The media continues to push scare-stories of extreme weight loss programmes, blaming their popularity on a desire to achieve the ‘perfect’ look, as seen on social media and in the beauty/fashion industry.
Often this is labelled Anorexia or Body Dysmorphia but there are many different reasons why extreme weight loss may occur that have no connection to Social Reinforcement or body image concerns.
For some people, the weight loss is not the goal but a side effect of a eating disorder, an unwanted result of a different condition altogether, such as:
- An inability to swallow,
- A fear of choking or gagging ,
- Phobia of swallowing,
- Anxiety about using or needing the toilet,
- OCD or Intrusive Thoughts (about chewing or germs for instance),
- ARFID – being unable to eat certain types or textures of food.
How Can Hypnotherapy Help?
When a person attends for Curative Hypnotherapy (LCH) the first step is to talk the situation through to understand what lies behind the eating or weight-loss concerns. Then the treatment itself can begin to identify – and then correct – the cause of that reaction.
An illustration:
Eve was 24 when she attended for treatment having dropped two dress-sizes and beginning to suffer various health issues due to rapid weight loss and being underweight.
Some while ago, while dining out with friends, Eve choked on some food and was only saved by the quick actions of a nearby stranger. Steadily over the next few months, Eve’s nervousness about a similar occurrence developed and grew. Eventually, the anxiety was so acute that she was unable to eat while alone, would only eat soft or liquidised foods and permanently felt that something was stuck in her throat. Quite simply she could not force herself to eat and was slowly starving to death.
She was terrified of ending up in hospital and being force-fed. Various treatments which had tried to make her eat or teach her coping strategies or relaxation techniques had not helped. Working on that first experience of choking had failed to achieve any lasting effect. She knew what the problem was and was fully aware of what started the fear – but why was she was continuing to suffer?
That ‘why’ was the aim of LCH treatment for Eve. That experience of choking must have been terrifying for her and a degree of caution in her eating would be completely natural for a little while following that event. But there must be some reason why the degree of caution continued, why it was increasing and why, just because this happened once, she was so scared it would happen again. Let’s face it; it could happen to any of us, but we don’t spend our lives terrified of the possibility – so why was she?
Identifying and then correcting those reasons was necessary so that the ‘risk’ could be neutralised and the fear could begin to subside. Steadily the anxiety receded and Eve found herself beginning to expand her diet – effortlessly and naturally – until she was eating healthily and normally once again.
Obviously, no two people have had the same experiences and no two people suffer the same. Whether or not a person is aware of the start, the ‘Initial Sensitising Event’ or a triggering incident, there must still be an explanation of why effects continue to be experienced.
Curative Hypnotherapy aims to correct that information, so that the trigger/ISE is neutralised and a return to a happy, healthy life can be effortlessly achieved.