Do fats substitute painkillers with food? I notice that on My 600 Pound Life and with bariatric patients in hospitals, fatties often say they need food to "feel better" as well as food to help them deal with the pain. They use food as painkillers for their physical and psychological pain. Yet food is also what's killing them and making their lives miserable. How do they not understand that using food to help them deal with pain and boredom is also what's killing them? This kind of addiction is no better than other forms of addiction like with pain medication.