An effect of trauma
Appetite dysregulation
Not an eating disorder exactly, but a disrupted relationship with hunger and fullness. Eating that is driven by emotional states rather than physical need. Forgetting to eat for long stretches. Eating compulsively without hunger. The appetite that goes haywire under stress. The nervous system that learned to use food, or the absence of food, as a way to regulate what it could not otherwise regulate.
Hunger got recruited into emotional regulation because it was there and it worked. Eating or not eating became a dial for feelings that had no other dial. A relationship with food can renegotiate itself, gently and without moral language, and being around people who understand coping from the inside makes the renegotiation less lonely.
It can sound like
If any of those sentences live in your head too, you are in good company here.
Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.
You do not have to carry this alone.
Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.