Mental hunger

If you're having any thoughts about food. That is mental hunger.

Picture this, you're in a famine:

If we were cavemen living in an area with no food available, it would be a waste of energy for our body to send us physical hunger queues. So to preserve energy in the meantime, the brain uses mental hunger and food thoughts to tell us that we need to eat more food.

Our brains are clever. We are thinking about food because we need food. There no way to battle against it.

For some people, mental hunger really kicks in when we up our intake, which can be scary. This makes total sense too. If theres suddenly more food around, our brains go into overdrive: 'quick, there's an abundance of food that we can eat!'

Quick fire Q's:

1) How long can mental hunger last?

It varies from person to person. As long as it needs for you as an individual-perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months. It takes time for your brain to realise that food is coming in regularly and it sufficient quantities (if it is!).

2)What do I do when I get mental hunger?

Eat!!!!!!!!

Yes, even if you've just finished a meal. It's what your body is desperately asking for.

Yes, Even if you've cleaned your teeth at night and are tucked up in bed but can't stop thinking about some thickly sliced toast with jam and butter.

Whenever. With absolutley no self judgement. It is what you need.

3) What if it never stops?

It will. As soon as you are safely out of energy deficit your bodies sole focus won't be on food food food. Trust your body. Before you developed an eating disorder, your brain could focus on other things than food; it will after too.

4) Do you experience mental hunger Han?

YES! Reading about it comforted me alot. I realised it was a completley natural reaction to starvation. I wasn't a freak for dreaming about food, or excessively meal planning-it's what my brain forced me to do to attempt to heal me and keep me safe.

Mental hunger is probably what finally tipped me towards recovery. I couldn’t deal with the fantasies about food anymore. I could be physically stuffed yet mentally still thinking about food. Or trying to fall asleep and thinking of breakfast. If I truly respond to mental hunger, yes, I eat ALOT of the time. It sometimes scares me. But as soon as I start constantly providing it with food, and my brain is no longer panicking that it won't get any soon, I will stop getting food thoughts.

Finishing a meal and already planning the next was my nightmare. Stop planning. If you can't stop thinking about the  banana custard you plan to have for the evening meal's dessert and it's only 3pm, have it NOW. But then you can't have it later, right?Wrong, have it again if you still want it then. There's no such thing as too much.

One behaviour which eating disorder suffers share is the ability to overthink everything. I used to do this and it seemed to complicate recovery entirely. I was questioning everything, calculating everything and trying to balance everything. It is really quite simple. If you are thinking about food. Eat.