In my last post, “Your Nervous System: an Unexpected Ally for Eating Disorder Recovery”, I went over how and why the nervous system plays a role in the way we feel in a moment-to-moment way. To briefly recap: the brain makes use of the nervous system to help us respond and adapt to whatever current circumstances demand of us. One branch, the autonomic nervous system manages energy output, helping us gear up or mobilize when the situation demands it, and to wind down and relax when that’s what’s called for. Lacking necessary input from caregivers early in life or experiencing too much stress later on can result in this well-coordinated system either failing to develop or getting thrown out of balance. This is what we call nervous system dysregulation. With a dysregulated nervous system you can’t calm or soothe yourself and life may frequently feel unmanageable. It is probably contributing to your eating disorder symptoms, as well as other symptoms you may be suffering, such as addictions, depression or anxiety.
Developing or re-establishing self-regulation, as this balanced process in the nervous system is called, is both possible and necessary for a lasting recovery. Several therapy approaches focus on facilitating the development of self-regulation. Any of them can be used as your primary treatment or can serve as an adjunct treatment if you already have a primary therapist. It’s no accident that many of these and similar approaches were developed to treat trauma. One of the hallmarks of trauma is a dysregulated nervous system. Here are some of the best-known examples of treatment approaches that promote self-regulation:
- Somatic Experiencing® (SE)
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP)
- EMDR
- AEDP
- Mindfulness practice and mindfulness-based therapies (“google” key words to find relevant Web sites)
Each of these approaches facilitates use of self-awareness to help establish or restore self-regulation. With the guidance of a practitioner, you can learn to modulate emotional experience and physiological reactivity that feel out of control. You can also learn to bring the resources of current living into traumatic or distressing experiences of the past that are still influencing your life. Each approach includes the understanding that an attuned clinician brings qualities to the moment that an attuned caregiver provides in childhood — the very qualities necessary for self-regulation to develop and flourish.
Warmest wishes,
Susan