Complex PTSD and Eating Disorders: Why Healing Trauma Is Key to the Root of Recovery
What Is Complex PTSD?
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), also known as complex trauma, occurs when there are repeated or ongoing experiences that leave a person feeling unsafe, unseen, or unworthy—especially during childhood or within close relationships. However, unlike single-incident trauma, C-PTSD develops over time, often involves betrayal by trusted adults, and can feel “invisible” or difficult to name.
C-PTSD or Complex Trauma Typically Impacts Five Areas:
Altered self-perception (e.g., feeling helpless, chronically lonely, or broken)
Dissociation (e.g., disconnection from one’s body and emotions)
Trauma bonds (e.g., loyalty to those who hurt you)
Emotional dysregulation (e.g., overwhelming emotional storms)
Attachment wounds (e.g., difficulty maintaining boundaries and connection with others)
Examples of Complex Trauma May Include (but are not limited to):
Chronic emotional neglect
Ongoing physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
Growing up with a caregiver who had severe mental illness, addiction, or a personality disorder
Living in a highly critical or perfectionistic household
Recurring invalidation of emotions
Repeated medical trauma
Regularly witnessing domestic violence
Placement in multiple foster homes
Long-term bullying without adult intervention
Being in a prolonged abusive relationship
Gaslighting and psychological manipulation
Recurrent betrayal in close relationships
Growing up in a war zone or a violence-stricken area
Experiencing prolonged poverty or housing/food instability
Facing ongoing discrimination or systemic oppression
Over time, these experiences shape how you relate to others. Eventually, it affects how you regulate emotions. Ultimately, even how safe you feel in your own body.
What Complex Trauma Feels Like:
Being constantly on edge, even when things seem fine
Struggling to trust others—or trusting too quickly and getting hurt
Emotional flashbacks (sudden waves of fear, shame, or rage without a clear trigger)
Feeling like something is fundamentally wrong with you
Disconnecting from your body, emotions, or relationships
Carrying shame or self-blame, even for things that weren’t your fault
Difficulty setting boundaries, expressing needs, or speaking up
Swinging between people-pleasing and emotional withdrawal
Questioning whether your trauma “counts,” especially if it wasn’t physical
How Are Eating Disorders and Complex Trauma Linked?
Eating disorders often function as coping tools, particularly for survivors of complex trauma. They can regulate emotions, offer control, and serve as silent expressions of pain.
Below are the adaptive functions that eating disorders often serve for individuals with C-PTSD:
Emotional Regulation
Focusing on food or body image distracts from emotional overwhelm. Behaviors like restricting, bingeing, or purging can numb difficult emotions and create a temporary sense of calm.
Control
In chaotic or powerless environments, controlling food intake may feel like the only area where one has agency. It can offer structure and a false sense of mastery, especially for those with a trauma history.
Identity
When trauma strips someone of worth or safety, eating disorders can fill the void. The identity of being “disciplined,” “tiny,” or even “sick” can provide a clear role when we otherwise would feel fragmented.
Self-Punishment
Eating disorders can become a form of self-directed anger. Through harmful behaviors, individuals may physically demonstrate the shame and self-loathing they feel.
Attachment
If early relationships taught that love equals pain or abandonment, eating disorders can feel like a “best friend,” reliable companion, or internal voice that offers temporary reprieve from their suffering. Food can serve as a substitute where they may have otherwise sought nurturance.
Communication
For many with C-PTSD, asking for help feels dangerous. The eating disorder becomes a language: “Look at my body. It is telling you the story that I can’t share.”
Eating Disorders Reflect Our Relationship with People
Reaching out for help is paramount in eating disorder and trauma recovery. Transitioning from relying on behaviors to other humans is monumental, yet that often leads to a surge of anxiety and shame.
In trauma recovery, seeking help can feel dangerous. Explicitly or implicitly, many survivors were taught that having needs made them a burden, selfish, or “too much.” Over time, they internalize beliefs like:
“Needs come with a cost – and it’s a price I’m unwilling to pay.”
This belief doesn’t just show up in relationships with people, but also in relationships with oneself. The fear of being “too much,” “greedy,” or “selfish,” can lead to restriction, deprivation, or punishment.
The body unintentionally becomes a visual representation of the space one is allowed to take up. For those with complex trauma, a smaller body is a way of saying, “I know I take up too much space. Please don’t remind me.”
For survivors, physically taking up more space or giving up restricting or purging can feel like a flashing neon sign, inviting others to put them back in their place, inviting abuse.
Why Healing Complex Trauma Is Key to Recovery
Imagine visiting a doctor with symptoms like exhaustion, bruising, and hair loss. They suggest caffeine, iron, and Rogaine—without checking why those symptoms are showing up in the first place.
That’s what it’s like to treat an eating disorder without addressing the underlying trauma.
While behavior change is crucial, when trauma goes unaddressed, the symptoms often morph: bingeing turns into over-exercise, restriction turns into obsessive “clean” eating, and purging becomes self-harm.
Healing Complex Trauma Isn’t Optional in Eating Disorder Recovery, It’s Essential.
If you're struggling with both trauma and an eating disorder, know this: I see that you have done everything in your power to survive. Your body has told your story until it was safe for you to say it aloud. It doesn’t have to narrate your pain anymore. Full recovery is possible. Healing starts with compassion, safety, and the belief that you were never too much to begin with. Start your healing journey today.
Start Healing the Roots of Your Eating Disorder, Not Just the Symptoms, With the Help of Therapy for Complex Trauma in Florida.
You’ve survived so much—and now, you deserve to truly live. At Bloom Psychological, we understand that eating disorders are rarely just about food. They are often deeply connected to complex trauma that has shaped how you see yourself, your body, and the world.
When you begin to heal your trauma, you create space for peace, self-trust, and connection to grow. You reclaim your voice. You reconnect with your body. You begin to see yourself not as “too much,” but as someone deeply worthy of care, rest, and joy.
You are not broken. You are becoming.
At Bloom Psychological, we offer a trauma-informed, compassionate space for this healing to unfold—right here in Tampa, and virtually throughout the State of Florida. Together, we’ll help you move beyond survival and into a life filled with freedom, wholeness, and purpose.
Let’s go find you. Let’s go find your glow. Reach out today for a consultation and take the first step toward lasting recovery.
Begin the Journey to Understanding the Root Cause of Your Complex Trauma
Other Therapy Services at Bloom Psychological
At Bloom Psychological, we know that trauma can impact every part of life—far beyond food or body image. That’s why, in addition to Therapy for Complex Trauma and Eating Disorders, we offer specialized support for individuals navigating a wide range of emotional challenges.
Our trauma and complex PTSD therapy helps you safely explore painful past experiences, rebuild trust in yourself, and create a foundation for deep, lasting healing. We also offer individualized support for UCF students facing stress, identity questions, and mental health concerns in the midst of a pivotal life chapter.
Wherever you are in your healing journey, Bloom Psychological offers a compassionate, trauma-informed space to be seen, heard, and supported.
About the Author:
I may call Florida home, but at heart, I’ll always be a Jersey girl—direct, grounded, and fiercely authentic. I don’t believe in pretending to be someone I’m not, and I certainly won’t ask you to. Authenticity is my core value, both in the therapy room and in life. I show up as my whole self so that you feel safe to do the same.
Outside of my work, I’m a proud mom to a sweet, spirited son, a loyal dog, and a curious cat (but I’ll be honest—I have a tragic track record with houseplants). I’m a therapist, yes—but I’m also a human being who has walked through the fire of trauma and eating disorders myself. I don’t just understand these struggles academically. I’ve lived them. I’ve survived them. And now, I use that lived experience to support others on their own journey toward healing.
If you’re looking for a therapist who brings both professional expertise and genuine human understanding, you’ve found the right place. I see you—and I’m here to walk with you as you find your way back to yourself.
