What to Do If You Have Hunger Anxiety
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Welcome back to Food Psych Weekly, the newsletter where I answer your questions about intuitive eating, disordered-eating recovery, and how to navigate diet and wellness culture without falling into their traps.
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This week’s question is from a reader named Rachael, who writes:
Hi Christy, Congrats on your baby! I grew up with a little bit of food insecurity at times when my single mother was living paycheck to paycheck. As an adult, I notice I have a bit of almost hunger anxiety, for example when going to social events making sure I will have opportunities to eat, really questioning if I ate enough before I left, packing a snack just in case. I think a part of this is also having spent years undernourished and having moments of hypoglycemic attacks, feeling dizzy, etc.
I have been committed to intuitive eating for 2 years now and made lots of progress feeling so much more at peace with food. I generally don't ruminate on food anymore, I let myself eat what satisfies me and nourishes me, but I find I still get nervous if I go somewhere and I am not sure when I will be eating next. Is packing a snack just in case an act of self-care, or is this lingering hunger anxiety? I am always worried about getting hungry and feeling out of control, hangry. Hangry episodes are quite embarrassing LOL. Looking forward to your input.
Thanks, Rachael, for that great question. Before I answer, just my standard disclaimer:
These answers are for informational and educational purposes only, aren’t a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice, and don’t constitute a provider-patient relationship.
I’ll be giving fairly quick and unpolished answers here for the foreseeable future because I’m trying to juggle work and caring for a new baby, but hopefully this will be a helpful start.
First of all, I want to offer you a huge dose of compassion for everything you’ve been through. Experiencing food insecurity in childhood can have a profound effect on your relationship with food, and it’s amazing how far you’ve come from there. Not ruminating about food anymore and allowing yourself to eat what you want is a huge accomplishment for anyone living in diet culture, and especially for those who’ve gone through food insecurity.
From your question, it sounds like you’re worried that there’s something wrong or weird about packing a snack “just in case.” You ask if it’s an act of self-care or lingering hunger anxiety, but I’d say it’s probably both—and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s completely understandable in your situation.
As I mentioned in Episode 289 of Food Psych, when you’re healing from disordered eating or food insecurity (or both), you’re likely to think more about food and do more food-related planning in order to reassure yourself that you won’t be deprived again. You’ll also probably have more anxiety about whether food will be available, because your body and your brain have internalized the message that food is a scarce resource.
That’s nothing to feel ashamed of, and it doesn’t mean you’re “abnormal;” it just means you’re still healing from the genuinely traumatic experience of not having had enough food during a formative time in your life. It also sounds like your childhood food insecurity was compounded by years of disordered eating, where you felt the effects of undernourishment in a really embodied way with the dizziness and hypoglycemic attacks.
In healing from these kinds of experiences, it’s important—I’d even say essential—to reassure yourself again and again that you’ll have enough food, and packing a snack is a great way to do that. It’s a profound act of self-care and love, and something that most parents try to or wish they could do for their children, though sadly many aren’t able to because of economic circumstances.
In that sense, packing snacks might be a powerful balm to some of your childhood wounds—and it might feel like a bigger deal to you than it would to someone who didn’t have that background. Keeping that in mind might help you have greater compassion for yourself and the anxiety that arises with any possibility of going hungry.
And then from that place of self-compassion, I’d be curious to investigate what comes up for you when you’re worried about feeling out of control and “hangry.” It’s totally understandable to fear being hungry, as we’ve discussed, but is there also any diet-culture thinking linked to the concern about feeling out of control? That may or may not resonate for you, but the phrase “out of control” does sometimes tend to go along with a diet mindset, so it’s something to consider.
Also, you mention that hangry episodes are embarrassing, so I imagine you’re thinking about the effect that your “hanger” has on others in your life. Is that something you can talk about with the people you’re closest to, and maybe explain a bit about your history and how it’s made you extra sensitive to hunger? Of course there’ll be some situations where you’re with people you don’t know as well and don’t feel safe sharing these issues, but helping your loved ones understand your patterns might go a long way to helping you feel less judged if you ever do have a hangry moment.
I hope that’s helpful in answering your question, Rachael, and thanks so much for asking.
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On the Podcast
In episode 293 of Food Psych, I discuss whether food-sensitivity tests are accurate, the potential damage they can cause to your relationship with food, and what to do if you think you might be reacting to something in your diet.
Check out the episode right here, and be sure to subscribe to the pod so that you get each new episode of our final season delivered straight to your device.
Thanks so much for reading! This newsletter is made possible by subscribers like you. To show your support, you can forward it to someone who’d like it, make a donation, buy my book or card deck, or join one of my courses.
Got this as a forward? Subscribe here for weekly anti-diet support!
Here’s to self-compassion and self-care,
Christy
P.S. If you're interested in exploring how intuitive eating can help in recovery from the full spectrum of disordered eating and eating disorders, check out my Intro to Intuitive Eating mini course. It'll help you start untangling your self-worth from your eating and weight, so that you can start feeling freer and more at peace with food and your body.