Nervous System Regulation & Eating Disorders
While I’ve known about the polyvagal theory and nervous system regulation for several years now, it really was just a theory and an idea to me. It made a lot of sense but I didn’t actually experience it until this past year. After some major life changes, including having a baby and the postpartum hormonal shifts and sleep deprivation that comes with that, I had a bit of a health crash.
Initially, I went into “fix it” mode and did some bloodwork and other testing, some supplements, and other changes. While it helped a little, what really turned the needle was nervous system regulation (that and much-needed sleep).
It’s been the integration of the polyvagal theory and learning how to tune into my nervous system and engage in practices for my system that has transformed my symptoms and physical and mental health. This comes after years of “listening to my body” through different practices like yoga, breathwork, intuitive eating, and more. While those practices have certainly been useful, learning about and engaging nervous system regulation tools have been what I’ve needed the most in this time in my life, especially since I can incorporate them in my daily life while chasing a toddler.
Why Nervous System Regulation
Most of my long-term clients know that I talk a lot about how the nervous system impacts our eating, appetite, body image, and more. In our stressed-out, overwhelmed world, most of us have dysregulated nervous systems.
Biologically, our bodies are designed for survival. We’ve all heard the story that if our body is being chased by a tiger, we’re going to enter a fight or flight response. That stress is great to run away to survive. Yet, we often get stuck in that chronic state of stress and lose the ability to regulate and move the stress out of our bodies.
Along the way, food and our relationship with our body gets tangled in all of this. The combination of cultural messages, biology and genetics, and more can lead to attempting to regulate the nervous system through food behaviors.
Through nervous system regulation, we can find a “safe and social” state called the ventral vagal state. The goal isn’t to stay here 24/7 but to be able to move through stress and get back to feeling calm and connected.
Nervous system regulation can support your relationship with food and body image by helping you develop the skills to be present and allow the stress to move through your system instead of stay stuck. Learning how to regulate can give you space to explore life outside of the eating disorder to create new patterns with food and body image.
Many want to jump to just doing the tools, it’s important to understand your nervous system to explore what your patterns are and what you and your system may need throughout the day instead of just doing another coping tool that may or may not help.
Eating Disorders & the Nervous System
Nervous system regulation tools are not a “fix” for struggles with food or body image though. They may support you towards being able to find a better relationship with food or your body, but adequate nutrition is still needed. It’s a balance between the two - the more nutrition your body gets, the easier it may be to regulate your nervous system AND the more you can regulate, the easier it may be to prioritize eating.
Nourishment is key to a healthy nervous system. It’s hard to stay regulated if you’re anxious because of low blood sugar, or your brain isn’t working well because it’s malnourished. Both enough energy from macronutrients and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) are essential to support the nervous system. While adequacy and eating enough is always a top priority, it’s still important to pay attention to any potential nutrient deficiencies that can impact physical and mental health.
Since so many clients end up shocked in sessions, I do have to say that if you’re struggling with your relationship with food, it’s very likely there’s some degree of restriction. So many people are undereating because of cultural and family beliefs, lack of connection to body’s cues, or the body running on stress hormones and not producing hunger hormones. Most people are unaware they’re undereating, and many clients have the idea that they’re eating too much.
Intuitive eating is very popular, and the concepts from the book are great for a lot of people. They do incorporate practices and ideas to build interoceptive awareness, which is the ability to tune into internal body cues like hunger and fullness. I often think these concepts and nervous system regulation are missed when it comes to intuitive eating because it can be hard to recognize body cues around food when we’re stuck in a state of stress. Cues can be missing or unreliable, and I know many clients are frustrated about this.
Separately, intuitive eating goes beyond listening to hunger/fullness cues, and the other concepts from the book are just as important. Even so, sometimes intuitive eating is seen one of the end goals of recovery, but I don’t want anyone to have to focus on food more than is necessary. Eat based on your values, needs, and what works for you. There’s nothing wrong with needing more structured eating at times, and paying too much attention to hunger/fullness cues can become disordered too.
How to Incorporate Nervous System Work
Working on your nervous system can help support stress resilience, sleep, mood and overall mental health, energy levels, and more. I’ll expand more about the polyvagal theory, vagal nerve tools, and other practices in other posts, but there are some ways you can start.
Working with a therapist can also be very supportive to help with this work, as for many people, going slow in this work is important. Moving up the “polyvagal ladder” can cause a bumpy road initially, so having a practitioner can help ease the process.
Like I mentioned before, learning about your nervous system is important, but there are some tools you can start with to support recovery in the meantime. Start with the one that resonates with you, and practice it throughout your week.
A Few Tools
Breath. I love the free and simple app “Breathing App” where it guides you to breathe in and out using a sound and a visual. You can use an even breath of in for 5, out for 5 or a longer exhale of in for 4 and out for 6. Breathwork for a few minutes around mealtimes can help calm your nervous system.
Connection. Make time to connect with people, animals, or nature. You can do this by having meals with others, cuddling with a pet during the day, or even eating outside.
Environment. Your environment can have a big impact on your mood. I know not everyone has the ability to change their environment significantly, but finding ways to create a calm environment or a space that feels like your own can help the nervous system feel safe. This could mean eating outside, having a candle or flowers on your table, listening to music, having plants around, or removing clutter from your space.
Dance, shake, gentle movement. Somatic practices can often be a way to physically move stress out of the body. While there are specific ways to do this, you can start with putting on a song for a dance party, shaking your arms or legs for a moment, or stretching. This isn’t designed to be exercise but is meant to be gentle movement to get into your body and release stress for a few moments.
