“My constant eating is a self-soothing tool to calm myself from the stress that I don’t get what I want.” If this resonates with you, then this self-inquiry exercise may be valuable to you.
Self-Observation on my constant hunger
- One of the main themes in my life is that I feel I don’t get what I want. There is this constant sense of lack.
- What I feel is fear, weakness, and confusion. So eating comes to my mind. At least this I can control.
- I feel embarrassed.
- This is an addiction because I feel I am dependent on food. Why am I dependent?
- What is most stressful is the confusion. It feels as if I am just waiting for something to happen, not sure what to do.
- I want more, more, more. I just cannot satisfy myself. To me, it just means that eating will not help. It is not food that I want…
- This is a somatic sensation in my body and it has to do with my throat. But this is far from just somatic.
Chain of thoughts coming when I am able to go deeper
- I realize what I feel is not actual, physical hunger, but the desire to eat. I mean when I can look a bit deeper, I realize that most of the time I am not even hungry when I want to eat.
- My mind connected eating with my feeling that I am missing something.
- I also realize that I have learned this behavior. Now I realize that it is a collective behavior. We learned this coping mechanism from each other.
- I cannot say what it is that I do not get. I feel trapped this way.
- I feel shame and embarrassment. Not only because I got overweight but also because I feel needy.
- My neediness: It is normal in the sense that I really did not get things that I should have. What is not normal is that it is still stuck in me. Probably time to let go.
- There is something deeper here than just my neediness. Fear. Fear of losing my safety. I lost connection. At least this is how I understand it now.
- When I become conscious about my need for connection, my hunger is not that important because I feel that I am not that dependent on ‘that indescribable need’. As the only thing that can ‘save’ me.
The above self-observation exercise is just one possible flow of associations. It is meant to stimulate you, and by no means is it implied that it is about you.