Everyone is Starved for Something

The other day I was walking past a McDonalds and saw a young fat mother sitting by the window with her baby stroller beside her. Her eyes had a glazed look as she devoured her big ice cream sundae.

I had a flashback from the night before, where I had seen a man sitting at a bar, his eyes glazed from alcohol and gulping back another mug of beer.

I can't understand how people who abuse alcohol can be so critical of fat people. And vice versa, many fat people look down on alcoholics as being some kind of very weak and despicable people. Yet take away the one vice from the one group and you will often see them turn to the other. As an example, studies are now finding that people who undergo weight loss surgery often develop an alcohol addiction in place of food.

Then there are the other thirty percent of the population, who are not overweight and don't overdrink. The majority of these people have some other equally harmful behavioural patterns such as uncontrollable shopping or gambling, nasty treatment of their employees, spouses or children, sexual addictions, beauty and body image obsessions or various other bizarre and harmful ways of manifesting their neurosis.

It seems we're all very hungry for something greater out there. There's a really good book that addresses this problem at the very root. Though it's aimed at people who drink too much, I think it's applicable to all neurosis and to anyone who feels a compulsion to escape to a better place with food, drink or other obsessions.

The book is The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual PathIt's written by Christina Grof and the main premise is that addiction is really a search for wholeness. Grof is a pioneer in transpersonal psychology and the book discusses her own addictive past and 'the thirst' to know the true self.