Re: Increased hunger?
Stress seriously depletes your energy. Specifically... glycogen stores in the muscles. If I have had a physically and emotionally intense day my body craves carbohydrates and it is an appropriate time to eat more of them in a balanced meal. But not as an "emotional distracting myself by stuffing up on food" response. Just eat until the hunger goes away and you're 75% full.
If you are working full-time and stressed you most likely have what is known around here as "HIGH CORTISOL." Which is good news! More treatable, more resersable, system is still functioning. But it sounds like your system is stressed and faltering, struggling to maintain the high output that your work and family life demand.
When you get LOW CORTISOL - like I had when I became unable to work or read - and sometimes after nasty crashes... it difficult to get out of bed and do simple things like laundry, and you have CRUSHING "I'm gonna / wanna die" type depression. Not like "my life sucks, this is such a complicated mess"
Depression but more like you're stuck on an barren arctic island with a broken lifeboat and there is no other possibility besides starving or freezing to death. And you soberly sit there, staring at the wall... with no energy to read... thinking about how tragic it is.
What are 3 things you can do to cut your stress levels down.. no matter what it takes? Where can you swallow your pride, cut a corner, ask for help, get rid of an responsibility? What do you do (watch the news, surf the web, get into an avoidable argument, obsess about researching TOO MUCH) to lower your brains processoer load?