Five foods to eat when you are mentally spiraling and dissociating maybe* 🌀
*I am not a licensed professional please do not take my advice
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, lol. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Crunchy strawberry Pocky in bed
Here’s what it looks like.
Sometimes, when I am feeling particularly inspired, I think about starting a cooking TikTok account. But when I open the front-facing camera on my phone, I am faced with the reality that I would need a backdrop that’s more aspirational than a litter box and a pile of boxes I never unpacked. So, instead, I will continue writing, the medium of choice for the disorganized and the depressed, and tell you how crunchy strawberry Pocky is a great food for when you are mentally spiraling. Pocky is good for many reasons. The first is that it comes in a package that feels like a gift, and you need to open it in two steps: Opening the cardboard box, and then ripping the inner packaging. You have to stop and deliberately unpackage the Pocky, which forces your brain to slow down. In particular I like crunchy strawberry Pocky, because the scent of artificial strawberries is so comforting. It is a smell that you only come upon in the good parts of childhood, like the taste of grape soda. When you become an adult, you never happen upon that scent again, unless you are eating Pocky. Strawberry popsicles are also good (see below) but they don’t have the same scent. And, most importantly, you never just eat one Pocky. There are several Pock(i) to a bag, which means you can count them and feel at home in your body again. And then enjoy them one by one.
Goodpop Strawberry Shortcake Popsicle (crying in your bathtub)
Here’s what it looks like on InstaCart.
Popsicles are my ultimate comforting food, because it’s something I can eat even if I feel really nauseous. Also, they are delicious and I find them really comforting. Please do not quote me on the scientific validity of any of this but I remember reading once on a mental health handout that if you are dissociating you should eat or hold an ice cube (or something like that). (Please do not go home and hold an ice cube if you are having a crisis.) I do not know if that’s true or not, but I do think there is something about the temperature change that is soothing. When I am sick I like to buy the Outshine fruit pops because they contain more water, but for Regular Bads and also just a nice dessert I like these “healthy” strawberry shortcake pops. I feel like I wrote about this particular popsicle once when I was in a good mental state so you should search your inbox for my actual taste description of them then, but I enjoy them and think they taste good.
Chicken katsu curry at home
I got it from Woorijip, 12 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001.
I was going to write about how chicken katsu curry is my ultimate comfort meal but now I am not quite sure because something you associate with intimacy can be the most triggering thing of all. It’s still good, though.
Celestial Seasonings’ Sleepytime ™ Lavender Herbal Tea in bed
The fact that the founder of Sleepytime tea was maybe possibly inspired by a cult-y religion that involves aliens makes me feel more, not less, comforted by Sleepytime tea which is probably a good indicator of my issues, but here we are. I love Sleepytime tea and all of its variants, but my favorite is Lavender. I like the color purple, and I find the scent of lavender so calming. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s actually chemically calming, or because I have such a strong association with lavender being an anti-anxiety scent. Either will do.
Bach Rescue Pastilles in black currant flavor at Whole Foods
I have no idea why, but these “rescue pastilles” alway taste very faintly of the way cat pee smells to me. This might not be the strongest opener, but I continue to spend a good seven bucks on this little tin of “homeopathic” candy every time I go to Whole Foods. I am also pretty sure these candies do nothing if you are having a panic attack, but I still like carrying them around with me. I think that the simple act of eating a piece of something sweet when you are really trapped in your mind can be freeing, and it feels nice to have something on me that tells me that I am able to take care of myself, in some tiny, probably pseudo-scientific way.
XOXO,
Soph
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