In Session With Marc David: What’s The Connection Between PTSD & Emotional Eating?
What’s The Connection Between PTSD & Emotional Eating?
Are you ready to transform your relationship with food in a lasting and meaningful way? What if you could help others find the path to greater freedom and joy with food as well
In today’s episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast, Marc David speaks with Yeny, a 41-year old Venezuelan about her challenges with emotional eating. Yeny had a precipitating event — an accident while on vacation in Utah — that forever changed her life. After several months in a wheelchair, Yeny defied all odds and regained the ability to walk. To others, Yeny now appears in perfect health, but she’s struggling to let go of the memory of her accident and the dark days of her recovery. Marc makes a powerful connection for Yeny between PTSD and emotional eating, and gives her key tools to begin to unwind from all she’s been through.
Key Insights:
- Regardless of the cause, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can give rise to emotional eating and other unwanted eating challenges. It is the brain’s way of trying to cope with past traumas.
- When under stress, our natural instinct is to self soothe. One of the easiest ways to do this is to turn to food. This is both normal and natural, and this is nothing to beat yourself up about.
- Eating is an emotional experience. From birth, we are hard wired to experience joy, comfort, and nourishment through eating.
- We often respond to stress by eating. And guess what? This isn’t always a bad thing. It’s time to get off the self-judgment train, while also discovering other ways to create a relaxation response in our bodies. As we do this, the impulse to reach for food in times of stress diminishes.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful therapeutic technique for transforming PTSD. If you’re dealing with persistent PTSD, finding a therapist who specializes in EMDR is highly recommended.
Watch our special masterclass on the Mind Body Eating Coach Certification Training to learn more about how you can positively transform your own relationship with food while helping others do the same. Tune in here: https://psychologyofeating.online/ss/
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