A while back I read in the news that women are more likely to develop eating disorders and what this might be due to according to some experts. I regularly hear stories of girls driven to despair by their eating disorder and undergoing all kinds of medical and psychological treatments to get rid of it.
In this article, I want to discuss the results of the study and how hypnosis can play a role in overcoming an eating disorder.
Survey Results
The study I read about in the news examined how subjects' brains react when their bodies are made fatter or thinner via virtual reality. Sixteen men and 16 women participated in the study.
The results showed that when the women's bodies were made fatter the brain parts linked to emotions responded strongly. This strong response to physical construction may explain why some women are so vulnerable to getting an eating disorder.
Among men, there was also a response, but it was smaller. This may also explain why relatively few men suffer from eating disorders compared to women.
Brain activity in anorexia
Previous research also shows that in a healthy population, more women are nonetheless dissatisfied with their bodies than men. This is detrimental to all kinds of areas of your life, such as feeling happy. These negative feelings are also additionally unnecessary in a healthy population, so losing extra weight will not provide that happiness. Even though some women (and men) think it will.
Previous studies have already shown that women with anorexia have specific brain activity when they compare themselves to other women and that different brain parts are activated for this purpose. These include brain parts linked to emotions(2).
Brain activity in healthy women
In the study that hit the news, brain responses were examined in healthy women. This is to see if reactions of healthy women are the same as those of women with anorexia when they are presented with a false body image. In this case, slimmer than they are and fatter than they are. Using virtual reality-like techniques, they made this as realistic as possible for the subjects.
The study found that if women were "given" an overweight body they were much less satisfied than if they performed the test with their own bodies, but even more interesting is the finding that if women were given a slimmer body than they actually have it did not improve their view of the body and they did not become happier with the slimmer body.
Study participants were also tested for the degree to which they were at risk of developing eating disorders. The higher this risk was, the more negative their body image became when they were portrayed as an overweight person.
Also in this study, the part of the brain activated in an overweight image was linked to the processing of emotions, such as fear, pain, itch, cold, anger, sadness and disgust. So particularly the negative emotions.
Eating disorder treatment
Treating an eating disorder is often very difficult, and it can take years to get rid of it. Fortunately, this research provides good information on how it can be treated(3). A while back I also wrote an article about the effect of hypnosis on the brain.
In fact, hypnosis also affects the area of the brain important for processing emotions.
I have also helped women who suffered from an eating disorder in the past to at least suffer less to no more from this.
Thus, an eating disorder can be treated with hypnotherapy. During that hypnotherapy, techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and neuro linguistic programming are also used.
Role of beliefs in eating disorders
In the study, subjects were given a different body with a virtual reality setting. Through certain actions, this body would feel its own, and it did. As a result, the subjects temporarily became convinced that the fatter or slimmer body was their body.
If you suffer from an eating disorder, you are often also convinced that you are fatter than you really are, and this can lead you to keep trying to lose weight. Something that you succeed at, but which your reflection in the mirror seems to say you are not succeeding at.
This belief then plays a major role in the "why" of the disease. Other beliefs can also play a major role in anorexia and other eating disorders. These, in most cases, have to do with self-confidence.
Self-confidence in being able to do things and self-confidence about one's position in social life, such as feeling valuable and valued by other people.
Hypnotherapy against unhealthy beliefs
In hypnotherapy, you initially try to identify underlying beliefs for an eating disorder. For example, you can use regression therapy to find out when the idea arose that your body is fatter than it is and how it is that this belief has become so fixed in your system.
In addition, hypnotherapy can also help increase self-confidence. This includes self-confidence in being able to do things as well as social self-confidence.
In some cases, it may already involve being able to eat or be able to eat bread instead of just carrots. Just mentioning something. Sometimes this can also come from being convinced that food doesn't taste good.
In that case, some techniques can cause you to experience food in a different way so that you can enjoy it again.
For example, you can get a guided visualization on the benefits of eating whole grain bread for your body. How you eat the bread and how all the minerals and vitamins in the bread nourish your body and ensure that you can live a healthy life and think well.
Then, social self-confidence can also be strengthened with other techniques and with encouragement to engage in social activities.
Self-hypnosis and the fight against negative emotions
You can also receive homework to help you suffer less from negative emotions and negative emotions related to your body image. For example, you can get an mp3 to use in self-hypnosis.
Or a homework assignment where you start to very consciously direct your own thoughts in a visualization that you perform yourself without guidance. In that visualization, for example, you can visualize how nice it is to go out with friends and how you feel while telling them something.
In addition, they can take away hypnotic suggestions that apply to their situation. Suppose you feel that if you are not the very thinnest, you are not good enough, then you can be given the following suggestions.
- Your body is not competing with other bodies.
- Your appearance says nothing about how good you are.
- What I do is more important than how I look.
- I am a sociable conversationalist and that is why I am appreciated, not because I am slim.
Other techniques against negative emotions about your body
Yoga is a very good physical and mental technique to be more connected to your body and to appreciate your body. Through yoga you focus in the here and now through the breathing exercises and asanas, poses, that you go through.
In the process, through yoga, you learn what your body is capable of. Through yoga, you learn that you can do the most impossible things, like stand on your head, if you take good care of your body.
During yoga, you are also often encouraged to appreciate all that your body does and to bring that appreciation into everyday life. Through your body you can run errands, you can dance (well or not well, but still!), you can walk and also just make a cup of tea.
Mindfulness is also a good technique for this purpose. Applying mindfulness makes you aware of what you are doing. In addition, it is a good tool for monitoring your thoughts and your emotional reactions to them.
This allows you to recognize negative thought patterns over time and stop them before they get out of control. If you find this difficult, you can also receive hypnotic suggestions to help you intervene with these types of thought patterns.
If you want to learn more about the effect of hypnosis on emotions and other problems check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses or come to a seminar.
Sources:
http://www.nu.nl/gezondheid/4337905/vrouwen-ontwikkelen-vaker-eetstoornis-dan-mannen.html
http://m.cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/10/12/cercor.bhw313.full
