ZZZZZZZ

 February 16, 2022

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day, and she said she had realized she was a stress-eater.  I thought about that for a minute, because my first inclination was to say that I was also a stress-eater, but actually, I don't think so.  I can certainly eat when I'm not hungry (yes, I know I need to be more mindful about that), but I don't actually think it's when I'm stressed or anxious.  In fact, I'm less likely to eat when I'm stressed.  No, I'm a classic boredom-eater.  Eat to have something to do sometimes, I think.  What do I do instead when I am stressed or sad or overwhelmed?  My go-to response is to sleep.  I know a lot of people who can't go to sleep when they are stressed, because their minds run at a 100 miles per hour and it doesn't allow them to sleep.  Not me.  Usually if my mind is running crazy, there's a little emergency brake in my head that pretty quickly takes over and drops me into dreamland.  It's my coping mechanism.  It doesn't solve any of those stressors or anxieties, but it does allow me a bit of a respite from them now and again.  I think it's fascinating how different people develop different coping mechanisms without really knowing what causes them to develop differently.