Stuffing your face with loads of nice things. Is it because of unhappiness or just greed?

Question

What do you think?
Do some people eat large amounts of everything which isn't good for them just because they are unhappy, and it's their way of coping, or is it simply greed ?

Answer 1

I think that once it gets to a point where your diet and weight are seriously affecting your health, then it's a form of self-harm. The cause is down to the individual.

Answer 2

I believe it could be more than just this couple of options. We're all different and driven by motivations that vary.

For some people, over indulgence is because they may not have learned to moderate their intake or take care good care of themselves. Many depressed or unhappy people consume what's not right for them, as a punishment, or to push themselves to experience more pain, which is what they are familiar with.

What drives the 'greed' that you refer to? Lack of self-confidence, not having been satisfied when younger and seeking to attain it now, in some ways, just facets of the first option that you mentioned, 'unhappiness', although a chronic condition that has lingered on in someone's life.

If you're familiar with the concept of 'negative strokes' whereby people will establish patterns of getting or giving themselves negative patterns of behavioural outcomes or interactions with others, then these are all somewhat similar. If pain is familiar, then pain is sought, again and again. For some people, this leads to self-destruction.

These are behavioural patterns that can be modified, as long as the underpinning beliefs that contribute to them are also adjusted. If you just try fixing one bit, say stopping the over-eating, it doesn't fulfill the gains that someone is getting from repeating the patterns that they do. They'll probably need to adjust their self image, their own beliefs about themselves, life etc, as well as their behavioural patterns, especially in the contexts that they perform them. Some people can be apparently 'great' in one area of their life and yet miserable in other areas. To give an example, someone who is a high achiever in their work, but lacking in self-esteem and unable to sustain fulfilling personal relationships. (OK, I diverged a bit from consumption, but I'm aiming to illustrate the point of lack of balance, or some part of someone's lifestyle and behavioural habits not being balanced)

Hope these thoughts help. I aim not to knock anyone for what they do, as we all have purpose to our lives, it's just that some of us have gone off course, or didn't get what we needed at the point that we did).

Good luck! Rob

Answer 3

I currently have that problem. It's not that I enjoy what I eat, OR the results, but rather it is gratification pure and simple. Every bite is one moment of happiness as well as a way of punishing yourself, because the end result is so negative, health-wise and otherwise. When I feel depressed, I eat and as I eat I feel more depressed and so on. There are many others who do similar things. For example, a friend of mine is addicted to computer games, and he spends literally every free moment playing a game - even at work! It is ruining his life in a lot of ways, but he cannot stop it. The thing is, there are periods when he does not need it - when he is in balance, is the way he puts it. These are just things we do to cope with everyday stresses, but they are admittedly destructive!

Answer 4

Why does it have to be just one or the other? Isn't it possible that people enjoy ice cream, for example? They know it isn't good for them, but they truly enjoy the taste and experience of eating an ice cream cone. So they do it...frequently...because its something they enjoy. It is a little enjoyment at the end of a long, hard day.

Too often, the pop psychologists try to rationalize over eating...saying that it is to compensate for something. When often, it is simply because those people REALLY love their food.

Answer 5

I know someone that likes to soothe their anxiety with food. Lots of anxiety, lots of stuffing. The food choices are unhealthy because unhealthy stuff, especially process food from the big corps, are designed to stimulate your taste buds, not to nourish you.

Then once I saw people eating out of greed. There was this all you can eat buffet, so instead of choosing a little bit of everything to enjoy, here comes these big fat women that loaded up on triple portions of it all, and went back for seconds and thirds. Pure greed. Of course, they ordered a diet coke to wash it down.

Answer 6

Food can be an addiction
It fills an emotional void for awhile but this like any addiction can lead to medical problems
People gravitate towards overeating sweet and fatty foods when they feel low
What they need to do is analyze why they feel low and work on that and substitute food for something else like exercise
In this way exercise will increase the cardio vascular activity and give them the high they crave

Answer 7

Its not as clear cut as that. I love food and eat quite a lot of it, but its not greed, i just like it. I'm far from unhappy too.

I am one of the lucky few that doesn't gain any weight whatsoever so i can eat guilt free.

Answer 8

A number of psychologists and psychiatrists have suggested that eating is a way we have learned to make us feel good or they have become more specific and pointed out that many foods people overeat increases the serotonin levels inside the brain which make us feel goo - carbohydrates mostly, which includes sugars. Some foods have caffeine in them which give us a temporary boost. Freud believed that eating and oral behavior was related to early feelings we had of feeding from the breast of our mother's or the comfort we got as infants from eating. These feelings have transferred to us as adults such that we find comfort in putting things in our mouth - thus the addictiveness of smoking, according to Freud, who was also addicted to cigar smoking and died of mouth cancer from cigar smoking. He didn't even stop after he was diagnosed, until it became really bad.

Answer 9

Its called comfort eating. I don't think its greed, I think its just a way of making yourself feel better, for example, if you are down or sad.

If you are sad and unhappy, eating food which isn't good for them seems to help and lift your mood.

Its weird, but it works.

Answer 10

In some people its like any disease.Food is great comfort in times of stress.Its not something people are proud of and would change if they could. Its like having a cigarette or a drink to comfort you;its the same thing with food.Greed does not even play a part in it. Believe me most people dont choose to eat like this.They would change if they could !!!!!!!!!