Stress eating

Have you ever noticed that you tend to crave junk food at times when your body is deprived of sleep? Sometimes you may also feel hungry when you are actually thirsty and drinking water will satisfy the feeling of hunger. I imagine that many unhealthy habits and addictions result from trying to satisfy a need in a way which gives a momentary feeling of relief but doesn't actually satisfy that need. Some of these are forms of avoidance but others result from misinterpreting our needs. Self defeating behaviors get reinforced when we don't recognize our actual needs but keep trying to feed ourselves (whether physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, or spiritually) with something that doesn't meet our actual needs. We keep trying to fill one need with another and this continues until we finally figure it out (and make the appropriate behavioral change). Some people never do.

"You can never get enough of what you don't need, because what you don't need won't satisfy you."
—Dallin H. Oaks