Is weight gain common after quitting alcohol and drugs?

According to the author of The Hunger Fix, recovering addicts often become transfer-addicted to food. When users and alcoholics are no longer able to fill their old cravings, they can swap that addiction with a (seemingly) more innocuous one, like food. Some studies even suggest that refined sugars and other types of foods are actually more addicting that drugs.

Like drugs and alcohol, food can act as a stimulant or as a suppressant. Rehabs.com suggests that up to 65% of people gain weight after leaving a rehab or detox facility. Coming off a drug addiction or alcoholism can also cause a person to develop anxiety, at least at first. Research has shown that anxiety and stress put some people at an increased risk for overeating.

Food addiction doesn’t just plague former addicts though. According to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), 50% of people who have an eating disorder are simultaneously abusing drugs and/or alcohol at five times the rate of the general population.

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