Comfort eating naturally stems from the need for comfort. The question then is, why do you need comfort?
Claire’s Comfort Eating Cause
Claire described her feelings of low self-worth and stated that she had been consumed by them since childhood. She supposed that these feelings were related to her relationship with her brother, who was a shining athlete and always made her feel second best. So we commenced a timeline regression on the emotion of feeling not good enough. We had almost completed the process when Claire realised that feeling not good enough was not actually the reason for her comfort eating, but that there was a deeper layer.
As we delved into the core of Claire’s dis-comfort, she said: “My heart is broken, that’s why I eat”. At first Claire could not work out why she would feel that her heart was broken. She had wonderful, loving parents and a deeply happy marriage. After scrolling along her timeline a little further Claire began sobbing. She had found the source of her broken heart, and it was not what we might automatically assume.
Claire was molested as a young teen, by a family friend. She did not want to cause problems between her parents and this man, their best friend, because in a small country town, there was a very tight knit group of community. Because of this abuse and her perceived need to bottle it up, she felt her heart break.
Claire endured his inappropriate behaviour for a few years. Towards the end of that time, Claire began a part time job with a man who also pursued her, despite the fact that she told him ‘no’. He was very insistent. It seemed that no matter what Claire did during this time, she was being harassed and abused in this country town. At 19 years of age, Claire moved away and the problems stopped.
The Comfort Eating Begins
While Claire did not begin her comfort eating for many years later, it commenced during another life event where she felt that her heart was, again, broken, when her mother died. Claire had remained close to her mother and nursed her in the final months. She felt as though she had lost a soul mate when her mother passed away. Then she began eating unnecessarily, automatically and constantly. Her unconscious mind had already created this broken heart feeling, and now it was being triggered again, creating the need for more comfort.
Claire was not going for sugar, as many comfort eaters do, but simply larger servings and savoury snacks. Others may turn to alcohol or drugs.
While session one was centred on the cause, being the broken heart, in sessions two and three we focussed upon the symptoms, being the food intake. Before we even commenced with the symptoms, Claire reported that she had already begun changing her eating habits, and that is because her broken heart was no longer driving the behaviour.
If you need assistance with comfort eating, we can help. Horizons Clinical Hypnotherapy Sunshine Coast.