The Persistent Drive for Autonomy (PDA) food and eating cycle

For many PDAers, eating can be experienced as a perceived threat, and paradoxically, the greater the hunger, the harder it becomes to eat. Hunger itself may show up as an internal demand, something the body is insisting on, and internal demands can be just as triggering as external ones. What others interpret as a simple bodily cue can feel overwhelming, intrusive, or even frightening.