Body Connection Nutrition and Yoga |
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Why Yoga Works in Eating Disorder TreatmentThere are many eating disorder facilities that encourage doing yoga as an alternative therapy. There are several reasons for this. It doesn’t only offer stress-reduction techniques but goes much deeper. It actually transforms how the mind and body intuitively responds to stress. Individuals struggling with eating issues usually also encounter high anxiety or depression or both. In addition, a body that is not fed correctly is a body under stress. Many of these same individuals also may struggle with addictions, exercise disorders or have trauma histories. The end result of all these manifestations is an over activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which flood the body with hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine. When the body has too much of these two hormones, it constantly gets the message that it is under stress which basically feeds the cycle and makes recovery very difficult to sustain. This chronic stress mode (also known as the ‘fight or flight’ response) only encourages more of the same disordered symptoms whether it be restriction, bingeing, purging, using substances, stealing, cutting, etc. In addition to this the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which is responsible for physical relaxation and emotional calming becomes overwhelmed by this sympathetic response. Without the parasympathetic nervous system an individual cannot learn how to manage stress, make any room for trusting their bodies, manage a craving, feel less anxious etc. It is well established that practicing yoga increases the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. But it is not only this fact that makes yoga such an important part of recovery. If this was the only thing yoga did then individuals would learn to relax in a class setting but in the face of a craving, an urge or anxiety one would still respond with the same sympathetic nervous system response. Along with the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system yoga it also allows some influence of the sympathetic system to remain. This is so important because to truly be able to manage an eating disorder, recover from addictions or healthfully deal with trauma one must be able to tolerate the stressor but not let the stressor take over. In other words, one must be able to sustain the urge, craving, ride the wave of anxiety or depression to truly manage it. Yoga trains the body to do this by holding challenging poses while learning how to breathe and relax into them. As the individual learns to hold poses with a calm mind, focusing on the breath the body learns to remain calm in stressful situations. It is yoga’s dual demands on the body and mind that create this perfect dance. This is the real key to recovery and healing. With all this amazing scientific data as well as personal experience I was on my way to figuring out how to use yoga as a treatment modality. I encouraged many of my patients to begin a yoga practice as a main aspect of their recovery. The benefits to these patient’s treatments was obvious and palpable but there was still some thing that was missing…that connection between disorder and health, addiction and recovery, trauma and healing. It made me even more than ever want to go deeper to find that thing that was lacking in treatment. I began looking for yoga certification programs and learned about Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy. I was astounded by the premise of Phoenix Rising and was convinced on many levels that this was truly the missing link in Eating Disorder treatment, recovery from addictions and trauma work. Related topics:
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