Not eating when you're upset Vs eating everything in sight?

[Bright_Star]

What's worse? Not eating a drop of food when you're upset or eating everything in sight? In my case, whenever I get upset, I don't eat anything. I've been known not to eat a drop of food all day after getting upset over whatever. Used to drive my family nuts over me doing this-it STILL does.
Then I know friends & family members who when upset, eat everything in sight. Kind of like soothing whatever bothers them with food.

[draggar]

Eating everything in sight is wose IMO. It's easier to catch up than it is to fall back (trust me, I've learned the hard way).

[CaroPhoenix]

Eating everything in sight is worse because people look at you like you're crazy wonder how you can worry about food in a stressful situation?

Case in point - when Child Rum was 6 months old, she ended up in the P.I.C.U. (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) with RSV (here is a website explaining it for you). I was eating everything in sight. Daughter was lying in a hospital bed, struggling to fight the nurses and doctors who were trying to help her because she felt so miserable and didn't want anyone she didn't know touching her. Upset me to no end. I'd be in her room from about 5:30 AM until 8:30/9:00 PM until either my husband or in-laws came in to take over the night watch.

My mother, on the other hand, stopped eating.

I don't know ... eating everything in sight helped me calm down and think rationally though.

Depends on the person, I suppose.

[MaggieTheCat]

Personally, for me, not eating is worse, because I tend to get headaches that can turn into migraines if I don't eat or don't eat the right balance of foods. And, I usually lose my appetite when I am really truly upset, so on top of being in a bad mood, I'll end up with a headache!

[Giggle Goose]

I'm like Rummy with the emotional eating...I shovel the food in my mouth like there's no tomorrow. That's how I packed on so much weight. I've lost 25 pounds since May, but it's still a struggle.

My mom's the same way. We always talk about how even though we've been through lots of stressful family trauma, we've never missed a meal in our lives We could never understand people who say they "don't have time to eat" or they were too upset. To each his own. Either way, stress=unhealthy no matter how you slice it.

[blas]

For me, it really depends.

If I'm angry upset, I won't eat, or I will pick at food like a bird.

If I'm sad upset, I may binge or choose to only eat ice cream or cookies or sweets.

[KiaKat]

I'm technically anorexic. My default is to not eat. This was most evident in high school, when I hovered around 100lbs (I'm 5'2"). It got worse my first and only year in college, when I dropped down to 90lbs. Maybe less. I'm not entirely sure. There were many reasons for this, most of which I prefer not to discuss in public.

Thanks to replacing not-eating with drinking-way-too-much a few years ago, I ballooned up to around 160lbs. There are a lot of calories in booze, and when one is drinking 7-12+ drinks a night, 5 nights a week, it adds up.

I'm back down to 125lbs, now, though I could stand to lose another 10. I'm trying to do it the correct way, which is incredibly difficult, since my metabolism is shot, and my default when I'm feeling like crap is to not eat.

So my respose to your question is neither is particularly healthy. Both have their hazards.

[Peppergirl]

Just to chime in:

I find when I'm just mildly upset or stressed, I'm tempted to snack alot. But when I'm EXTREMELY upset or stressed or depressed, my appetite vanishes.

[tropicsgoddess]

If I'm pissed off and stressed out I eat like a pig, but if I'm depressed I can barely eat a bite.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I have a hard time eating when upset. Food tastes like something nasty in my mouth if I'm upset enough.

[Primer]

I wish I were a non-eater. Regretfully, I find comfort in food. It also does not help that I am currently physically unable to exercise. It's extremely painful even to walk, and there are no swimming facilities halfway convenient to me (nearest Y is 40+ miles away).

[AdminAssistant]

I'm an eater...eat when I'm stressed, when I'm sad, when something really good happens and I want to celebrate it....everything is surrounded by food.

Now if you'll excuse me, it is that time and I have some chocolate ice cream in the freezer that I need to spend some time with.

[Ree]

I eat when I'm stressed or upset, but when my husband died last year, for the week that he was in the hospital, I barely ate enough to keep a bird alive. After he died, and I was at my brother's for about another week, it was the same.

I just couldn't eat, even when my family was trying to force me to.

I've made up for it since.

[Teysa]

If I'm mildly upset, I'll demolish whatever junk food we have in the house. One thing that I've found that helps in that area, is to simply try not keep said junk food around. Mostly, I just talk myself out of it at the grocery store by choosing not to spend the money on it. Of course, there are times when those Oreos just magically jump in the cart.

However, if I'm severely upset or depressed, the appetite goes bye-bye. At that point, nothing tempts me.

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I first started having anxiety/depression issues, I lost 20 pounds in about a month and a half. The fact that my anxiety often manifests itself as an inability to swallow didn't help.

I've had the opposite problem lately, though it's not due to anxiety or depression, but more the lack of meds...going off them made me feel dizzy and lightheaded, which in turn makes my brain go "hey, you should eat something" because normally when I feel like that it's because I haven't eaten in a while. I try not to keep too much junk but I've always been a sugar junkie and have also semi-recently developed a bit of a codependent relationship with Haagen Dasz chocolate chocolate chip ice cream.....