Religion and Healing Compulsive Eating

In order to heal compulsive eating, you may need to question the tenets of your religion or spiritual tradition.

"While this person is still in their religion/spiritual tradition and believing all its tenets, I'm not sure they're going to be able to heal their overeating."

This is a thought I've had with many clients in the past.

The truth is, many spiritual traditions and religions have teachings that are actually very damaging, but that people who follow them do not believe are damaging.

Here are some examples:

You might follow a tradition that teaches that if you feel "bad" emotions, you'll attract more bad emotions to you.

Talk about a recipe for emotional suppression and subsequent need for food to suppress our painful emotions!

You might be a part of a religion that teaches that if you are a woman you must sacrifice yourself constantly for others, no matter the toll it takes on you.

I cannot tell you the amount of food addicts I've worked with who have this belief, and much of their food addiction is to cope with it.

You might follow a tradition that teaches that you must "honor thy father and thy mother", and the people in your religion use that to essentially shut down anyone from questioning their parents' behavior and to gaslight the person about how they are treated by their parents.

The "honor thy father and thy mother" belief many people have is one that shuts them down to exploring the truth of the root causes of their overeating.

I am not saying you necessarily have to fully give up your religion or spiritual tradition, nor am I saying that all of its tenets are damaging.

But you have to be willing to question everything if you're ever going to heal your relationship with food.

Notice the times that you overeat and what events happened before, or what dynamics were playing out in your life.

I recommend checking out the Divine Truth teachings, which is not a spiritual tradition nor a religion, but is the best info I've come across for processing emotions and also healing compulsions. You can find it at www.DivineTruth.com

Photo by Tomoko Uji via Unsplash