Emotional Eating and Denial About Childhood

When anyone has an issue with emotional eating, what that tells me is there is some level of denial about their childhood.

Emotional eating does not come out of nowhere and is not due to a lack of willpower or discipline -- it is the result of a desire to suppress emotions.

This desire to suppress emotions is all about repeating what we've learned from our parents about how to deal or not deal with emotions, as well as a direct denial of the truth and/or emotions regarding how we were treated by them.

It is often that people with food addictions feel they had a "normal" childhood -- some of it was good, some of it wasn't as good.

Some people would describe their childhoods as good or even great. Years ago I would have been one of those who told you mine was great.

This is where it is crucial to understand that what society considers “normal” in a child's life is not necessarily loving.

We must learn about the true damage that happens from dynamics that most people overlook or dismiss as normal.

The treatment that we consider normal is often in fact destructive and damaging and sets a child up for having emotional eating issues later in life.

Usually, people with more "subtle" unhealthy childhood dynamics are then also gaslighted by their parents to believe that their food and/or weight issues are indeed an anomaly unrelated to their childhood.

I encourage anyone who feels confused about why they emotionally eat, but who also feels like their childhood was alright -- or not enough to warrant their food issues -- to look more into family dynamics and what may have happened.

It can be a hard process to open up to the truth about your childhood, but it is also the key to finding true freedom with food and body image, to having deep healing to the point that you don't struggle with these issues at all.

Some of my favorite resources to learn about this are: the Divine Truth YouTube channel, and books by Alice Miller, Dr. Susan Forward, Dr. Karyl McBride and Dr. Kenneth Adams.

Photo by Hans Loebermann via Unsplash