How Childhood Trauma Shapes Eating Disorders & Body Shame

by Dr. Marianne Miller, providing trauma-informed eating disorder therapy in California

Understanding the Link Between Childhood Trauma and Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are not about willpower. They are not rooted in personal weakness or vanity. They are protective strategies that emerge when a person’s environment feels unsafe, invalidating, or oppressive—especially during childhood. If you have ever struggled with disordered eating, body image distress, or rigid food patterns, it may be worth asking not what is wrong with you, but what happened to you.

In this post, I explore how childhood trauma and eating disorders are deeply connected. I will also look at how shame, systemic oppression, and nervous system responses shape our relationship with food and body.

How Childhood Trauma Shapes Food and Body Struggles

When most people hear the word trauma, they think of extreme events. The fact is that trauma also includes chronic emotional invalidation, conditional love, or never having your basic needs recognized. It includes being shamed for your body, punished for expressing emotion, or growing up in environments where your identity was not safe to express.

The nervous system learns quickly. If love and care were only offered when you were compliant, quiet, or performing well, your body may have adapted in ways that helped you survive. For many people, eating disorders develop as a response to childhood trauma. Restriction may offer control, binge eating may soothe overwhelming feelings, and obsessive food behaviors may provide a sense of order in a chaotic world.

These responses are not signs of failure. They are signs of survival.

The Effects of Shame and Systemic Oppression on Disordered Eating

Shame tells you the problem is you. That you should be able to control your food, your weight, your hunger. That you are too much. That you are not enough. Shame convinces people that their eating disorder is a personal flaw, rather than a survival response.

But shame does not exist in a vacuum. It is reinforced by systems like anti-fat bias, racism, ableism, transphobia, and classism. If you live in a body that society already marginalizes, you may receive constant messages that your body needs to be fixed, hidden, or punished.

For many, eating disorders are not just about trauma. They are also shaped by oppressive systems that tie worth to thinness and control. Understanding how these systems intersect with personal history is essential in creating a path to healing.

Eating Disorders as Survival Strategies, Not Personal Failures

The idea that eating disorders reflect a lack of willpower is not just incorrect—it is harmful. People who live with disordered eating are often among the most resilient and adaptive. Their behaviors make sense in the context of what they have lived through.

Trauma-informed eating disorder recovery recognizes this. It does not pathologize or shame people for how they have survived. Instead, it offers safety, compassion, and curiosity. It invites people to explore how their bodies learned to cope and how they might now build new patterns with more support and less fear.

Recovery does not begin with control. It begins with understanding.

A Neurodivergent-Affirming and Trauma-Informed Approach to Recovery

Not everyone’s recovery looks the same. For neurodivergent people, or those with sensory sensitivities, emotional dysregulation, or chronic stress responses, standard eating disorder treatments often fall short.

Neurodivergent-affirming eating disorder care includes sensory-aware strategies, pacing that honors executive functioning, and respect for food rituals that feel safe. It means asking how a person’s nervous system and environment shaped their relationship with food—not just what they eat or weigh.

This approach centers autonomy, agency, and body trust. It makes space for grief, rage, compassion, and rest.

Reclaiming Safety and Compassion in Eating Disorder Recovery

Healing from body shame and disordered eating requires more than food rules or behavior checklists. It involves reclaiming the right to feel safe in your body. It requires addressing the trauma that shaped your eating patterns. And it means rejecting the oppressive systems that taught you your worth depends on control or appearance.

You are not broken. You are worthy. Your survival is valid. Your healing is possible.

Get Trauma-Informed Eating Disorder Therapy in California, Texas, or Washington DC

If you are ready to explore a different kind of recovery—one grounded in compassion, trauma awareness, and body liberation—I offer eating disorder therapy that is affirming, inclusive, and rooted in real-life healing.

I work with clients navigating binge eating, ARFID, chronic restriction, and food struggles tied to trauma. My practice is fully virtual and available to people living in California, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

Learn more or schedule a consultation at drmariannemiller.com.