Is Food A Substance ? Fort Frances Times Paul Murphy 2008

[Paul Murphy]

Treating food as ‘substance’ key to stopping binge eating


Wednesday, 27 August 2008 - 4:07pm

With the growing demand on people to meet a certain standard with their body and their image because of the media, more and more people are finding themselves falling into the traps of anorexia and bulimia, two eating disorders now classified as mental illnesses.
However, the flipside to this obsessive nature of controlling food and becoming thin is the danger of binge eating and obesity—a growing pandemic where people use food as a substance, much like using a narcotic.
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The two sides seem to be opposite of each other, but in truth, both sides have a problem that Paul Murphy, a recovering male binge eater out of Thunder Bay would call an “unhealthy marriage with food.”
Murphy, after receiving treatment for binge eating, decided to put himself out there as a model of the illness in hopes that people with this problem will be able to recognize it as such and, with the proper tools, find a solution.
Part of his campaign is to label food as a “substance”—a substance with the potential for issues equal with alcohol or drug use.
He emphasized that in the case of a binge eater, food is something that numbs them.
“For some people alcohol takes them, or numbs them, or triggers them, or does something—but for some alcohol doesn’t do it but food does,” he remarked.
His campaign is gaining speed and with the help of his Youtube videos under “Obesity Thunder Bay” and his own efforts, Murphy has accumulated the support of Thunder Bay/Rainy River MP Ken Boshcoff, Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle, and a few more and has been endorsed by Gravelle who wrote letters to the Health Minister as well as Premier Dalton McGuinty.
“The hope is that our region is going to be at the front of this change,” enthused Murphy. “[We are looking to create a] shift to move people into inspiration instead of discrimination because people have to understand that obesity is just a by-product from something else.”
In setting out his purpose, he did make it clear that obesity is not the whole problem here. While obesity does present many health related problems, the main issue here is the use of food for something other than nourishment.
Further, in treating someone who binges, the desired outcome should not be a focus on weight loss but rather re-gaining that balance with food—finding a healthy relationship with food instead of abusing it.
Murphy outlined that in his life he has always been pre-occupied with food and has thought about food literally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
He recalled that before treatment, oftentimes he would find himself sitting down before supper and talking about what they should be eating the next night.
This preoccupation with food still did not indicate to Murphy that there may be a problem with his eating habits. It was only with the guidance of a friend that he eventually sought out help.
“I didn’t know what I was dealing with,” he announced.
“I guess it would be like having a monster in your closet,” said Murphy. “There’s no way of knowing the size of the monster but there’s no way you are going to open up the door to check, so you carry it and it becomes a part of you.”
He explained that it is easy to have a problem but to not be able to see it because you don’t recognize it for what it is.
Murphy noted that he knew what anorexia and bulimia were but he didn’t see binging as being part of that string of eating disorders.
He identified his problem as coming from his childhood.
“For me, we were living in poverty and our basic needs as children were not met so I never really had the opportunity to create a healthy relationship with food,” he described, recalling the feelings he had in his youth, “It was always feast or famine and I didn’t understand that that was going to manifest itself into something further.
“You know as a child I went to bed hungry many nights and as an adult I refused to go to bed hungry.
“I would have tomorrow’s breakfast tonight at around 8:30 and that’s just how I rationalized. I rationalize like that all the time,” he revealed.
Murphy noted that this is something he deals with all the time and even after two years of being trained in mechanized eating—that is, eating proper meals when you are hungry, not eating when you desire food for ulterior reasons—he is finally able to come to grips with his illness.
“It’s been two years,” he added. “Am I out of the woods? No, I don’t think I’m out of the woods, but I do know that I am more self-aware.”
And that, he said, is the key. Being self-aware and realizing that what you are doing is unhealthy and a result of some other problem, you are able to be sated with food, taste your food, and move towards a more healthy relationship with food.
He offered an example of having a cookie on your desk.
Murphy described that before treatment he would not budge for just one cookie. Unless there was a whole roll of cookies he would not even be tempted.
“There is a word called ‘sated’ and I could never understand what that word meant,” Murphy admitted. “‘Sated’ meaning that one cookie at your desk is satisfying enough and it fills that little craving and it’s a little snack that you can enjoy.”
But he posed the question, “But if you can’t taste it, then how can that happen?”
And that was another issue he had. He would starve himself all day in order that he could justify eating all he wanted at the end of the day. He would be so hungry and so thirsty that he would just eat and eat and drink and drink to satisfy his urges without a thought to what it tasted like.
When binging, Murphy reported eating until he was in severe pain.
Much like someone over-indulges during a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, Murphy would indulge daily in his food—not tasting it but shovelling it in to satisfy whatever feelings he had.
The issue that needed to be addressed the most in his life was balance.
He explained that if your balance is off-kilter because to you balance is drinking a case of beer a day or eating 5,000 calories in a day you need to filter your mind-set to achieve that balance again.
“That filter needs to be adjusted,” he emphasized. “It needs to be clarified and that’s where treatment comes in and that’s where you need to be able to recognize that what you’re feeling you need is wrong.”
Murphy also addressed the issue that eating disorders often do affect men but the socialization in our society disregards man as being the one who sometimes needs help.
The man who works with Murphy, John Eposti of the Smith Clinic in Thunder Bay, presented the idea that women are able to seek help more readily in the face of a problem as there is no social stigma for a woman to reach for help. Whereas in the psyche of a male, they insist that there is nothing wrong in order to evade coming off looking as if they have weakness.
But regardless, male or female everyone can reach out for help and should reach out for help because families and loved ones are affected by people who do not ask for help when they need it.
Murphy stressed that seeing someone you love doing something like that to themselves can put trauma in their own lives as well and that is not good to do to them.
“Obesity is such a personal issue and for many it is embarrassing . . . I can’t hide my obesity. Where am I going to hide it?” asked Murphy.
“I wanted to take myself and put myself at risk [of being in the spotlight] and by putting myself at risk I’m hoping that others will feel more comfortable talking about it.”
When it comes down to it, Murphy just wants everyone to examine themselves and think about the question, “Am I using food as a substance?” If you can answer “yes” to that question then he encourages you to seek help from a mental health professional.
He added that the fight here is against obesity but not the obese person, so in realizing the problem may exist you can take steps to create your own intervention.
If you think that you may be suffering from an “unhealthy marriage with food” in any way, you can go to the Riverside Community Counselling Services in Fort Frances to find help.
For a closer look at Paul Murphy’s campaign or his personal battle with binge eating you can check out “Obesity Thunder Bay” at Youtube.com and you can also visit his own YouTube channel to see more footage from the Rudd Centre out of Yale University.
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The goal is to promote the conversation of obesity,or OBE$ITY. We want to challenge the Fault Based Model,Blaming Fails to create the Community Based Intervention needed. Our Model is called,SHARED ACCOUNTABILITY.

Thanks Paul

[Paul Murphy]

End   Obesity Bashing     " Fatism "


Wednesday, 6 May 2009 - 11:14am
Paul Murphy

Dear editor:
My group is working together to help fight obesity, but we want to expose weight bias stigma and discrimination.

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This is the undertow of the obesity crisis.
I am working to create a nation-wide action plan for obesity. Let’s measure fitness using treadmills, blood pressure, and actual devices that can tabulate health.
Fitness comes in all sizes, and we want to shift the focus away from scales.
We are fighting obesity, but we are not fighting obese people. That small change may help to find partners in this process.
Our health care system and the media need an education on weight bias and stigma. Seventy percent of doctors stigmatize the individual, and the media has championed the dieting industry.
When does a diet fail? Diets never fail but people carry the blame. Just dial into the feedback on actress Kirstie Alley, a former diet industry spokesperson.
Kirstie has been vilified in the media and has been banished by the very industry she championed. Is she lazy, unmotivated, unhealthy, and displaying a lack of willpower? This is blame, and it works very well as it isolates the individual.
You can add 2,000 Americans to that list in a single day because 2,000 U.S. citizens will be diagnosed with Type 2 or sugar diabetes each day.
Nine U.S. states are sending children home with BMI scores that many NFL players would not pass. The tragedy is that these children are fighting obesity and the weight bias stigma and discrimination.
Let’s promote a discussion about obesity: fast food advertising, poverty, level of education, urban versus rural perspectives, media influences, and the weight-loss industry. I am eager to find an easy, smart, weight-loss pharma solution, but the real key for me is developing a healthy food marriage.
All foods in balance and as we develop a 20- to 40-point action plan, the key will be to find volunteers to help carry this message: That obesity is a by-product, and we need a real action plan.
I want to welcome all communities and citizens of Northern Ontario to my current website: www.obesitythunderbay.ning.com
Let’s build this action plan together and end our scaling focus.
Thanks,
Paul Murphy
Thunder Bay, Ont.
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Dear Media ,
Why is okay to promote Fat Hatred?

[Paul Murphy]

News
TBay man starts dialogue on obesity
Recovering binge eater seeks political and public support for roundtable discussion
By Mike Bennett
Paul Murphy isn’t lazy, nor is unmotivated. As a recovering binge eater, however, Murphy explains that these are two assumptions that are made about him and other obese individuals on an ongoing basis. It’s a perception, he explains, that accompanies society’s guilt-based methods for dealing with the ever-expanding epidemic of obesity in Western society.

Murphy entered a treatment program at the Sister Margaret Smith Centre in Port Arthur in December 2006 after explaining that he thought about food, “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single minute of the day.” What followed was 13 months of weekly discussions with John Esposti, a family therapist at the Centre in an effort to improve his “marriage with food.”

In January 2008, Murphy ended his formal treatment, and now at 320 pounds continues to work in a more independent way to manage his eating, and his overall health. The Thunder Bay resident is looking to create a dialogue in northwestern Ontario about how to curb the issue of obesity. The current method of pointing blame on individuals is not working.

“This is about balance, self-care, having a healthy relationship with food, de-stigmatizing individuals, not laying blame,” explains Murphy. “Once we do those things, the rest will start working.”

Over the past year, Murphy has appealed for a round-table community discussion to address this major health issue. Along the way, he has spoken to over 3000 individuals across the northwest region and garnered letters of support from Thunder Bay mayor Lynn Peterson, MPP Thunder Bay-Superior North Michael Gravelle, and former MP Ken Boshcoff.

This Wednesday and Thursday, as part of Health and Wellness Week, the Student Counseling Centre will be showing a video called ‘Obesity Thunder Bay’ which follows Murphy’s recovery experiences at the Sister Margaret Smith Centre. If Murphy has his way, the video showcase will continue to provoke discussion, and will shed light on the real causes of obesity.

Says John Esposti, “Most of us have quite complicated lives, and a binge eating disorder is a symptom of coping with some difficulties in our lives.”

Murphy explains that his binge eating disorder stems from a challenging socio-economic upbringing, but that the capitalistic machine is doing nothing to contribute to the overall health of society.

“The complexity of this problem, we haven’t even figure out,” Murphy says.

Perhaps an expanded discussion will find answers.

For additional information on Health and Wellness Week, contact the Student Counseling Centre at 343-8361 or visit their facility across from Security in the University Centre.

[Paul Murphy]

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Wednesday, 28 January 2009 - 4:02pm
By Duane Hicks Staff writer

“Coke CEO: Soda not to blame for obesity.”
“Flabby thinking behind fast-food crackdown.”
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“Fast food+nearby schools+fat kids.”
“Media screentime linked to childhood obesity.”
“Childhood obesity is set by age five.”
“Will airlines start charging passengers by weight?”
Headlines from around the world about obesity are becoming more common every day, but what is being done to change the blame-based model of obesity, which links it to lack of willpower and laziness?
What is being done to change people’s perceptions of food as a substance that can be abused just the same as alcohol or tobacco? What is being done to encourage binge eaters to develop a health relationship with food?
Thunder Bay resident Paul Murphy, a recovering binge eater who advocates he is “Against Obesity, Not Against Obese People,” has been working hard for the past year to try and raise awareness of obesity-related issues and get a dialogue going in Northwestern Ontario.
And it now looks like he finally might start getting heard.
Murphy, who some readers may remember from an article in the Aug. 27, 2008 edition of the Fort Frances Times, was interviewed last week by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).
“It’s thrilling,” he said of the experience, adding that aside from the article in the Times last summer, he’s had a very difficult time getting media coverage.
“I am hoping that more things will happen [because of the APTN interview],” he noted. “But the goal here is creating a discussion. I do not have the answer, that’s not what this is about.”
The interview aired Friday through Sunday on APTN National News, and now can be found at APTN.ca
Murphy said he also has contacted Maclean’s, and is hopeful to get his story featured in that magazine.
He stressed he’s not looking for personal recognition—he just wants to get a dialogue going regarding what he feels is a very important topic, starting with people in this region.
“Let’s look at why we’re using words like ‘lifestyle,’ ‘unhealthy eating, ‘lack of willpower.’ Why aren’t we talking about the other complex factors?” Murphy wondered.
“There’s a story on my ‘Facebook’ page that talks about the relationship between the strong fast food industry and obesity epidemic. That’s a huge, huge thing,” he remarked.
Murphy said he’s obtained letters of support from Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro, Thunder Bay Mayor Lynn Peterson, former Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Ken Boshcoff, and Health Promotion minister Margarett Best, and has had contact with Dr. David Butler-Jones, the chief health officer of Canada.
As well, he’s talked to about 3,000 people from across the region regarding obesity, and is in the process of contacting mayors and chiefs from each community to have them organize a roundtable discussion on obesity and what can be done either in their respective communities or the region as a whole.
“The intent is to find interested parties to participate in a discussion,” Murphy noted.
“The idea of rolling up your sleeves and creating an intervention means you open the page and look at all the factors,” he later added.
Murphy said he’s had quite a bit of success with the online community, but wants to make that same breakthrough with people here in Northwestern Ontario.
“The number of people who have been reaching out [online] and saying, ‘It’s been like this for me,’ or ‘It’s been like that for me,’ it’s amazing,” he enthused. “We’ve got 6,300 views [on YouTube].
“The idea of just talking about it is enough to start it off.
“There are people all over North America and all over the world that are sending feedback,” he later added. “A lot of people recognize they have been faced with discrimination because of obesity.”
For a plethora of obesity-related videos clips and articles, people can visit YouTube and type in “Obesity Thunder Bay” or look for Murphy on “Facebook.”
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[Paul Murphy]

Unhealthy notions!

It is about time that Canadians stop blaming the individual for all of its social ills and begin to adopt a collectivist rather than an individualist perspective on health. The editors fail to appreciate that individual health does not exist in a social vacuum. The photo of an obese adolescent gorging on cotton candy is typical of the media and only perpetuates the false perception that obese individuals are sloths and gluttons. This needs to stop. I encourage your editors to go to www.obesitythunderbay.ning.com and get educated.

Special Thanks to a professor @ Lakehead  University in Thunder Bay