AS and eating to alleviate overload - anyone experienced this?

[Ocarina]

No idea if this is an AS issue or just life....

I've used food to deal with the moments when feelings build up to breaking point for as long as I can remember. It's often at the end of the day, when the melee of kids, untidy house, work, tiredness suddenly hits and I feel an intense need to zone out. At this point very often I head to the mindless eating zone - I don't feel great about it and I'd absolutely love to break the habit.

At the moment we have the perfect storm - lots of change, kids on holiday, moving house, busy at work, relationship in crisis (probably as a result of the above) and the end of day eating is getting out of control - I'm generally pretty fit, have to treat my body and mind well in order to get through life in one piece and the sugar consumption is throwing me off balance but I'm struggling to manage it.

Anyone else experienced something similar? Any ideas what to do about it?

Thank you

 

[orphan]

I'm not sure this will help, but I generally only eat once a day. Keeps me grounded. If my sugar is low, I sip juice. Maybe a snack.

Hope you find something that works for you.

 

[jamesaldrin]

Is is not "emotional eating?"

 

[Mia]

My spouse does that, food for him is extremely soothing as is playing guitar. If he were to consider one over the other, he would likely choose food.

His mother told me years ago that as an infant, he used to cry all the time. She thought it was croup, and brought him to the family doctor, and mentioned the constant crying. He asked her how much she bottle fed him, and she told him. "It isn't enough for his size, and weight" the Doctor told her, "he's your largest, longest baby". She had fed him the standard amount that she had given to her other children. She brought him home, gave him one bottle which he drank, then two more, then he fell asleep. After that she fed him more. She thought it was an amusing story, I didn't.

Since that time or because of it, food has been something so important in his life, that irregardless of anything else, he has to eat, or panic sets in. He's not particularly overweight, it's simply the most necessary thing to him. At lunch for example, he wants to know what's for dinner. Whether this is a function of his childhood starvation diet, I don't know. Or a function of his autism, and the desire to have a constant touchstone with meals. Something known and to be relied upon, that makes him content I don't really know.

As for what to do about it, smaller portions, smaller plates, more liquids, no temping things kept or bought that are easy to snack on. I'm certain you know about these things anyway. Locking yourself in the bathroom, to have a bath, a walk perhaps. A rule of no food after nine o'clock at night, might help a bit. Actually I eat what I consider to be only fresh foods now, vegetables, fruit, small amounts of protein. It's helped to keep the cupboard bare of easily accessible foods that I can eat standing up in the kitchen, and furtively. Peanut butter is my friend So as during any difficult and stressful time, don't stint too much, it makes it more stressful. When things are in flux its hard to not grab a cookie, and that kind of iron self-control is difficult to hold onto. Perhaps later, when things are more settled. Pick your time.

 

[OkRad]

There is something called Sensory Gating. Schizophrenics use tobacco for this and it works very well. I often wonder if food is sensory gating for me. The senses stop, revert, go down when I eat, but I have to eat alone for it to happen. No one can talk to me when I eat and people know that. BUt I think , actually, you might be onto something. It's not emotional. It's about sensory overload.

Sensory gating - Wikipedia

 

[Jorg]

I sometimes eat when I feel overload, I go and buy a little ice cream and a coke but for the past three weeks I've had to keep track and care of my nutrition since a blood test revealed very high tryglicerides or bad fat. I have an average body not too fat not too thin but that doesn't matter and I've been taking care of my foods.

I also smoke sometimes but today I was thinking that smikong only gets me more dizzy than calm down and it really tastes like ***

 

[Ocarina]

I'm not sure this will help, but I generally only eat once a day. Keeps me grounded. If my sugar is low, I sip juice. Maybe a snack.

Hope you find something that works for you.

Thank you

 

[Ocarina]

There is something called Sensory Gating. Schizophrenics use tobacco for this and it works very well. I often wonder if food is sensory gating for me. The senses stop, revert, go down when I eat, but I have to eat alone for it to happen. No one can talk to me when I eat and people know that. BUt I think , actually, you might be onto something. It's not emotional. It's about sensory overload.

Sensory gating - Wikipedia

I think that may well be what's happening OkRad - it's as though things build up over the day and then require some kind of outlet - it's just a shame when the outlet leads to feeling even worse than before, in the short term at least.
Being not the most in touch person emotionally I'm not sure if it's "emotional eating" or not - but my gut feeling suggests it feels like a kind of overload instead as though I just need to cut off from everything to recharge.
Thanks for your input that's really helpful.

 

[Ocarina]

My spouse does that, food for him is extremely soothing as is playing guitar. If he were to consider one over the other, he would likely choose food.

His mother told me years ago that as an infant, he used to cry all the time. She thought it was croup, and brought him to the family doctor, and mentioned the constant crying. He asked her how much she bottle fed him, and she told him. "It isn't enough for his size, and weight" the Doctor told her, "he's your largest, longest baby". She had fed him the standard amount that she had given to her other children. She brought him home, gave him one bottle which he drank, then two more, then he fell asleep. After that she fed him more. She thought it was an amusing story, I didn't.

Since that time or because of it, food has been something so important in his life, that irregardless of anything else, he has to eat, or panic sets in. He's not particularly overweight, it's simply the most necessary thing to him. At lunch for example, he wants to know what's for dinner. Whether this is a function of his childhood starvation diet, I don't know. Or a function of his autism, and the desire to have a constant touchstone with meals. Something known and to be relied upon, that makes him content I don't really know.

As for what to do about it, smaller portions, smaller plates, more liquids, no temping things kept or bought that are easy to snack on. I'm certain you know about these things anyway. Locking yourself in the bathroom, to have a bath, a walk perhaps. A rule of no food after nine o'clock at night, might help a bit. Actually I eat what I consider to be only fresh foods now, vegetables, fruit, small amounts of protein. It's helped to keep the cupboard bare of easily accessible foods that I can eat standing up in the kitchen, and furtively. Peanut butter is my friend So as during any difficult and stressful time, don't stint too much, it makes it more stressful. When things are in flux its hard to not grab a cookie, and that kind of iron self-control is difficult to hold onto. Perhaps later, when things are more settled. Pick your time.

I know what you mean about stinting at stressful times - it's only going to make things worse.
My cupboards tend to be full ish of children friendly snacks which doesn't help.
I will pick my time and the next week or two probably isn't ideal. However I've picked up something on another thread about tackling these kind of things one at a time so just as an experiment, today I'm going to tell myself:

"Just for today I'm not going to eat sugar"

Will see what happens...

 

[Ocarina]

I

Is is not "emotional eating?"

I'm not sure James

 

[Full Steam]

I eat crunchy things, especially when over loaded. Cashews are my favourite and I'll eat them until I've had way too much.

I did think that I just liked them, but once I found autism I looked at my favourite food and realised they are all crunchy.

I've removed all crap from my house and diet, so the worst I can have is gluten free toast with jam.

I also found that a lot of the food I was drawn to was the worst for me and affected my brain.

 

[Bolletje]

I'm an emotional eater, but I also love food in general. I have the added issue of not feeling satiety after eating, and fealing hungry again ridiculously soon after eating. I can clean out the fridge on a bad day.

 

[Peatsmoke]

I eat crunchy things, especially when over loaded. Cashews are my favourite and I'll eat them until I've had way too much.

I did think that I just liked them, but once I found autism I looked at my favourite food and realised they are all crunchy.

I eat to de-stress, particularly after a day of talking to people (or sometimes a day of people talking to me... sensory overload seems like a good explanation) - but to really be effective, I have to be alone. Even the knowledge that someone's in the room next door puts me off a bit. Maybe this is partly because most of my de-stressing food is crunchy/crispy and so bloody noisy! Crisps (=chips for Americans), nuts or crunchy peanut butter (but good peanut butter is like platinum dust around here), and best of all - thin, crispy dark chocolate bars with hazelnuts and crunchy minty bits... Anyway, I tend to scoff it all down pretty quick, before my girlfriend gets home and breaks the spell. And I feel calmer, although my stomach doesn't agree...

 

[OkRad]

I'm an emotional eater, but I also love food in general. I have the added issue of not feeling satiety after eating, and fealing hungry again ridiculously soon after eating. I can clean out the fridge on a bad day.

I am wondering if they know why this is. I have this, too, and did when I got sick. I NEVER felt satiety. Once this thing hit me, it was fast and that was one of the things that happened.

I never feel it now, but food is now something different, like a huge piece of fabric that I have to cut off pieces of here and there and eat. Makes no sense to me at all.

But it does disturb me , this never feeling full, and I wonder if Drs know why that happens???

 

[OkRad]

I eat to de-stress, particularly after a day of talking to people (or sometimes a day of people talking to me... sensory overload seems like a good explanation) - but to really be effective, I have to be alone. Even the knowledge that someone's in the room next door puts me off a bit. Maybe this is partly because most of my de-stressing food is crunchy/crispy and so bloody noisy! Crisps (=chips for Americans), nuts or crunchy peanut butter (but good peanut butter is like platinum dust around here), and best of all - thin, crispy dark chocolate bars with hazelnuts and crunchy minty bits... Anyway, I tend to scoff it all down pretty quick, before my girlfriend gets home and breaks the spell. And I feel calmer, although my stomach doesn't agree...

This is very curious. I have this too. In order for it to "work" I HAVE TO BE ALONE!! If anyone so much as talks to me, that's it.

Do you have trouble with food otherwise? Can you otherwise eat in public? I cannot.

Can you say more about how food effects you? This has been the disabling part of whatever happened to me and I am so curiuos to see others have this at different levels!

 

[toothless]

i absolutely detest food-id go without if i could and only eat one meal a day at the same time every night time and i send my night staff to the office as i get overloaded by having people around me when i eat.
so for me,when suffering from sensory overload the last thing i think about is using food,i cant do anything when im suffering from sensory overload and i experience sensory jumbling where my vision goes very murky or black;every input profoundly affects me until i have been removed from the overloading source and recovered.

 

[Bolletje]

But it does disturb me , this never feeling full, and I wonder if Drs know why that happens???

I'm not sure why this is. I had a theory about a disturbance in the hormones that regulate hunger and food intake. I looked into it, but found results exactly opposite of what I expected. There are different levels of hormones that regulate hunger, but the levels should make us less hungry instead of more.

I've been looking for articles on this, but can't find anything specifically related to autism and never feeling full. There's one disorder I know of (Prader Willi Syndrome) that's known for insatiable appetite and the inability to feel when one's had enough to eat, but I'm certain I don't have that syndrome.

Lack of sleep, disturbed sleeping patterns, certain antipsychotics and antidepressants can cause increased appetite, but not the lack of feeling full. Oh well. Maybe I'll find out some day!

 

[Ocarina]

I wonder if part of the not feeling full is related to the general aspie confusion over the processing of feelings in general?

I don't tend to feel "stressed" in the same way as most other people - instead it's a kind of looming overwhelm that finally tips over the edge and that is when I recognise the feeling.

Today - I'm pleased to say, I haven't gorged on sugar. I went down the "Just for one day" road - and it seems to have worked, for today at least.

Thanks to everyone who's commented, it's really interesting stuff...

 

[toothless]

I'm not sure why this is. I had a theory about a disturbance in the hormones that regulate hunger and food intake. I looked into it, but found results exactly opposite of what I expected. There are different levels of hormones that regulate hunger, but the levels should make us less hungry instead of more.

I've been looking for articles on this, but can't find anything specifically related to autism and never feeling full. There's one disorder I know of (Prader Willi Syndrome) that's known for insatiable appetite and the inability to feel when one's had enough to eat, but I'm certain I don't have that syndrome.

Lack of sleep, disturbed sleeping patterns, certain antipsychotics and antidepressants can cause increased appetite, but not the lack of feeling full. Oh well. Maybe I'll find out some day!

prada willi syndrome also comes with learning [intellectual] disability i think but dont take that 100% ive not checked it out as im in a rush.

 

[Bolletje]

prada willi syndrome also comes with learning [intellectual] disability i think but dont take that 100% ive not checked it out as im in a rush.

You're correct, Prader Willi Syndrome is a collection of symptoms caused by a partial or complete deletion of the paternal chromosome 15. Symptoms include intellectual disability (varying in severity), behavioral disorders, hyperphagia due to insatiable appetite, and the resulting childhood obesity, with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.