2023-08-16 10:29:22
For several years, studies have shown that there is a link between obesity and mental health. And according to a recent study, this disease could also result, in adulthood, from trauma experienced during childhood.
Trauma has an impact on mental health, but also on the body. When one is a witness or victim of violence, whether sexual, physical or verbal, or whether it results from abandonment, violent bereavement or even an accident, it happens that one struggles to digest the pain, the anger, but also the regrets vis-à-vis these traumatic experiences. If the mind is often the first to be marked, the body also remembers these traumas which can subsequently manifest themselves in different ways. Notably, in adulthood, through obesity.
A disease that affects nearly one in two French people (obesity or overweight), according to an Inserm study published in February 2023, obesity can be explained by many factors: the pace of life, the diet, the taking of certain medications, psychological disorders, but also childhood trauma. A study conducted by Public Health Wales among adolescents and adults aged 16 to 65 in Wales, and relayed by the site PsyPostthus suggests that “negative childhood experiences”, such as abuse and neglect (both physical and emotional), mental illness and substance abuse at home, witnessing domestic violence or Having an incarcerated parent can be factors in obesity in adulthood.
Eating in response to negative emotions
According to the researchers, a person who lived four or more negative experiences childhood is twice as likely to engage in behaviors that are not particularly healthy. Also called “experiential avoidance”, these behaviors are associated with taking drugs, self-harm, or the consumption of an unhealthy diet, also considered emotional eating, i.e. the tendency to eat in response to negative emotions, processed and high-calorie foods that have an adverse effect on health and the body.
Thus, the risk of obesity rises to 46% in adults who have been exposed to “negative childhood experiences”, specifies a finding made by Physiology and Behavior, which condensed the results of several studies on the subject. “Reducing exposure to negative childhood experiences, improving trauma screening and detection, increasing access to trauma-informed care, and improving the food environment are likely to to improve health outcomes”, the researchers also specify.
Read also ⋙ What are the consequences of junk food on our mental health? A study reveals
⋙ Trauma can (also) affect your body: Here’s how to heal, according to a mental health expert
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