Do you tend to eat in order to self-soothe?  If you abstain from eating, does this tend to make you feel something positive you wouldn’t otherwise feel?  Do you sometimes feel like you are becoming your parent(s) in terms of how you fit they’re pattern of eating, like you can see them eating in your mind’s eye when you are eating?  If you answered yes to any of these questions you may have childhood trauma impacting your eating habits.

Eating Disorders are Pervasive Nowadays

While the emphasis lately has been on drug use and overdose deaths with the opioid epidemic, there are no doubt many, many people who suffer likewise from eating disorders.  While these disorders don’t tend to grab the headlines as much as chemical use disorders, they are still huge causes of shame and emotional suffering of all kinds.  This is not to mention the horrific health consequences of eating disorders on physical health, both from overeating and depriving oneself of food.  

Nothing Goes Back as Far as Eating Disorders

Our earliest experiences in life have to do with eating.  Just think of an infant at his or her mother’s breast after birth and you have a good idea about how early our experiences of eating go.  So too can our experiences of childhood trauma that can contribute to eating disorders.  Let’s say, for example, that instead of suckling at your mother’s breast you had to be in a ward for preemies or your mother had a health crisis shortly after birth and you couldn’t be with her.  You would have suffered the relative deprivation of not only breast milk, but also lost the emotional connection that goes with that.  Sometimes the trauma that gives rise to eating disorders happens before we can form words, but sometimes it doesn’t.  We may become nervous eaters like our parents were, or we may tend to over-indulge in sugar like they did.  While unhealthy modeling isn’t a form of trauma, these kinds of patterns can get kicked off by some other trauma that leads us to seek out some form of self-soothing.

Eating Disorders and Parental Modeling

It’s about what we resort to when we’re under stress, and most often we recall how our parents dealt with severe stress.  If they ate, then that’s something we may tend to resort to as well.  After all, these were the people who were like God(s) to us:  our primary caregivers.  So, like it or not, we took in what they did when we were little as the things that the grown-ups did.  We also did that unquestioningly as children.  It was only later when you become an adolescent that you start to question and criticize what the adults did.  Even then, once you grow out of that phase you will start to revert to whatever your adults did under stress unless you have consciously worked against it with all your might…either that or you did tons of therapy before reaching adulthood.  

Abuse, Neglect, and Eating Disorders

So now that you are wired to emulate what your primary caregivers did, if you suffered from some form of abuse and neglect on top of that you are effectively set up to develop some sort of addiction issues.  Again, if food was the form of self-soothing your parents used with themselves, or also with you to help you self-soothe, you will be prone to develop an eating disorder yourself.  You will look for ways to self-soothe and the default will be to use food of some sort to accomplish this.  

The Way Out of Trauma and Eating Disorders

While different people use different means to combat and overcome eating disorders, there tend to be some common elements to these.  One of these is getting therapy help from a counselor or therapist who is specially trained to help people with eating disorders.  Another element is attending a self-help group focused on eating disorders, such as Overeaters Anonymous or Food Addicts Anonymous.  If you struggle with an eating disorder and trauma, you are welcome to reach out to me and I can help give you an idea about whether I could be of help to you.  Just call the number at the top of the page or fill out the inquiry form below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Whatever you do, please find supportive people who have your best interest at heart.  They can help you get a start on a path to recovery that will help you to get your life back.  There’s no time to start like the present!

Visit our page on trauma therapy to find out how Scott can help you with eating disorders.   

About the author:  Scott Kampschaefer, LCSW is a private practice therapist in Frederick, Maryland.  He has an extensive background in working with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder at a clinic for older adults with these disorders in Austin.  He now works with adults and adolescents 14 and up in private practice. His most recent book is titled The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery and is available for purchase on Amazon and in paperback on this website.