Mixing Food And Emotion

Usually hunger is a natural feeling to satisfy a basic need. Sometimes when we are children food is used by our parents for more than satisfying hunger. Its given as a reward, not given as a punishment, given just to shut us up or because they don’t know what else we could possibly want.

Most people, at some point, learn to go back to the natural intention of hunger and food. But some people are not able to do that and keep food as a substitute for attention or love, as consolation when they need to do something unpleasant or when they feel bad.

When I was younger there wasn’t much interaction or communication in the house. I mean, we did talk of course, but my father worked until late evening and my mother was usually withdrawn in a world of books and alcohol. The only time we always did spend together, every day, was meal times. Every now and again it was an unpleasant affair, like when my father was interrogating us regarding school, but usually it was a nice, fun time. Lots of talk and laughter. We didn’t hurry it either but took our time usually.

I think that is when I started to associate food with good, positive feelings.

From then on, occasionally at first and more frequently later, I started to eat when I had negative feelings. Over time that’s the behaviour I learned, that’s the way I learned to deal with emotions.

The important part now is to unlearn that behaviour, and to go back to the original purpose of hunger and food.