5 Weird Eating Habits of a Narcissist
- They control you using food.
Number four, and the most painful one: they control you using food. How? By restricting the amount, by making comments that make you feel like you’re eating too much or the wrong stuff, or that you’re not hungry and shouldn’t eat. You feel like you are committing a sin. They might pick food from your plate and put it back in the pot, claiming to be caring. I’ve seen my father do that to my mother and sister all the time, making them feel small.
They restrict how much you eat and then say, “Oh, I’m doing it for you; I don’t want you to gain weight.” Or the opposite—they might force-feed you. I remember not feeling hungry at all and not wanting to eat, and he got really angry. I don’t know how he took it personally, as if I was criticizing him for not listening. He held my neck, filled his hand with food, and stuffed it in my mouth until I vomited. Instead of soothing me, he hit me as if I disrespected him.
- Force eating in a group, like you’re part of a cult.
Now, number five: force eating in a group, as if you’re part of a cult and can’t do anything on your own. My father forced us to eat together, claiming that eating together is a family value that makes you feel like you belong. But in this case, it’s all about torture. If you do not eat in a group, who would they abuse? Who would they shame? Who would they use as a source of supply?
If they were to eat alone, wouldn’t they feel unimportant, abandoned, and isolated? Narcissists don’t like abandonment. When you do not want to eat with them, they feel rejected, and they do not like it at all. It’s like a contract you have invisibly signed, agreeing to eat with them no matter what. No matter how late they are, how they ignore you, or if you’re hungry—it does not matter. You have to eat as well, whether or not you feel like it.
That is my story. How do I know this? It has happened to me. You’re never allowed to love food, which is why a lot of survivors either avoid it, develop a very bad relationship with food, become emotional eaters, or become anorexic. Food is naturally associated with trauma, so they hate it.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Which one of these food habits of the narcissist have you been a victim of? Let me know in the comments—drop your experiences. Who knows, you might end up validating a lot of people.
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