ABSTRACT
Alcohol and drug abuse, shoplifting and overspending are common in people with eating disorders. Underlying these problems are many different emotional reasons that parallel those covered in chapter 10 as underlying your binge eating. At times these patterns of behaviour are used as an escape route from the unpleasant effects of the eating disorder, numbing the feelings of guilt over bingeing or counteracting pangs of hunger. Or they may constitute a remedy to some other problem-for example, an inability to sleep or to relax is treated with alcohol or drugs. Alternatively, they are used in an attempt to "cure" some unpleasant state ofmind, like boredom, depression, or anxiety. From rather innocent casual beginnings, enduring self-destructive patterns can emerge, as you will see from the cases described in this chapter.
