Food insecurity - when it doesn’t feel safe inside

Vanessa Kredler Author

Here I'm sharing my lived experience of the feeling of 'not enough' food.

I’ve been hearing a lot about food insecurity lately. Food insecurity is usually associated with poor countries, or countries ravaged by the effects of war or natural disasters. increasingly people in wealthier countries, including Australia, are experiencing food insecurity. People are lacking reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. It's not just about hunger; it's about not knowing where your next meal is coming from or being unable to afford nutritious food consistently. It’s about access, affordability and quality of food.

Food addiction and food insecurity are linked when people don’t have access to nutritious food and economic conditions force them to opt for the cheapest and most accessible ultra-processed food they can find. And research suggests that ultra-processed food is addictive.

In my lived experience, there is another type of food insecurity. It’s the internal sense of food insecurity. It’s that sense of having a dysregulated nervous system; a sense of not feeling settled inside; a state of constant restlessness; a fear of not getting enough. It’s very much a bodily state; it doesn’t have words or thoughts. It’s a pervasive sense of needing to eat to feel settled, secure, safe in the world. This seems to be the state that underlies the drive to eat addictively, the desire to continue eating (if possible forever!), and only stopping when the body feels sick. That sense of dread of the meal being finished, and the insatiable seeking for more and more and more food to get grounded, settled, to feel safe.

Many of us know the consequences of addictive eating untamed. It can escalate into more and more extreme episodes of eating and not being able to stop, and developing tolerance to the types of food substances we consume as well as the volume. We become physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually unwell.

How do we tame this inner sense of insecurity? I’ve learned that the first step is gaining awareness of it; recognising, noticing and being with this sense of internal unease, and the sense of needing food to quell it. And then there is a need to find ways of eating that are nourishing, grounding but that have structure and regularity, and that recognise the need for the meal to end. To learn to tolerate the life that unfolds between meals, and to trust in our capacity to survive the periods between meals, knowing that our meals are plentiful, nourishing and sufficient to last us until the next meal. To trust our capacity to get internal safety and regulate in more life-giving and less destructive ways than addictive eating. To experience joy and pleasure outside of the domain of food and eating. It takes new skills, time, patience, perseverance, self-compassion, community and support.

If you can relate to this sense of inner food insecurity and would like support, please reach out. Reaching out is the first step towards a greater sense of inner security.

And if you'd like to gain some basic skills in supporting your emotional regulation, try out my Mastering emotions and cravings course.

Categories: : Food Addiction