Understanding Obesity as a Trauma Response

[Kizzie]

Hi Everyone:

Here is an article that The Big Blue and I wrote about obesity and CPTSD for the newsletter "Complex Trauma Perspectives" published by the Complex Trauma Special Interest Group at the International Society for Studies in Traumatic Stress- see here (article begins on page 13).

We wanted to share this with you because it discusses one form of physical impact of protracted complex relational trauma (CRT), and demonstrates there is science behind some of the comorbidities like this that we experience or that are exacerbated due to CRT.

Further, it demonstrates that as survivors we can educate professionals about some of the ways we are affected by CRT they may not know about on a widescale basis. We hope this feels empowering! 

Introduction

We are both survivors of complex relational trauma in childhood—one a professor and scientist, the other a retired professor of adult education, and we have both struggled with our weight. We met on the forum
Out of the Storm and soon realized that we both had questions about obesity which caused us to pivot from Why can't I manage to deal with my weight? to Does my childhood abuse play a role in this, and how so? We decided to review the literature and found research suggesting that obesity is a common complex trauma response that is not only psychological, but also physiological in nature.

Findings from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study (Felitti et al., 1998) and subsequent research (Amiri et al., 2024; Danese & Tan, 2014; Koball et al., 2024; Wiss & Brewerton, 2020) identify obesity as a common outcome of abuse and neglect in childhood. There is science behind this, something we will discuss in this article in hope that healthcare professionals will understand that obesity is not simply the result of psychological harm leading to emotional eating.

[Marcine]

Congrats Kizzie and TheBigBlue for an excellent article!
I love the combination of personal and scientific in the service of raising awareness. Powerful.
Hooray, you two! I hope you've got more collaborative projects in the pipeline 

[NarcKiddo]

I can't get the link to work.

[Moondance]

Nor could I - i look forward to reading it.

Congrats to you both and thank you!

[Kizzie]

Sorry about that! Fixed now