time I was enjoying eating. Whenever I took a break from smoking, the urge to eat completely disappeared. When I started smoking on a daily basis, I would tell myself that I need to get something in my system today (food wise), that’s why I need to smoke. My smoking started to become a habit, and I felt like smoking less to become hungry and just more to get High and have a good time with friends. I have been open with my parents about my marijuana use, but never really told them I started using a lot to try and kick start my eating. They took me to a counselor that tried to find the inner reason why I was abusing marijuana; they all felt I was using it as an escape route. It never crosses my mind to let this counselor know about this eating problem, because I was smoking everyday when I had my counseling meetings, so I was eating pretty well. But it seems even with smoking that I don't have much of an appetite anymore. I don't know if I have shrunk my stomach, or what. My parents have told me that I have 3 weeks to get clean for a home drug test, or they are sending me away to rehab for treatment because I'm abusing marijuana, using it daily. I have gone 5 days without smoking marijuana and I feel no withdrawal symptoms or urge to smoke, only the thought every now and then how good it would be to smoke again. Since I've been off marijuana for 5 days I realized I haven't eaten a full meal. Every meal I've had some excuse not to finish because I’m just too full. I have to force myself to eat, and when I look back on how much I've eaten it consists of very little portions of hardly anything. I've never thought of the fact that I had an eating disorder, until I realized how difficult the next 2 and half weeks are going to be not smoking. I have read things on the internet about eating disorders, and they all consist of "do you think you are fat, do you hate thinking about food adding onto your body weight, do you weigh yourself often, do you look in the mirror a lot..." those types of things. My parents feel like I have low motivation and energy during the day, blaming this on marijuana, when in fact it could be lack of nutrition. I would like to hear what you have to think, because I'm confused on what to do. I know I can go 3 weeks without smoking; it’s just psychologically addicting...marijuana can wait though. I want to smoke again so I can eat a ton of food and enjoy it, but I want to prove to my parents that I don't need it in my life. Have you seen anything like this and I was wondering if you could help me.

Answer
Hi Coleman

I am really struggling to know what to say to you.  It doesn't sound as though you have an eating disorder, unless you believe that you initially avoided eating in order to deal with emotional problems.

I think that you need to talk to your counsellor about the eating as it seems quite central to the drug misuse.  If you are able to determine wether there is an eating problem there or not, this may help in making sure that you don't continue to misuse illegal substances.

Please discuss your eating habits with your counsellor, and possibly your parents in order to make sure that you receive the best treatment possible.  If they are only aware of half of the problem, only half will be treated, leaving you open to having future issues!

Joanne