Although it can seem incredibly difficult to overcome these issues, it is possible to live a meaningful life moving forward. For example, individuals can experience some severe trauma in their lives. There individuals who seem to move past these experiences quickly and others who continue to struggle for longer because of trauma. Ultimately, people are different in the way they experience the trauma and how they recover.
One of your first steps is starting the therapy process to see what recommendations a therapist can provide after the intake session. For example, I think a good area to start is by understanding more about your trauma history. There are multiple forms of therapy that can be useful in addressing trauma history. One form of therapy I have used to address trauma is cognitive processing therapy. This type of therapy is often used with veterans to address their trauma symptoms after their service. This is just one form of effective therapy that can help in your own healing process. The important take away here is that there are effective mental health services that can help. At times the situation can seem kind of hopeless based on everything we have been through. However, healing is possible even when the situation seems complex.
One important area to consider when seeking treatment and healing from trauma is the eating disorder. I am unsure of all the details of this eating disorder, but therapist will take this into account when considering where you should start in order to get better. For example, if the eating disorder is seriously affecting your physical health, then the therapist and you should probably spend more time addressing this before moving on to working on trauma. There are also effective therapy methods to address eating disorder behaviors. You could start off with either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to start making improvements. DBT is the more intensive treatment approach. Dialectical behavioral therapy can include practicing more mindful eating, learning to identify triggers, and improving responses to negative emotions or stressors. It will be between you and your therapist on what treatment approach seems best to start off with. Each of them can be effective but I am unsure if you have been in therapy before. If you have been to therapy multiple times before, it may be time to ask your therapist about needing a more intense approach to address what you have been going through.
I will attempt to provide a few practical skills you can start to practice on your own.
The following is simple mindfulness eating exercise: https://www.mindfulnessdiet.com/program/articles/a-mindfulness-eating-exercise-simple-instructions
Using a mindfulness eating exercise on a regular basis is just one skill of the overall treatment. The liberating power of mindfulness takes deeper effect when you begin to pay mindful attention to your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, all of which lead us to eat.
Mindfulness based techniques have a lot of evidence supporting mindfulness as a treatment approach for adults with trauma.
The following is mindfulness meditation to begin on your own: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE0Of6W_6RA&ab_channel=TheMindfulMovement
These techniques would be best to practice when being guided by a therapist but it at least some good starting points if you are unable to start therapy now.
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