If you overeat

[me4real]

If you tend to routinely overeat, do you think it's partly due to some issues/things that happened in your childhood, and if so, what are they?

I'm having and had various therapies to try and stop overeating.

No.
I absolutely love food.
I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs I just love food.
It gives me pleasure always to eat.
Sad, happy, hungry, full up, I love food.

I’m not sure it’s related to anything childhood wise although I remember always feeling hungry and never having enough to eat.

Yes and all kinds of things, hard to say specifically but largely emotional dysregulation, lack of comfort from caregivers, poverty, rebelling against unreasonable levels of control.

I used to say I love food but someone asked me if I eat with respect - sat down, food on a plate, paying attention to what I’m eating. Then I realised I was just stuffing anything and everything down. It is not pleasurable to eat when you’re already full. It’s painful.

I overeat. I've only started to overeat in the last few years. I do it because it's a comfort and kind of a release. It's like self-medication, helps me temporarily forget things that have happened to me.

Mine isn't necessarily things that happened in my childhood but things that have happened in adult life.

I'm a massive overeater. Always have been.
My childhood was idyllic with the best parents anyone could wish for with plenty of money to give me everything I needed and enough of what I wanted without spoiling me too much.
Where the over eating comes from is anyones guess but I really don't think it stems from my childhood.

Mum was also always very conscious of not turning sweet treats into forbidden foods because she believes her love of chocolate stems from being put on a diet and denied all the tasty treats at 6 because she was overweight.

No. I just like food.
I would've been a smoker if smoking was in any way acceptable.

No, I suspect it's driven by stress caused by neurological issues.

@DeliaDinglehopper I usually never really feel full at all, at least not enough to stop me eating nice stuff that's around (I get other people to put treats in a locked cupboard and they have the key- but I still buy stuff when I can.) This week I've felt fullness a bit more but it's not necessarily stopping me overeating.

@Damnyoureyes I used to think it was just that I like food, too, but I don't know now.

I remember always feeling hungry and never having enough to eat.

Were your family poor/parents didn't provide much food? That's a bit like Uri Geller. He never knew where his next meal was coming from, so as an adult he would store/binge and purge food.

ADHD for me.

Dopamine seeking.

Apparently people use it as comfort. It seems that often there has been abuse in childhood and the person needs it to forget, overeating helps.

Yes definitely.

Routinely still hungry after meals while growing up.

Routinely given less food as punishment if I had misbehaved.

Routinely given more food/treats as a reward if I did well at something.

So yeah it doesn't seem surprising that eating makes me feel better when I am down and being hungry makes me feel miserable so I tend to eat far too much.

I have successfully lost a huge amount of weight but it is beginning to creep back on because it's so difficult to not over eat.

Watch RedQuest every weekday evening at 8.00

Never feeling full is a pretty clear indicator that you’re disconnected from your body’s signals. I can recommend the binge eating therapist on YouTube. Restricting food (having people lock it away) is probably inadvertently adding to your problems.

Poor I suppose, parents preserving food as I was one of 4 kids that needed feeding/clothing.
Domestic violence and financial abuse household growing up.

My grandmother’s house was my sanctuary where food was plentiful and varied, she was a great cook, lovely baker and I felt full and safe.

Wow, that’s definitely linked isn’t it!! Never thought about that before!

With abuse it can be an unconscious desire to be invisible or unattractive, or to literally form a buffer around as protection. There’s so much complexity to overeating and obesity, it makes me laugh (so I don’t cry) when people say it’s just eating less and moving more.

I do overeat but I havent always. My parents were very strict over treats at home, they basically saved them all for themselves. However I was an overweight child anyway, despite no biscuits or sweets. I think my mum gave us big portions, lots of wholemeal bread and such restricted lives we couldn't play out or go anywhere. So maybe it's a control issue for me, I'm in control so I let myself have it.

I'm not majorly overweight, but I could loose a stone.

@Dillydollydingdong Lol! Yes I have to admit if I see someone massively overweight around, it does make me feel less keen to eat- 'fatspo.'

I don't think I comfort eat as such. It does have a feeling of rebellion/'naughtiness,' maybe a slight 'so ner' to parents/father which makes it even more pleasurable.

I've experienced periods of symptoms of most eating disorders to a small extent over my lifetime but overeating tends to happen the most often.

I overeat due to boredom and a craving for salt (I love crisps). I eat quickly because I used to get told off for eating slowly or leaving my dinner and not being allowed to leave the table until it'd all come despite it being cold, manky and congealed. This means I don't feel full until later on, after I've finished everything.

@Dillydollydingdong

Apparently people use it as comfort. It seems that often there has been abuse in childhood and the person needs it to forget, overeating helps.

Nope, not in my case. Not in the slightest.

Hitting 40 is what did it for me. I used to be able to eat whatever I liked and stay like a beanpole, but not any more.

Right down in the very roots of thing, an eating disorder is always about control. Doesn’t matter if it’s restrictive eating, binge eating, overeating or any combination of the above. Doesn’t matter if one compensates or doesn’t. Or if the nature of the beast shifts and changes over the years. Always it’s about control. The hard thing is finding out exactly how it all fits together and how to pick it apart, in any given case. The roots are usually very deep.

I'm really interested to know whether having been formula fed breaks that switch in your brain that tells you you're full. I was formula fed and know for a fact it would have been a case of getting the whole bottle in me to get me to sleep - my whole family have problems with overeating. Whereas DH's family were all breastfed and are all really moderate with their food. DC was breastfed and is (currently) not an overeater. Very happy for someone to come on here and turn that theory on its head though as a lot of the other explanations on here around doing something 'naughty' and not eating in a mindful, conscious way really ring true for me too.

I never used to overeat or be oversight until my first controlling marriage. Then I ate for solace and comfort. Now even though in second very happy marriage it is a habit. Plus I do enjoy my food.

I'm really interested to know whether having been formula fed breaks that switch in your brain that tells you you're full.

Not in my experience - I was breastfed but I'd eat you out of house and home. All my siblings are the same.

Right down in the very roots of thing, an eating disorder is always about control.

@OwlBasket A lot of people feel it is for them but I don't think it particularly was for me (at least when it started.) I suppose the more extreme symptoms might be about trying to control my calorie intake/body size.

Anything could be called control I guess. Overeating etc is lack of control really IMHO, at least for me and a lot of others. I'm not trying to make myself less conventionally attractive by doing it. It could be partly because I have some ADHD traits so I don't have much self-discipline- I'm the same with sleep, ooh, I can stay up late- the delicious naughtiness and agency. But of course my parents aren't in charge now, it's only myself I'm rebelling against now really, unless it's society.

I decided to starve myself to death at 13, as I didn't have any friends. Also a couple of family and family friends gloatingly delighted in commenting about my weight- I'd always been very skinny but filled out a bit as girls do. I was what was my adult height for quite a while, 5ft 3 and a whole 8 stone 3.

Also my parents were tall and I didn't want to be tall, I wanted to be petite as I thought my mum's build was quite masculine (not fat but tall and robust-looking.)

I think part of it was my mum didn't give me enough sanitary wear and I was too shy about it to ask, so I wanted to reverse my periods (never succeeded even when I was eventually six and a half stone.)

Also with the bullying, being skinny was the only thing I did 'right' and wasn't bullied for, so I wanted to keep that thing. Same goes as an adult, it makes me feel less unattractive lol. I'm not quite overweight at the mo but would like to lose half a stone.

So those are some of the reasons I have some eating disorder symptoms. TL;DR.

Anyone else?

I have a long history of eating disorders. I’ve come to the conclusion that, for me, it’s a form of self harm. Whether binging, purging or restricting, it’s all about punishing myself. Some people cut themselves, I do this.

Or at least, I did. I’m in recovery for now.

I love food and I love the feeling of being full and satisfied with food. If I get too hungry I can quickly start feeling shaky, sweaty, irritated and headachy which then leads to a migraine. I am obese though and have tried many diets in the past.