alt Hacker News> Will Ozempic users have developed the personal discipline to prevent themselves from relapse without the drug - or will they forever be on a the yo-yo of weight gain/loss?
Have alcoholics using Naltrexone? Or opioid addicts using Methadone, or smokers using nicotine gum/patches?
See I'm bringing this up to point out the obvious double standard, people suffering from food addiction (i.e. literally the high from food) or binge-eating disorder, who finally have an effective treatment, are treated like it isn't addiction or illness, but a "lifestyle," but if you said this stuff about any other addiction people would call you out and be horrified.
For people mildy overweight or accidentally obese, it is a wildly different illness for people with lifetime problems who have lost/regained weight tens of times and likely know more about nutrition than most healthy-weight people ever will.
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I think the difference is with food you have to eat it. You don't need alcohol, opioids or nicotine to live. With food it's much easier to fall back into similar or the same pattern as before because you can't avoid it.
Actually not true. All addicts develop lifestyles around their addictions. Alcoholics often have many social connections that involve alcohol, what they do for fun involves alcohol, etc. A successful recovery typically involves changing this lifestyle to make the problem behaviors easier to avoid.
People that move out of the USA generally lose weight. Especially if they move to a country with snaller portions and more walking. People that move to the USA generally gain weight. Evidence that it's lifestyle.
Most of the obese people I know are completely clueless about nutrition and exercise (even though they think they know a lot).
This is bunk. An actual chemical addiction is not the same as feeling an urge to drink 8 cans of coke a day, or being unable to not buy a bag of chips at the gas station.
The concern regarding a drug as a crutch is stil valid. Smokers/drinkers may deal with stress by smoking/drinking. After cessation, ways to deal with stress need to be learned from a new.
"Addiction" is ambiguous and a term almost better not used. "Addiction" may constitute chemical dependency but can also be largely a set of habits. A set of habits and lifestyle are pretty much the same thing.