Lexiann's dwindling personal supply of chocolate
in many of its glorious forms

     When I am desperate enough for a chocolate fix, I would sell my car to the first pedestrian who allowed me to sniff a wrapper from around an already-eaten chocolate bar. I know there are others just like me, individuals who would trade their grandmother's walker to get chocolate, even if it were only one bite.
     To run completely out of chocolate is to invite certain disaster. When I am forced against my will to do without for a day, I go into withdrawal. My tongue quivers uncontrollably and I pace the floor in agitation; my eyes shift rapidly from side to side trying to locate a source of chocolate, even if I have to steal it out of the mouth of a trick-or-treater.
     Unlike other addicts however, we don't have a support group to help us kick the habit. But, why would anyone want to quit eating chocolate anyway?

Hundreds of recipes for doing something
with all that glorious chocolate. 
(Of course, who needs cookbooks
when you can eat the chocolate right from the container?)

     Is chocolate addictive? "Definitely," say some psychologists.
     The bottom line about chocolate addicts is that they don't want to be treated for chocolate addiction. One psychologist said she just refers them to their local chocolatiers.
    Is chocolate physically addictive? "Addiction can definitely occur," say a few physicians.
     Is this bad? "NO," says Shane Danford, owner of Putnam Chocolates in Marietta, Ohio. He believes people should eat chocolate because of the benefits it offers. "Chocolate is a mood elevator when you are depressed,"said Danford, "We eat it to feel better."
     I agree. I’m happy to be a chocolate addict...happy to eat chocolate...happy because I eat chocolate. Chocolate = happy = chocolate....

copyright 1994-99; excerpeted from author’s series on chcolate addiction