When Hunger Pushes You to the Edge: Would You Still Be You?

When I first came across this question for the #weekend-engagement, I immediately knew it was going to be a tough one. It’s not the kind of thing most people like to think about—let alone admit publicly—but something about it really made me pause and reflect deeply. It felt uncomfortable, yet strangely honest, to confront such a harsh, hypothetical situation.

To be real, I’ve been in situations where I was extremely hungry. During those moments, i had a series of terrible thoughts in my head, i noticed a side of myself that I don’t often see. My mood changes, my patience thins out, and everything just feels ten times harder.

Hunger, especially prolonged hunger, does something to a person. It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve ever experienced, and I can only imagine how much worse it would be when it gets to the point of actual starvation.

So, if I found myself in a situation where I was literally starving to death and there was absolutely no other option… would I turn to cannibalism to survive?

As difficult as it is to admit, I think my answer would be yes.

Survival is a powerful instinct, and when pushed to the absolute limit, people are capable of doing things they never thought they would. That said, I don’t believe I could ever kill someone just to stay alive—that goes against everything I stand for as a person. But if it was a case where someone had already died—maybe from natural causes, an accident, or just from the same harsh conditions we were both in—and that was the only source of nourishment available, then yes, I think I would make that impossible choice.

Of course, even just imagining that scenario makes me feel uneasy. It’s not something I could do lightly, and I know that mentally and emotionally, it would haunt me for a long period of time. But then, in that desperate moment, when it’s literally a question of life or death, I believe I would choose life.

It’s actually a dark and difficult thought to sit with, but I think that’s the power of this question—it forces you to examine your limits, your values, and just how far you’d go to stay alive..

Thanks for reading.