Desperately Hungry Housewives was a program on BBC1 on Tuesday 28^th April 2009. The program
  followed 3 housewives that suffer from eating disorders ranging from bulimia through to anorexia.

Jane is very thin and her clothes hang off her.  She is asked to look in a mirror and describe what she sees. She describes herself as large (she is very thin) and she is very unhappy with her thighs and bottom and wants them to be smaller. She faces a daily battle, she tells herself that she is large although she knows she is not.

Her children are away from home at school or college, largely because of the amount of times she has been hospitalised with regards to her eating disorders. She says that her children are angry with her for her eating problems, this causes a lot of stress and makes her want to punish herself therefore exacerbating her problems.   

Jane sees food as her enemy and categorises everything into good and bad groups. When she eats good foods she feels ok, however when she eats bad foods it causes her to make herself sick. She currently lives off a diet of mainly porridge as she classes this as a good safe food. In the evening she starts to binge eat and when her husband goes to bed, she makes herself sick.

Jane’s problems started just before her wedding when her husband to be was diagnosed with cancer. The stress of the situation caused her to develop an unhealthy relationship with food, a relationship that has lasted 30 years.

At one point in the program Jane gains 2 kilos. In an desperate attempt not stave herself, she visits a hypnotherapist. Hypnotherapy is a very effective way of dealing with underlying issues that cause symptoms or problems.  After her first session she described it as “it was absolutely wonderful. It was really relaxing. First I felt heavy, then as she walked me through it I felt light. I felt like I was floating”. Jane was given a CD to listen to between sessions to reinforce the hypnotherapist’s suggestions.

Later on in the program she went out for a meal with her friends. Eating out at a restaurant was difficult for her, especially if she did not know the menu as it may not contain any of her good and safe foods. Anxiety about eating out, and with other people, is a common problem for those suffering with eating disorders. Jane felt that people were watching and judging her. This was her first meal out after having hypnotherapy, she was able to order off the menu and enjoy her food without any problems.

At the end of the program Jane concludes that she believes the hypnotherapy might finally be the answer. Jane said “I am not actually having any thoughts of bulimia at all, ever since having the hypnotherapy. Every day I get through it without having those thoughts, I just can not believe it”.

So is hypnotherapy a magic answer? No! Hypnotherapy is a tool that can deliver real results if the client is committed to making a change. In my own experience dealing with clients with eating disorders, food has very little to do with the problem. It is what food allows them to feel or avoid is what the real problem is.

Eating disorders are like other addictions such as gambling, drinking or smoking. Having such an activity allows someone to not focus on the real issue and therefore there will always be symptoms. An eating disorder is not something you catch like a disease, it is simply a set of reactions and behaviours that have been made into reliable patterns over a period of time. The brain is a prediction machine and always takes the path of least resistance, i.e. it will always do what it has always done. Being able to identify these reactions and patterns is the key to overcoming addictions.

There really are so many people who suffer from issues like this that can be so easily solved. The woman featured in the program had suffered for 30 years and yet with just a couple of trips to a hypnotherapist she was able to massively alleviate the problem.

OK I am going to stop ranting on now. I just get so passionate about these kind of issues because I know that they are treatable, and it is much easier that people imaging it to be. If people want to hear some other’s stories with food, then you can listen to them here http://www.realworldhypnotherapy.com/Weight_loss.html

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at matt@realworldhypnotherapy.com

Rant over.

Matt Kendall