70% of US adults have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives, according to the National Council for Behavioral Health.
THIS is the reason why food isn’t the solution to heal emotional eating.
If a history of trauma leads you to emotionally eat, you might find yourself thinking, like my successful, smart client who works in the helping professions:
“Food is better than Xanax”
This woman was frustrated because she has done a lot of work around caring for her emotions, in fact she teaches other people to do so… and yet she still ended up at the drive-thru comforting herself with a burger and fries whenever things got too hard.
If you are struggling with emotional eating and have experienced trauma in your life, I want you to hear this:
It’s not your fault.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines trauma as:
“an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.”
A history of trauma can make it feel unsafe to cope with your emotions at face-value, so you numb them with food.
Research connecting trauma and emotional eating
There is plenty of scientific evidence to connect a history of trauma and emotional eating:
- A 2015 study published in the journal, Appetite, found that those who experienced childhood trauma, especially emotional abuse, were likely to experience depression and emotional dysregulation (mood swings, strong emotions, not being able to cope) that led to emotional eating.
The authors suggest that focusing on healing emotional dysregulation may be a successful path to healing emotional eating. (Read this again if you’re still thinking a diet or meal plan is the answer.) - A 2021 study from researchers in Israel found that traumatic experiences predicted eating disorder symptoms indirectly by a correlation with having a high BMI, dissociation (feeling disconnected from your body, as if in a fog or watching yourself as if an outsider), and emotional dysregulation.
- A 2017 study from the University of Iowa discovered that trauma was associated with greater markers of inflammation that can put you at risk for chronic diseases. This elevation in inflammation was believed to be caused by obesity, stemming from using food as a coping mechanism for trauma-related distress.
- It’s important to understand that trauma-related distress can persist via nervous system and brain changes, even if you feel like you’ve coped with the traumatic event. For example, in a 2020 study from Yale found that past trauma (as opposed to recent) is associated with being very sensitive to stress in areas of the brain critical for reward and emotional processing. Meaning stress may push positive emotional coping skills out the window (and lead to more emotional eating).
Key takeaways from the research:
- Trauma is related to emotional eating.
- Learning how to cope with strong emotions without food may be helpful.
- Dissociation (feeling disconnected from your body, as if in a fog or watching yourself as if an outsider) is a common experience for emotional eaters.
- Emotional eating caused by trauma may lead to obesity, which can raise inflammatory markers.
- Past exposure to trauma may lead to changes in the way your brain functions under stress in the area responsible for reward and emotion processing.
If you haven’t already, download my free Emotional Eating Roadmap to find out the exact steps you need to take to healing.
Understanding the window of tolerance and trauma to heal emotional eating
Developed by Dr. Dan Siegel and illustrated by Dr. Marie Dezelic as a way to understand normal brain responses, especially for those with a history of trauma, the Window of Tolerance Theory provides insight into why emotional eating might occur and what can be done to stop it.
The theory states that we all have a comfort zone where we are able to cope with and regulate our emotions. This is where we feel good and have energy, where we don’t struggle with eating.
And yet, stressors occur and push us out of our comfort zone. When we get out of our comfort zone, we can go to one of two places:
1. Hyper-arousal (AKA Fight or Flight):
Anxiety and overwhelm
Out of control eating, food addiction, impulsive eating
Rigidness – following the rules, starting a new diet
Emotional outbursts or anger
2. Hypo-arousal (AKA Freeze):
Dissociation (feeling disconnected from your body, as if in a fog or watching yourself as if an outsider)
Shut down, unable to determine how you feel
What pushes someone out of their comfort zone can vary for each person.
According to Dr. Marie Dezelic, trauma-related core beliefs being triggered may be one cause. Examples I have seen in my own practice include feelings of worthiness over body size, the belief that it isn’t safe to manage emotions and/or to prioritize self-care.
Fears can push someone outside their comfort zone.
As can extreme stress.
How to heal from trauma so you can heal emotional eating.
If you need a safe space to process the trauma that occurred to you, look for a local counselor to get the support you need.
Here is a video that I made about how to find a trauma-informed counselor:
What to do when therapy didn’t solve your eating issues
In my experience helping over 70 women heal emotional eating, oftentimes trauma-informed counseling has a myriad of benefits and produces a lot of healthy transformation – but it doesn’t solve eating issues.
Here’s what one client, Irene, had to say about it:
“For many years I went to therapy to try to figure out why a person of my competency was failing in my relationship to food. Though therapy helped me deal with past traumas, never did any of the therapists (there were 3) help me solve the food dilemma. Never did anyone deal with my feelings and how my desire to hide from feelings was at the basis of my eating. I sort of gave up trying. Over the years I made some peace with food, and lost some weight; but the “feeling” issue never went away. When I was under stress I would turn to food, and each time that would happen I would rage at myself, and fall into a depression that only exacerbated the problem.”
As a Registered Dietitian, I can help you bridge the gap between your emotional healing and food.
In the Stress Less Weight Mastery, we use Self-Compassion-based approaches to help you connect more fully with your body, self-kindness and the present to gently guide you back into your window of tolerance.
We use gentle nutrition protocols and stress-management techniques to calm your nervous system and stop you from getting stuck in hyper or hypo arousal.
We help you stay curious about what triggered you to leave your comfort zone and emotional eating, so you can learn from each experience rather than labeling yourself a failure.
If you’d like my help to heal emotional eating, book your free 45-minute Compassionate Clarity call here.
Here’s what Irene had to say about her experience:
“There is nothing phony about Cassie; she is knowledgable, highly committed to each individual as well as the program as a whole–and she is supportive both to the group, and to each person. That’s a lot to ask of one person, but Cassie seems up for the task. The program is design to take each participant step by step to begin to deal with the real issues that provoke people to eat. She also appears to me to be sincere in her efforts to help people. I respect the way she has developed the program so that it makes logical sense as one progresses through the program. I also like that she is constantly evaluating what’s working and seems willing to change or evaluate things based on the experience of the group. And she has humor and doesn’t take herself too seriously. And if there’s one thing Cassie is, she’s authentic. It irritates that she’s so damn young to be this capable–but there you have it. Knowledge sometimes isn’t based on age, but the ability to understand.”
Do you know someone who needs to hear this? Use the social share buttons on the right side of the screen to share on social media or send the URL via text.
If you haven’t already, download my free Emotional Eating Roadmap to find out the exact steps you need to take to healing.