Childhood Abuse, Stress, Depression and Anxiety

Many disregulated eaters recognize that they’re set off by stress and distress more than other people seem to be. A major reason for hyper-sensitivity is disregulation of brain chemistry due to childhood abuse or neglect. For those of you who’ve suffered this way, understanding the cause of your hyper-sensitivity will help you be more compassionate toward yourself for not always managing your food urges as well as you'd like to. “Suicidal threads” by Laura Sanders (Science News 11/3/12) explains how childhood abuse—emotional/physical/sexual—affects the developing brain and is a risk factor for suicide. “Neuroscientists and psychologists now believe that childhood trauma, including violence and neglect, sears itself into the brain in ways that can have devastating effects later”…” and “may throw off-kilter the hardware responsible for the brain’s response to stress.” Sanders goes on to say that, “due to childhood abuse and resultant stress, there may be problems with a protein called the glucocorticoid receptor that decides when the body’s stress system has produced enough of the stress-signaling hormone cortisol and helps shut that system down. Without enough of this receptor, the body and brain can’t reset after a stressful event.”  This dynamic matches up with what I’ve seen clinically, and explains why many of you turn to food. When you’re distressed, that is, emotionally disregulated, you have great difficulty ...
Source: Normal Eating - Category: Eating Disorders Authors: Source Type: blogs