AS and eating to alleviate overload - anyone experienced this?

[Ambi]

There is something called Sensory Gating. Schizophrenics use tobacco for this and it works very well. I often wonder if food is sensory gating for me. The senses stop, revert, go down when I eat, but I have to eat alone for it to happen. No one can talk to me when I eat and people know that. BUt I think , actually, you might be onto something. It's not emotional. It's about sensory overload.

Sensory gating - Wikipedia

Interesting! I don't know if this is related....but I am very surprised to realize how much I hate it when someone touches me while I am eating. I completely tense up, I can't stand it, and I have to force myself to keep chewing. My natural impulse is close to slapping the person off of me, I almost feel like some kind of wild animal guarding it's food. But I only feel that way when they touch me (a hug, a touch during conversation, etc.), otherwise I wouldn't know.

 

[zeroninja]

Sometimes I do binge eat while emotional to "fill the void" as it were. But mostly, I smoke for circumstances like that. It's like a mini-meditation for me: the physical act of bringing the cigarette to my lips and back down, the feel of inhaling the smoke and focusing on that alone, the nicotine high, and so on relieve tension, stress and anxiety and help me to let go of trauma in the moment.