Overeating and restricting to chase away the pain.
Article from Psychology Today by Erin Leonard Ph.D.
“Food is often used to cope with emotion. For example, a person who feels shame about who he or she is may restrict food in order to punish himself or herself and alleviate shame. In other situations, a person may feel alone, craving human warmth and understanding, and food may be the closest physical representation of emotional sustenance. Either way, a person’s relationship with food is frequently about mitigating emotional discomfort.
When unconscious shame is made conscious, a person has an opportunity to recover. The negative self-perception is likely a product of childhood trauma, emotional abuse, or trauma experienced in adolescence. Processing the traumatic experiences may help a person realize the self-loathing is a result of emotional mistreatment instead of an actual flaw within him or her. This may help improve a damaged self-perception. Recovering from past trauma assists a person in re-establishing his or her sense-of-self.
Food has a multitude of meanings. Often, a person’s relationship with food is a representation of how he or she feels about himself or herself. Many of these feelings escape a person’s conscious awareness and are transferred to food in ways in which the person is unaware. An understanding of how and why a person uses food, both unconsciously and consciously, may create a more peaceful and healthy relationship.