Binge Eating + Hypnosis

Last week we talked about how hypnosis can help heal eating disorders. This week we’re going to talk about how hypnosis can help us heal and/or manage binge eating habits specifically. Binge eating is generally regarded as consuming large quantities of food in a short period of time. That can be a pretty subjective definition, but binging always involves eating when you’re already full or aren’t hungry. We’ve all heard of the influence of emotional eating and maybe even the theory about ‘control issues,’ but let’s talk about the main things that are known to cause binge eating disorders.

Cultural & Social Influences

In our last blog we discussed a little bit about how societal pressures have led to a spike in the prevalence of eating disorders, and binge eating is no exception. The constant presence of pencil thin models and celebrities, diet culture propaganda, and toxic sizing methods in the fashion industry have done an excellent job of convincing a huge chunk of the population that skinny is king and not skinny is worthless. Being made to constantly feel worthless by the media we consume and the culture we live in is a slippery slope that has inevitably landed a lot of us in the kitchen eating the whole dozen donuts even though we don’t actually want to.

Depression & Anxiety

Another key player in the binge eating world is overall mental health. Our mental state can be influenced by almost anything we deal with in life, and when it’s not balanced the results can be very detrimental. Depression & anxiety come in to play because the chemicals in our brains that make us feel good (dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, etc.) are easily influenced by the food we eat. That’s why often when we’re feeling sad or stressed we’ll crave certain kinds of food or have no appetite at all. This becomes a problem when we attempt to use food as a way to avoid or ignore the feelings and end up consuming way too many calories in a certain window of time.

Diet Culture

Dieting is very common in American culture and instead of focusing on overall health (including mind-body connection) has historically focused only on physical appearance, specifically thinness. Diet products and programs promote themselves as quick fixes and push unhealthy and unsustainable methods on their customers. This means that when the diet is over, the customers most often return to their old food patterns or overindulge after feeling deprived for the duration of the diet. This back and forth of deprivation followed by overindulgence followed by more guilt-motivated deprivation can very easily turn into a binge/purge pattern. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) reports that 35% of dieting becomes obsessive and 20-25% of that becomes an eating disorder.

How can hypnosis help?

Hypnosis is a tool that allows us access to our subconscious thoughts and feelings and gives us the key to reprogram our conscious reactions and habits. With hypnosis, we can identify the root of what’s causing us to fall into our unhealthy patterns, reframe and process the initial causes, learn how to process our biggest and most difficult feelings (the ones that often trigger our Eds) in healthy ways, and train our minds and bodies to hold compassion for ourselves when we do make mistakes so we take guilt out of the equation.

If you’ve been struggling with disordered eating or an unhealthy relationship with food & self-image, hypnosis may be the key to changing your life. To learn more about how Blooming Lotus helps clients repair their relationships with food and the body, visit our website. To schedule a free consultation with us and start living your happiest and healthiest life, contact us here. We can’t wait to watch you become your best self!