Food Keeps Me Sane

Food keeps me sane was my excuse for continuing to indulge in the foods I loved the most, which was mostly desserts or anything made with sugar. This was because most of my life I tried to avoid one thing—being insane or becoming like my mother. 

When I was growing up Mom had emotional issues and saw a psychiatrist regularly. She was on medication which only seemed to make her mood swings worse. She had high highs and low lows. 

When I asked my dad what was wrong with her, he would only say, ‘She’s sick.” I knew she wasn’t sick like with a stomach ache. So I didn’t quite understand until she had to go into the hospital and was on the psychiatric floor. I knew that was where the people who were considered crazy or insane went. 

Contrast this when the times I’d get to go to Grandma’s house and spend the weekend or longer in the summer. There everything seemed perfect, completely idyllic. I’d help her with all her chores. We’d bake cookies and cakes and pies. 

So it made a whole lot of sense to me that I equated food with sanity. My grandma was sane. She wasn’t the least bit crazy. And she cooked delicious foods all the time. It became ingrained in me that Grandma’s way of doing life was sane and Mom’s was insane. 

I thought food was my secret weapon to keep me sane until I gained up to 430 pounds and realized what I was doing to myself was totally insane.

Learn more about how I lost the weight and finally embraced my emotions. 

Overcomers Academy link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/