Psychological Warfare

I’ve spent a while now trying to separate physical hunger from mental hunger. Actually needing food, against just wanting it.

Then something happens that makes the whole distinction feel unfair.

I’ll be sat with a cup of tea, thinking I fancy a biscuit. Or a KitKat. Just a thought, nothing more.

And then I start salivating.

Now what am I supposed to make of that?

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I thought this was meant to be the mental side. The wanting-it-not-needing-it side. But there’s a very real physical response happening.

Except my stomach isn’t empty. I’m not weak. I’m not light-headed. I don’t actually need food.

My brain thought about a KitKat, and my body started preparing for one anyway.

That feels like cheating.

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Turns out there’s an actual name for it. Just thinking about food, or seeing it, or smelling it, can trigger the body into starting the digestive process before a single bite goes anywhere near your mouth. The saliva isn’t imaginary. It’s a genuine physical response. It’s just responding to a thought, not a shortage.

So there isn’t just physical hunger and mental hunger. There’s a third thing sat in between them:

A physical response to a mental cue.

And that third one is what makes the first two so hard to tell apart. Because when your mouth is actually watering, “it’s only in my head” doesn’t feel true anymore. Your body has just handed your brain a bit of supporting evidence.

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The really unhelpful part is what Mounjaro seems to have done to this specific setup.

It’s turned the volume down on genuine physical hunger. I can go hours without eating and not feel much of anything. But it hasn’t touched this — the salivating-at-the-thought-of-a-KitKat machinery is still running exactly as before.

So I can be sitting there thinking: I want this. My mouth is watering. I could absolutely eat it right now. All while, underneath that, actually not needing food at all.

Mental hunger wearing a physical disguise.

That’s probably the most honest way I’ve got of putting it. The urge isn’t fake. The saliva isn’t fake. None of it’s imaginary. It’s just not hunger, whatever it’s dressed up as.