AYURVEDA PERSPECTIVE ON TRAUMA-INDUCED OVEREATING

Trauma involves loss of control. During a traumatic event such as a car accident, a natural disaster, or any physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, you often feel powerless, frozen, and terrified because your personal safety and sense of control has been violated. In an attempt to cope with the pain and regain control, you might use food to comfort yourself as well as take back control of yourself and your body.

Overeating after a traumatic situation such as a car crash or sexual abuse can be an attempt to protect oneself and literally "cushion" the body. In sexual abuse, overeating might be a way of shielding the body from unwanted attention; eating too much leads to excess weight, which may repel unwanted attraction from others and seems to eliminate the threat of future abuse. Heaviness feels safer, which unconsciously drives the compulsive urge to eat. A similar phenomenon may occur in the case of a car crash; overeating provides comfort and safety, but also leads to an extra insulating layer of fat on the body. Fat is protective and eating after trauma may seem like an opportunity to protect the self.

Eating is also within your control; you always have a choice about the type and amount of food you put into your body, whether you realize it or not. Making the choice to eat and specifically overeat can provide comfort after trauma; not only does food cause blood sugar levels to rise, but it is also gives you back a sense of power. Each time you overeat, you are declaring to the world, "I'm in control here...I've got the power." It is not a health-promoting way of finding comfort, declaring power, or reclaiming control.

Healing trauma-induced overeating often requires a willingness to re-live and fully experience the traumatic event. The panic of trauma can become "frozen" in the body if not released and lead to all kind of imbalances, whether in your sleep, mood, relationships, or eating habits. An openness to confronting trauma and a full experience of its panic helps ease trauma-induced overeating. Finding the support of clinician can also be helpful as you face the painful wounds of trauma, and recognizing that anything can be traumatic, no matter how big or small, reveals the weight of seemingly innocuous memories.

Augment your diet with these specially chosen ingredients below which may be useful for 'Trauma-induced overeating'. Individual results vary depending the cause of your imbalance and by constitution. Please research the ingredients below to find which are most helpful for you, and check with your doctor before making any changes to your health and wellness routine. Please check with your medical doctor before making any changes to your health & wellness routine, and for the proper use of these products.

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DISCLAIMER: The pathogenesis of each person's condition is unique, and so the diet must be fit to the individual and the unique root causes of the condition in your body. The information on this page is for educational purposes only and should not be used to treat a medical condition. It is not a substitute for medical care. Please check with your doctor before making any changes to your health and wellness routine.

Everything you eat has an effect on your body, which Ayurveda categorizes in a simple and easy way, using biocharacteristics (gunas). Biocharacteristics are qualities (like cold and hot) that describe the effect a food or herb has on your body. Cooling foods like cucumber, decrease metabolism. Heating foods like chili pepper, stimulate your body and increase metabolism. For 'Trauma-induced overeating', you should select foods with the following biocharacteristics. Individual results will vary, based on your body type and the root cause of your imbalance.

Digestion:

Appetite Suppressant

APPETITE-SUPPRESSANT

Suppresses hunger without causing weight gain.

SEE ALL 'APPETITE-SUPPRESSANT' FOODS / HERBS

Mind, Stress & Sleep:

Nervine

NERVINE

Balances the nervous system. They can help with stress, memory, early alzheimer's, and even chronic pain. Often they are aromatic in nature.

SEE ALL 'NERVINE' FOODS / HERBS

,

Sedative

SEDATIVE

Sedative herbs create a sense of calm in the mind and body by specifically calming or quieting the nervous system. Excellent for anxiety, stress and chronic pain.

SEE ALL 'SEDATIVE' FOODS / HERBS

Joyful Belly is a recognized college of biocharacteristics medicine.

AVOID ACCUMULATION IN STAGE OF DISEASE 0

TRAUMA-INDUCED OVEREATING IS IN STAGE OF DISEASE 0 - POTENTIAL CAUSE

Potential causes increase and disturb your imbalanced doshas and biocharacteristics, causing them to accumulate and spiral out of control. For example, if you're overheated and eat a chili pepper, heat may become excessive and cause disease. As a dosha or biocharacteristic accumulates in your body according to your dietary and lifestyle habits, it is more and more likely to cause disease. You can reduce an imbalanced dosha or biocharacteristic in two ways, by removing, or lessening the frequency of aggravating causes from your diet and lifestyle, as well as by favoring balancing diet and lifestyle practices. For example, try eating something as cool as a cucumber when you're overheated, instead of a chili pepper. (See all disease stages on JB)

GET MY FREE AYURVEDA BODY MAP 'Trauma-induced overeating' is likely to aggravate the following doshas and biocharacteristics. If you have a systemic imbalance of one of these doshas or biocharacteristics, Ayurveda would generally recommend removing, substitute or lessen the frequency of 'Trauma-induced overeating'.

Are you prone to a problem with 'Trauma-induced overeating'? Find your imbalances and create a diet for your Weight by taking the free weight loss quiz:

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The following symptoms & habits may be related to 'Trauma-induced overeating'. See your quiz results for a computerized assessment of your body type. Please click on the symptoms below to learn more about them. On average the biocharacteristics of people reporting Trauma-induced overeating were more aggravated than 97% of other symptoms. From the 1,603 people who reported Trauma-induced overeating in this research study of 74,671 individuals, average deviation in biocharacteristic levels were the following:

Risk Factors of Trauma-induced overeating

Complications of Those Reporting Trauma-induced overeating

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