I used to think I was just hungry.
At 11:47 PM, I’d find myself standing in front of the fridge with the light hitting my face like a spotlight. Not because I was starving. Because I was avoiding a text I didn’t want to send. Because I had a thought I didn’t want to think. Because silence felt louder than the sound of a chip bag crinkling.
We’re told we’re “designed to overeat.” But what if we’re actually designed to feel? And we just never got taught how to sit with it?
Food became my quick fix for every emotion I didn’t know how to name.
Stressed? Eat.
Lonely? Eat.
Proud? Celebrate with food.
Bored? You guessed it.
The weird part is, I was never really tasting the food. I was tasting relief. A 30-second escape from whatever was sitting heavy in my chest.
It took me a long time to realize: overeating wasn’t the problem. It was the symptom.
The problem was me treating my emotions like they were something to be muted, not understood.
I’m not “cured” now. Some nights I still open the fridge when I’m not hungry.
But the difference is, now I pause and ask: “What am I actually hungry for?”
Most times, it’s not food.
It’s rest.
It’s a conversation.
It’s permission to feel tired without fixing it with fries.
Maybe we weren’t designed to overeat.
Maybe we were designed to feel deeply, and we just never got the manual.
What’s one emotion you’ve caught yourself trying to “eat away”? I’d love to hear it below.
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images are AI generated
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