Thinking about Therapy?
Take our quiz to see therapists who are a good match for you.
Take our quiz to see therapists who are a good match for you.
The National Eating Disorder Association predicts that one in four people diagnosed with and eating disorder also reports symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In my anecdotal experience as a provider, if we expand our understanding of trauma beyond the bullet point diagnosis of PTSD, trauma co-occurs with eating disorders at much higher rates. An overwhelming number of my clients reported traumatic events in childhood and adulthood that includes:
- Rigid, perfectionist culture within the family
- Substance abuse, personality disorders, mood disorders, or other mental health conditions by a parent or caregiver that impacted their inability to parent
- Abuse by caregivers and other adults in their life
- Struggling to meet financial needs
- Bullying or harassment
- Instability in childhood including frequent movement or changes in caregivers
This is not an exhaustive list, but any one of the incidents can be traumatic without necessarily causing the understood symptoms of PTSD. Trauma is any event that overwhelms someone’s ability to cope. Sometimes, our brain protects us from trauma by cutting us off from our feelings and instincts, putting us in survival mode.
Our emotions and instincts are felt fundamentally within the physical body. Our heart beats faster when we are anxious. Our stomach feels fluttery when we are happy. Our muscles tense when we are afraid. We also feel hunger in our body. Our systems are interconnected, and disconnecting from the lymbic (emotion) or nervous (fight/flight) systems impacts the entire system. Chronic stress also increases levels of cortisol, which can cause impairment in the cardiac, endocrine, and immune system. Our bodies are interconnected.
Many of my clients have told me that, in order to survive traumatic events they felt the need to make themselves small. They quieted their emotions and needs because feeling and expressing them was not safe. Once this connection was severed it became that much easier to disconnect from natural feelings of hunger. Once our culture’s vast acceptance of food restriction as a positive behavior is introduced, an eating disorder becomes the next logical step.
This is why you cannot heal your eating disorder without healing your trauma. The act of reconnecting with your body reconnects the entire body, and disconnected emotions come rushing back. This good news is you CAN face these emotions and you CAN heal your trauma. You have the immense capacity for growth and change.
My job is to give you the tools you need to access it. I help clients reconnect with their bodies so they can cope with triggers, heal from trauma, and finally fix their relationship with food.
