Trauma Can Lead to Eating Disorders

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Heather was raped when was she was a young adult. Her feelings of fear, rage, and powerlessness that followed became overwhelming and unmanageable. Initially, the stress she felt robbed her of her appetite; but, eventually, she began restricting her eating by choice. It gave her a sense of power over her body.

Survivors of trauma may develop an eating disorder as a method of coping with those feelings of helplessness, and the severe anxiety and conflicting emotions that often come with them. They may adapt unhealthy eating behaviors because food intake is something they can control and the focus on food rituals helps them to mask their emotional pain.

Trauma is by far not the only factor in the development of eating disorders—personality and temperament, perfectionism, cultural and peer pressures, family expectations, and genetic and neurological factors can also contribute to the disorder—however, it is a very common one. In order for an individual to achieve long-term recovery from an eating disorder, they must address not only their unhealthy eating and body image issues but also their underlying emotional trauma.

How Does Trauma Trigger Eating Disorders?

There is so much that scientists and researchers still don’t know about the way our minds and bodies are connected. What we do know, thanks to researchers and clinicians like Dr. Peter Levine (who is also a Senior Fellow at The Meadows) is that trauma is held within the body. It cannot be released through intellectual processing alone.

Dr. Levine’s insights are based on the idea that the methods in which we, as humans, subconsciously react to threats aren’t all that different from the ways in which our fellow mammals in the wild react to threats. When animals are presented with a dangerous situation, their brains and bodies automatically produce a survival response of fight, flight, or freeze. Once the threat is gone, they release all of their survival energy through their bodies—often by shivering, sweating, crying, or yawning. Once they have released all of the pent-up energy, they resume their normal activities.

Human beings are missing the crucial, final “release” step in their fight, flight, and freeze responses. Once we experience a survival response, the energy can get “trapped” in our bodies, leading to the development of chronic disorders such as anxiety disorder, depression, and PTSD. It can also lead to the development of disordered coping mechanisms, which is what often happens with addiction and eating disorders.

Not only can the trapped energy from trauma trigger the eating disorder, it can also make recovery from the eating disorder very difficult. If the energy from the trauma is not addressed and released during the course of treatment, relapse is much more likely.

Those at high risk for eating disorders because of trauma include victims of sexual abuse, particularly those who suffered at a younger age; victims or observers of domestic violence; and, those who suffer from PTSD.

Treatment for Trauma and Eating Disorders

Successful treatment for eating disorders and trauma requires a multi-disciplinary, integrated approach. Talk therapies, including group and individual counseling sessions, are important, as are coping skills training and nutritional counseling However, since trauma lives in the body as much as in the mind, it’s important to also incorporate body-based therapies including Somatic Experiencing® (SE), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Yoga.

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