Hypnosis for a Food Obsession

23 September 2021

People who struggle to lose weight often believe they lack the willpower to overcome their food obsession. They try one diet after another. At some point, they think that they just don’t have enough willpower to make dieting work.

A lot of dieters believe that weight loss is only possible by training their willpower and following a diet. In most cases, this is an ineffective approach. Diets might work for a while, but most people end up gaining the weight back. They then try another diet, hoping desperately for a different result.

Another way to manage weight gain caused by food obsession. Through hypnosis, you can gain control over what you eat and how much you eat. Hypnosis can also help you overcome your cravings for certain foods and develop healthy eating habits.

Hypnotherapy can help you identify and overcome your food obsession.

What is a Food Obsession?

Psychologists use the term 'food obsession' to describe the physical and psychological consequences of obsessively eating. It is associated with food-specific cravings, withdrawal symptoms, and tolerance.

Eating disorders are characterised by an insatiable desire to eat. Eating disorders can be caused by a variety of psychological factors. A hypnotherapist may be able to help you if you feel you cannot control your eating habits and are experiencing rapid weight gain or ill health.

Food obsession can manifest in many ways, from changes in mood and behaviour toward food to physical concerns about appearance. Often, this craving for food results in digestive issues and metabolic problems.

Recognising a Food Obsession

Recognising your own food obsession is difficult as you may not want to admit that you are struggling with this issue.

Still, it’s important that if you do struggle with an obsession that you recognize the fact and seek help early. Food obsession is a complex process that affects the brain and behaviour. It is characterised by intense cravings, increased consumption of food, and negative health repercussions.

Causes of Unhealthy Eating Habits

Negative health outcomes such as obesity and diabetes can be caused by unhealthy eating habits. Lack of nutritional knowledge, busy lifestyles, and easy access to fast food all contribute to unhealthy eating patterns.

Unhealthy eating can lead to food obsessions, especially a craving for junk food. It's easy to become reliant on junk food because it is cheap, convenient, and designed to taste exceptionally good.

Most people eat foods high in carbohydrates, fat, and salt because these factors trigger the pleasure centres in their brains and release feel-good hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. Artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose also make food tastier and more delicious and create cravings to eat more.

We can make better choices on what to eat once we understand how our brains react to different foods.

How to Eat Less Junk Food

Fast food and junk food can be habit forming and lead to eating disorders and other health issues.

Today we eat differently from our parents' generation—convenience, instant gratification, and the availability of fast food have changed our approach to food.

With junk food readily available in our environment at all times, it's hard to avoid it. However, these tips can help you avoid eating too much of it.

• Make a list of the foods you consume every day
• Replace junk food options with healthy ones to make your meals healthier

Symptoms of a Food Obsession

An intense and overwhelming need for food is a symptom of food obsession. Many people may not be aware that they have a food obsession and often blame their weight gain or digestive issues on their particular lifestyle choices.

Additionally, many people experience anxiety, stress, boredom, loneliness, or depression as triggers that cause them to crave unhealthy foods.

Types of Food Obsessions

Besides eating too much junk food, eating disorder and bulimia nervosa are also types of eating disorders that cause health problems. Both are complex mental health disorders that cause significant physical and emotional issues.

Binge eating disorder is a serious mental health issue. The condition involves an uncontrollable urge to binge on food, causing weight gain or loss. Stress can trigger binge-eating episodes.

People with binge-eating disorders don’t just eat large amounts of food without control; they also experience intense distress when they try to stop or limit their intake.

Bulimia is characterised by over-consumption of food and inappropriate compensatory behaviours used to prevent weight gain.

Children, as well as adults, can be affected by bulimia, and both females and males are susceptible to the condition.

How Hypnosis Addresses Food Obsessions

Hypnosis can help you change your relationship with unhealthy food choices and eating disorders. It can help you make healthier food choices and discontinue eating disorder behaviours.

Hypnosis, however, can also be complex and is most effective when performed by a clinical hypnotherapist rather than listening to self-hypnosis audios.

It could change your life for the better if you are willing to try it!

The following is a brief description of exactly what hypnosis is and how it works.

What is Hypnosis?

The state of hypnosis is characterised by altered states. People who go into a trance experience heightened focus and awareness. Once in a hypnotic trance, people appear to lose interest in monitoring their environment while remaining conscious and retaining their ability to hear, see, move, speak, and think.

We have been conditioned from birth to respond to certain stimuli in particular ways, including entering a hypnotic trance when exposed to certain cues such as being given command or stimulus they find entertaining or pleasing.

Because of our natural susceptibility to suggestions and hypnotic trances, undesirable feelings and behaviours can be altered through a hypnotic session with a hypnotherapist.

Hypnosis Is a Deliberate State of Focus

The goal of putting someone in an altered state is to create a deliberate state of focus. The hypnotherapist will then suggest ways to change their habitual thinking and behaviours.

If someone, for example, has a craving for pizza as soon as they get home from work, then hypnosis can be used to help them make healthier food choices, perhaps viewing a salad as satisfying as eating pizza.

Hypnosis consists of two phases: induction and deepening. Induction includes establishing rapport with the client while deepening includes exploring different aspects of the client’s issues.

Benefits of Inducing an Altered State of Consciousness

During hypnosis, attention is typically focused and peripheral awareness is reduced.

A person may become highly suggestible, more vulnerable to outside suggestions, and more open to certain experiences than they would be in their normal waking state.

Hypnosis is often induced by suggestion or guided imagery, followed by relaxation techniques that induce trance.

The effects of hypnosis vary widely with each individual but include detachment from self-consciousness, heightened suggestibility, and imagination, and loss of memory for events during the session.

Through guided imagery during induction, a hypnotherapist can help someone lose interest in certain foods.

Hypnosis Can Help Overcome a Food Obsession

Hypnosis consists of suggestions made to the subconscious mind that makes someone lose interest in the things they crave. This type of therapy is a highly effective way of breaking free from the insatiable cravings that lead to food obsession and eating disorders.

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