Important to note, before anything and everything that comes next, I don't have an eating disorder, nor do I suffer from any other disorder that may have a food component, such as body dysmorphia. We are not talking about that here. Wanna' talk about that? Go start your own thread. As I've gotten older, I notice that it's really easy for my eating pattern to slip and for me to go into periods where I don't eat because my stomach is simply shut down. Even when young, if I were hungry and the hunger went too long unsatisfied, there would come a point where the hunger would abate and the idea of eating just turned me off. When that point hits, I have to force myself to eat something to get my cycle started again, else go to bed dizzy from sugar-low and wait until the next day. It happens more and more easily as the years have gone by. Typically, I'm sticking my head into the fridge every 10 minutes while my hubby grumbles and complains that I can shove as much food into my face as I please with little-to-no effect on my physical appearance. But if I'm tied up with work, or my muse visits and I'm writing, food gets forgotten and it's become so hard to get my rhythm back on track that I've taken to buying Boost as a last resort to get some calories into a stomach that has become disgusted at the idea of anything more solid. Anyone else? Am I alone here?
No, you're not alone. Sometimes I get so hungry (and very quickly) that I feel sick, and then nothing sounds appetizing. I've heard people say, "If you wouldn't eat an apple, then you're not really hungry." I don't think the applies to me at all.
Even when young, if I were hungry and the hunger went too long unsatisfied, there would come a point where the hunger would abate and the idea of eating just turned me off. This happened to me too when I was in university but now, having started a teaching job, I've gain some weight and seem to be hungry all the time.
This often happens to me on solitary days off. Most of my life is pretty structured -- I eat something before work, I eat something during my lunch break, I eat dinner when I get home from work. On days off if I'm with people, most of our plans center around getting food at some point. But if I'm by myself with no set plan, I tend to forget. I might wake up in the morning and clean the house then shower then go to the grocery store, and before I know it, it's dinner time and I've had nothing to eat, but by that point the thought of food doesn't appeal to me. That was how I ended up getting way too drunk during my Halloween party. I spent all day cleaning and decorating and making food, but at no point did I eat any of it. And then alcoholic beverages happened.
The amount of times I would lock myself in my room whilst writing, reading a book or playing games. Actually I did all of those things in the last week. I think me and my friend went about twelve hours without eating a single thing, we were just so busy writing and playing games (The new pokemon game right now). Then we would get up and take a break and the emptiness of our stomachs would hit us. demanding food then and there, or we would be so hungry that we were not hungry. It might not be the same thing but this is what I thought of when reading this post.
This isn't something that's ever affected me - I'm one of those people who has a very regular eating pattern and if I don't stick to it I tend to suffer. I did, however, once have a uni housemate who went 4 days without eating, and without realising he hadn't eaten. There was this really bizarre conversation at about half past eight one night after getting in from the library with a pizza under one arm ready to plate up when he suddenly stopped while making a cuppa, looked at me, and then said, "Eating! I knew I'd forgotten something." He'd been so busy writing up an essay he'd forgotten all about food. He'd pulled two all-nighters in a row as well, so how he was still standing was a mystery.
I'm no longer young, but the syndrome you describe sounds like good fiction. I would like my mind to spend a little less time on fantasizing about what to eat and a little more on the task at hand, whatever it is.
I've always experienced a form of this, I think - I'm very rarely hungry, and I often find that I've only eaten a container of pineapple or a couple strawberries that day.
Sorry to tell you, but it's a eating disorder. It's known as starvation diet [a minor version of anorexia I'd say] to quote the "Even when young, if I were hungry and the hunger went too long unsatisfied, there would come a point where the hunger would abate and the idea of eating just turned me off. " Starvation victims don't feel hunger like normal people & if they do, they can't eat large meals immediately because it'll make you sick. I did a week long training session with the military where you had to forge for yourself... because of the extremely limited rations most of us had to wean back into normal meals with soup for days. And no, you can't not just eat. Your body isn't designed to do that unless you're forcing it - e.g. starvation, limited rations, etc. Its one reason why doctors & personal trainers will say eat small meals if anything to loose weight otherwise your body will store the fat as a backup. It's definitely not healthy either. I'd advise you to ask your doctor to test you for diabetes. My mother doesn't eat properly and she's been suffering diabetes for years because she screwed up her metabolism by not eating properly. And no one in her family had it and she is normal weight for her age & size.
