Couldn't agree more with that response.....

This is my first post to this board. Although I don't have an ED myself, I am pretty certain that my 12 year old daughter does and am desperate to come up with something to help her.

In reading the posts and replies on this board, in preparation for the thread I plan to start with regard to my daughter's situation, I was moved to reply to DPMe's comments.

So her goes:

First off, I think you are an extremely courageous and diciplined person. It takes guts and determination to come as far as you've gotten and my hat is off to you. You also appear to be a very nice person in taking the time to post your story and thoughts for the benefit of the others on this board.

I came from a family that had its share of substance abuse. Dad was a severe alcoholic, brother and sister were heavy into drugs. Most of my Dad's family, including my Grandfather, had some sort of "history" with booze. A lot (change that to "All") of the bad stuff that happened to us as I was growing up was direclty related to booze and drugs. I saw firsthand how people and families suffered and as a result swore that the same would not happen to me.

So how does a person who's pretty sure that he's got the addtictive genes go about living and enjoying life without ending up like his Dad, Uncles, Grandfather, Sister, etc?

He comes up with a set of "rules" and then sticks to them---just as you did during your 23 month diet. My "rules" with regard to drinking are pretty simple: it's nothing, zero, nada during the week. Not even a sip. On the weekends it's beer only--the hard stuff (wine included) are too easy to overdo so they are "out". If the weekend beer drinking were to lead to problems (gotta be honest here) then it would have to stop also.

So far, the partying "rules" have been effect for about 20 years and I'm somewhat confident now that I won't magically morph into my Dad any time soon. I'm still very careful about what I drink and do not go anywhere near drugs.

Note that I took a lot of heat for this from my friends back in "the day" about just saying "no" when "no" wasn't cool. The ones who knew my Dad's story understood, but the ones who didn't called me every name in the book. The more they tried to goad me into taking a hit or a pill or whatever, the more I resisted. "More for you" I used to say as I would hand them back their bongs.

OK, that being said, about 3 years ago I too realized that I was carrying more than a few pounds that weren't really doing me any good.

After serveral unsuccessful attempts at the starvation diet, I finally gave in to science and read up on the ways in which we use the food we eat. Armed with a newfound knowledge I started subbing sugar for protein and in so doing dropped about 20 lbs in about a month and a half.

I can't tell you how happy I was when the pounds came off! I had finally figured out how it all worked and, now knew that I had the ability to control my own weight from here on out.

In the three years since getting my "eating education", I've put a few back on here and there but have always been able to shed them by simply cutting back on the carbs.

After the initial weight loss I actually got motivated and started going to a local gym. I go three times a week for about an hour and have about 2 and a half years now under my belt.

At first, I started going to the gym so that I could play lacrosse with my daughters and not be wiped out after every session AND so that I could indulge my sweetooth and not put the weight I had lost back on.

After a couple of months at the gym everything was going good, I was holding steady weight-wise and playing ball with the kids wasn't killing me. My energy levels were good, I was sleeping better and I also started nocticing another very nice, but somewhat unexpected side effect:

I started noticing in the car after a workout that I was extremely relaxed and was pretty much always in a great mood. Prior to getting to the gym I'd be keyed up from work, stressed out, annoyed, angry, etc., but leaving the gym, it would all be gone. It's a calm and a serenity that is, I'm afraid, quite addictive. I'm pretty sure I'm hooked anyway.

So my two cents to add to your post would be to:

1. Make up some rules regarding behavior that you want to modify and do your best to stick to them. . The longer you follow your "rules" the easier they are to implement. When you see your intended results start to happen, your successes will keep you going.

2. Educate yourself so that you understand how the things that you want to change work. Once you know this, you can formulate a game plan that you can execute to acheive the results you desire.

Although we can't make all or our little beasts go away completely, I think we actually can manage them to the point where we don't live in fear and they don't run our lives.