Possible reasons for hoarding/hiding food
I just got off of the phone with my best friend. Her son is going through a divorce, so his wife recently moved out. Her and her daughter decided to go help him clean the house.
Background: the soon to be Ex is a very sweet girl. She really is. But she also had some "quirks" when it came to food. For instance, if we were all camping and someone was snacking on something, she always asked if she could have some, regardless of what it was. When going out to eat, she would always order the most expensive thing, eat half, then order dessert and eat a bite and discard the rest. There were other little things over the last few years, but we all blew it off as one of her quirks. She seemed to feel a sense of accomplishment when obtaining food, especially if it was someone else's food (for instance, everyone was eating pizza rolls as a snack one day and my friend's 4 year old niece was finished with hers and wanted more. The soon to be ex still had some, and proceeded to shove all of hers that were left on her plate in her mouth at once and laugh at the child; although there were more that could be made).
Well when my friend and her daughter were helping clean the house, apparently there was food hidden all over the house in drawers and such. Oatmeal cookies under a pile of bills here, some ring dings under something there. Well the son was cleaning a drawer of old clothes out, and he found a half eaten cake still in the pyrex dish hidden under some of his old clothes.
To me, this is the type of behavior an alcoholic displays when hiding booze. She wasn't an extremely large girl or anything, but she definitely had some food issues.
The only thing we could come up with is that food was used as some sort of punishment/reward system in her home growing up. Her parents are very controlling, and I don't see it being out of their scope of ways to influence her behavior. Especially after thinking back about all of the "quirks" she had regarding food over the years.
Anyone else have experience with this type of behavior regarding food and what could be the cause of it?
Em
I just got off of the phone with my best friend. Her son is going through a divorce, so his wife recently moved out. Her and her daughter decided to go help him clean the house.
Background: the soon to be Ex is a very sweet girl. She really is. But she also had some "quirks" when it came to food. For instance, if we were all camping and someone was snacking on something, she always asked if she could have some, regardless of what it was. When going out to eat, she would always order the most expensive thing, eat half, then order dessert and eat a bite and discard the rest. There were other little things over the last few years, but we all blew it off as one of her quirks. She seemed to feel a sense of accomplishment when obtaining food, especially if it was someone else's food (for instance, everyone was eating pizza rolls as a snack one day and my friend's 4 year old niece was finished with hers and wanted more. The soon to be ex still had some, and proceeded to shove all of hers that were left on her plate in her mouth at once and laugh at the child; although there were more that could be made).
Well when my friend and her daughter were helping clean the house, apparently there was food hidden all over the house in drawers and such. Oatmeal cookies under a pile of bills here, some ring dings under something there. Well the son was cleaning a drawer of old clothes out, and he found a half eaten cake still in the pyrex dish hidden under some of his old clothes.
To me, this is the type of behavior an alcoholic displays when hiding booze. She wasn't an extremely large girl or anything, but she definitely had some food issues.
The only thing we could come up with is that food was used as some sort of punishment/reward system in her home growing up. Her parents are very controlling, and I don't see it being out of their scope of ways to influence her behavior. Especially after thinking back about all of the "quirks" she had regarding food over the years.
Anyone else have experience with this type of behavior regarding food and what could be the cause of it?
Em
