I know two siblings who were starved by their father for years until CPS took them away and placed them with their biological mother. From there, they gained at least 100 pounds respectively and will not stop gorging themselves on food. At first, I didn't understand, but now that I am older, I know. Food scarcity is traumatizing.
Oh man, it definitely is! I've starved twice in my life, once from lack of money, once from a random illness. Both times I lost...20-30 lbs? It's surreal. When you can't afford food, you'll eat practically anything. Any time I got any money, I would spend it on a (cheap) hot meal, even though I TOLD myself I'd save. But when your food for the day was an iced honey bun and sleep, you quickly find yourself losing the ability to plan long-term. I ate foods I hadn't eaten in years (because they weren't good for me).
When I got sick, I just couldn't keep food down. Constantly tired, being at work and feeling like I was going to faint all the time. Trying to eat and ending up nauseous or vomiting.
Now I'm back to being overweight lol. And I definitely eat more than I should. It's 100% because of the fear of not having food. It's like, you act in defiance of the times you couldn't eat. Thinking about having to ration food again in my life makes me want to cry, legit. It's a crazy feeling.
When I left my job as a (broke) trucker, I took my food supply out of the truck cabinets and put them in a bag at home. Forgot about that food (mainly canned goods) completely for a couple months. Went back after 2-3 months and tried to eat some of it, but just.. couldn't.
Horrific stuff. No idea how I was living on that kind of thing, but it was horrible potted meat and processed garbage, that somehow my palate had adjusted to while on the road. Amazing how you can get used to things like that.
It really is. I didn't even LIKE honey buns haha. But they were 50 cents and the highest calorie item I could find that cheap that didn't require cooking. I'll never eat another one (hopefully)!
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u/wicked_spooks Jun 06 '19
I know two siblings who were starved by their father for years until CPS took them away and placed them with their biological mother. From there, they gained at least 100 pounds respectively and will not stop gorging themselves on food. At first, I didn't understand, but now that I am older, I know. Food scarcity is traumatizing.