History Main / PostStressOvereating

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9844023/1/Broken-Spirit Broken Spirit]]'' features a mourning Cyborg going off to gorge himself on pizza and milkshakes when [[spoiler:BeastBoy is believed to be dead (he's actually only visible to Raven with his separated body in dimensional limbo)]]. Starfire moves to join him, and Robin only hesitates a moment before solemnly offering to pay for the first round as he follows.

* During an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'', ''The Flibber-Flabber Diet'', Truffles becomes depressed [[WeightWoe when she realizes she'd gained weight]] and tries to comfort himself with her two "friends" peanut and butter (literally sticks of butter dipped in peanut butter). The fact that such a habit only contributes to her weight gain isn't lost and she swings back and forth between loving her snack and hating it.

** In "What Ever Happened to Spongebob", Gary ''binge eats'' the entire, ''year supply'' of Snail Food in depression. So he can stop snapping at [=SpongeBob=] into leaving the house.

* After having a minor squabble with Sae, Hiro of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' (pictured above) goes on a binge eating tons of food from cake and donuts to curry, always with a "><" on her face and constantly saying things "[[UsefulNotes/{{baka}} Stupid Sae]]"...HomoeroticSubtext? ''[[SarcasmMode Of course not]].''

* During the events of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', Thor witnesses [[spoiler:Thanos killing half of his people, including his brother and his best friend, and later fails to kill Thanos in time because he was too focussed on getting his revenge. This leads to Thanos killing half of all life in the universe.]] In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', before the mission to the Garden, where the Avengers hope to [[spoiler:get the Infinity Stones to reverse Thanos's fingersnap]], Thor is shown eating a bowl of bread in addition to drinking alcohol. After [[spoiler:it is revealed that Thanos destroyed the Stones and with them all hope to reverse the snap,]] Thor passes the DespairEventHorizon, and when we see him again after [[spoiler:a five-year time jump]], it's made abundantly clear from how his house in New Asgard is littered with discarded wings, pizza boxes, and snack wrappers that he's been eating way too much junk food.

* After having a minor squabble with Sae, Hiro of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' (pictured above) goes on a binge eating tons of food from cake and donuts to curry, always with a "><" on her face and constantly saying things "[[UsefulNotes/{{baka}} Stupid Sae]]"...LesYay? ''[[SarcasmMode Of course not]].''

* In ''Series/TheMuppets'' episode "Swine Song", Kermit says that stress over the future of the show has given him butterflies in his stomach ... then [[LiteralMetaphor clarifies]] that when he's stressed he eats butterflies.

* Similarly, one of the minor mental breaks in ''Videogame/{{Rimworld}}'' is a Food Binge, where the colonist will start grabbing meal after meal and gorging it one after the other, barely pausing between meals and doing nothing else, until they recover or go to sleep. Fairly brief, but when food is scarce...

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A lot of people suffer from this as an outlet for emotional distress, the equivalent for other people that is smoking and or drinking.
** In clinical terms, frequent use of this behavior as a coping mechanism can be called Binge Eating Disorder or Bulimia Nervosa. Frequent overeating can also satisfy the self-destructive criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder.
* ADHD (in all 3 forms) can cause this, as eating delicious, yet unhealthy foods increase the below-average dopamine levels that those with ADHD suffer from. ADHD has been noted to cause obesity, especially when combined with a stressful school/work life as it's a disorder that affects learning and organization skills. On the other hand, some with the disorder ForgetsToEat instead.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': "The Notorious Mrs. Goodspeed" sees Gary's closest living friend Mooncake eat his sorrows from Gary leaving him for a heist with his mother. He starts with H.U.E.'s homemade pancakes before going on to eat up various inedible trinkets like a [[CosmicMacGuffin Dimensional Key]] and even Fox, one of his own teammates who decides to host an intervention for the poor guy. The result is Mooncake becoming a fat, bloated mess of a creature that eventually coughs up everything that went into his gullet once the rest of the Team Squad reassures him he's still loved and valued by those around him.

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': "The Notorious Mrs. Goodspeed" sees Gary's closest living friend Mooncake eat his sorrows from Gary leaving him for a heist with his mother. He starts with H.U.E.'s homemade pancakes before going on to eat up various inedible trinkets like a [[CosmicMaCGuffin Dimensional Key]] and even Fox, one of his own teammates who decides to host an intervention for the poor guy. The result is Mooncake becoming a fat, bloated mess of a creature that eventually coughs up everything that went into his gullet once the rest of the Team Squad reassures him he's still loved and valued by those around him.

* WesternAnimation/FinalSpace: "The Notorious Mrs. Goodspeed" sees Gary's closest living friend Mooncake eat his sorrows from Gary leaving him for a heist with his mother. He starts with H.U.E.'s homemade pancakes before going on to eat up various inedible trinkets like a [[CosmicMaCGuffin Dimensional Key]] and even Fox, one of his own teammates who decides to host an intervention for the poor guy. The result is Mooncake becoming a fat, bloated mess of a creature that eventually coughs up everything that went into his gullet once the rest of the Team Squad reassures him he's still loved and valued by those around him.

* WesternAimation/FinalSpace: "The Notorious Mrs. Goodspeed" sees Gary's closest living friend Mooncake eat his sorrows from Gary leaving him for a heist with his mother. He starts with H.U.E.'s homemade pancakes before going on to eat up various inedible trinkets like a [[CosmicMaCGuffin Dimensional Key]] and even Fox, one of his own teammates who decides to host an intervention for the poor guy. The result is Mooncake becoming a fat, bloated mess of a creature that eventually coughs up everything that went into his gullet once the rest of the Team Squad reassures him he's still loved and valued by those around him.

* ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'': After realizing that Miki already has a boyfriend and his hundredth defeat in attempting to ask her out, Yuuki goes on a binge of donuts while crying. As he puts it to the clerk "If it's gonna be like that, I'll just stuff my face. Old man, give'em to me nonstop!".

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' Kyoko goes off on a binge after she loses an argument with Sayaka. In a variant of this, it's also implied that [[spoiler:her BigEater tendencies are a coping mechanism for her DarkAndTroubledPast; namely, her family starving after her priest father got excommunicated, and later his killing the rest of her family and himself after finding out about Kyoko's contract]].
* Usagi tends to do this in the first anime of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', usually after fights with Mamoru. Not so much in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]].
* ''Anime/FreshPrettyCure'': After realizing that Miki already has a boyfriend and his hundredth defeat in attempting to ask her out, Yuuki goes on a binge of donuts while crying. As he puts it to the clerk "If it's gonna be like that, I'll just stuff my face. Old man, give'em to me nonstop!".
* [[spoiler:Midora]] from ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' takes this trope to a massive villainous level. He became a VillainousGlutton with a [[BigEater huge appetite]] in order to cope with the loss of [[spoiler:Frohze]].

* One ''Anime/StarOceanEX'' has Rena do this in a panic after she mistakenly thinks she saw Claude and Celine smooching.
* When Kanou from ''Manga/NurseAngelRirikaSOS'' began spending time with Miyuki, Ririka became mad. She ended up eating five crepes in one sitting. Her friends only watched in astonishment.

* ''Manga/CellsAtWorkBacteria'': Following a supposedly bad break-up, the host body has taken to eaten more meat in general, which causes her to have varying levels of intestinal distress.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek 2}}'', this is a RunningGag with Fairy Godmother.
-->My ''diet'' is ruined! I hope you're happy.

* Demonstrated graphically and constantly in ''[[ShesComeUndone She's Come Undone,]]'' where the main character initially turns to food [[spoiler:[[RapeAsDrama after being raped at age 13]]]] and continues to overeat to cope with emotional stress, resulting in obesity.

* In the show ''Series/PushingDaisies'', Olive "stress-binged" on the pies that Ned "stress-baked".
* You can tell Jack Donaghy of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' is stressed when he starts binge-eating like crazy.
* ''Series/UglyBetty'': When faced with big stressors, e.g. the possibility of losing her job, Amanda Tanen can clean a pan of flan in a matter of minutes. The discovery that [[spoiler:she is adopted, and the now-deceased [[TheBaroness Fey Sommers]] is her real mother, and her father is unknown]] causes her to pack on plot-relevant pounds between Seasons 1 and 2.
* In ''Series/{{Monk}}'', this was how Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck got to his current state: after his mother's death, he dealt with his grief by engaging in binge-eating (his physician remarks that "he'd call restaurants and have them send ''everything on their menus''"), causing him to become so fat he can't even get out of bed.

* In ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' episode "Aporia", Nikki has stolen Varga's laptop and blackmails him for the content. He resorts to aggressively eating a tub of ice cream on the toilet.

* In one episode of ''Series/DerryGirls'' the girls are told to completely re-write a class assignment in just one evening. This makes them so stressed that they binge their way through a cupboard full of sweets Erin's mother was saving for Christmas.
* This was a RunningGag, often [[LampshadeHanging heavily lampshaded]], on ''Series/TheNanny''. Fran coped with every stressful situation--usually romance-related, but work, her [[MyBelovedSmother nagging mother]], and fear of aging were also common causes--by reaching for sweets and pastries. In one episode, a RhetoricalQuestionBlunder occurs:
-->'''Fran''': How long have you people known me? What's the first thing I do when I get upset?
-->'''Maggie''': Eat a box of Mallomars!
* On ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', all of the housemates were prone to this, but [[TheVamp Blanche]] was usually the first person to reach for the [[TrademarkFavoriteFood cheesecake]] when things went wrong. In one episode, a class reunion gone wrong has her pulling a CutASliceTakeTheRest on Sophia's lasagna at 9:00 AM; in another, Dorothy walks in on her frantically pulling food from the fridge and quips "Hungry or suicidal?"

* In the first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', after Bolin catches Korra, his crush, kissing Mako, his brother, he [[InelegantBlubbering runs away crying]], and is later found in a noodle restaurant, [[DrunkOnMilk slurring and nearly comatose]] after stuffing his face for hours.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Brian is depressed because he is alone on Valentine's Day, and begins to binge eat a box of chocolates. Unfortunately, he forgot that [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare chocolate is toxic for dogs]] and ends up getting sick.

* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Sean eats when he's stressed. In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", he offhandedly comments that he wants to eat macaroni and clarifies that he eats a lot when he's nervous. And considering he's a NervousWreck all the time, this provides an explanation for his overweight figure.

* You can tell Jack Donaghy of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' is stressed when he starts binging like crazy.

* In ''Series/{{Monk}}'', this was how Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck got to his current state: after his mother's death, he dealt with his grief by engaging in binge-eating, causing him to become so fat he can't even get out of bed.

** After going through a state of depression over a breakup, Frasier begins binge eating, and ends up [[BalloonBelly putting on several lbs in a very short amount of time.]]

* Deconstructed in ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' book ''Stacey's Emergency''. Stacey begins eating a lot of sweets due to her sadness. However, it complicates her diabetes, which results her being sent to the hospital.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Brian is depressed because he is alone on Valentine's Day, and begins to binge eat a box of chocolates. Unfortunately, he forgot that chocolate is toxic for dogs [[RealityEnsues and ends up getting sick.]]