Food hoarding in celiacs
I absolutely hoard food. (I’m not sure if it’s due to Celiac, my compulsive hoarding problem, or a mixture or both.) I currently have pasta that I must have bought at least two years ago (probably close to three years now) that has been just traveling around with me from one dorm room to the next because I think I will eat it one day. Upon (just now) looking at the expiration date, I should have gotten rid of it a year ago. (I say as I put it back.)
I will purchase large amounts of food that I may not really be able to eat in time, and will keep certain things (mostly pasta) past expiration dates. I find myself avoiding certain foods that I have purchased because, if I eat it now, I won’t have it to eat tomorrow.
Along with this, I find myself experiencing what I call “food anxiety.” You can define it as a sort of starving feeling. Feeling that, although there is food, there is nothing to eat or you will quickly run out of food. When I experience this, I generally feel as if I do not want to eat any of my food because I am afraid I will run out. I notice this generally occurs when I have limited options in my food choices. Generally, when I am down to pasta and chicken nuggets (as I am right now). I will full out avoid eating for most of the day.
I also find food anxiety arising when I am expected to share my food with others. I feel comfortable with my friends enough that I simply tell them that I have been having my food anxiety lately and don’t feel comfortable sharing. They generally pity me for not being able to eat much in the first place and tell me not to worry about it.
Food anxiety also arises for me if I have other reasons to be anxious. (Such as the lab report I have due tomorrow.) I think it skips hand-in-hand with my compulsive hoarding into the sunset, and I end up going to the store and buying food and other things I don’t really need.
Another instigator of food anxiety is experiencing cross contamination or contamination in general. There’s nothing like a good old bout of feeling awful for days to spark anxiety that keeps me from eating “out” (read: anything not prepared by my own hands in my own kitchen) for weeks to months.
I guess this is all just general speculation based solely off personal experience. This whole food anxiety thing may be an eating disorder, or an anxiety disorder, or me just being scared because I think about food for most of all of my days. It would be pretty cool to see some studies or something on this stuff, but my google adventures haven’t discovered anything quite yet.
Either way, these things are definitely real things in my life.
