Eating · Trauma & ED
Trauma & ED — Function Map
What the behavior does — before you take it away
Eating disorder behaviors almost always have a function — and for trauma survivors, the function is usually regulation, control, dissociation, or protection. This map names what each behavior does, so treatment can build a real replacement instead of demanding cessation without one.
Behavior → function
Behavior
What it does for me
What need is under it
Non-ED way to meet the need
Common trauma functions of ED behaviors (circle any that fit)
- Regulate overwhelming emotion (restriction numbs, binge soothes, purge releases)
- Reclaim a sense of control after chaos or violation
- Make the body small / invisible / unavailable
- Punish the body I feel betrayed by
- Dissociate from the body / from memory
- Create predictable structure in unpredictable life
- Give me something to focus on other than the trauma
Trauma work I have / haven't done yet
What sequencing my team is planning (ED first, trauma first, or parallel)
You can't take away a coping tool without offering another
Symptom cessation without function replacement is what most 'failed' ED treatment actually is. Map the function first, build the replacement second, then the behavior has somewhere else to go.