Constipation and Overeating

Alyse is very clear about what makes her day. It’s not winning a new client or a refund from the IRS. It’s having a bowel movement.

This natural bodily function has been a source of frustration and discomfort for her since she childhood. Because both her mother and daughter suffer in the same way, she always assumed the problem was genetic, and resigned herself to 45 or more grams of fiber a day, a daily laxative, and hope.

While the focus of my practice is weight issues, compulsive overeating, and relief from food obsession, I often work with clients on related issues. In Alyse’s case, however, we didn’t suspect a connection between her overeating and her constipation; she only happened to mention the problem during a session. When I explained that hypnotherapy can be very effective in treating constipation, she decided to give it a go.

We spent two sessions on the issues, and what surprised me most was not how effective the work was, but rather that her overeating subsided. She found that not only did she no longer want her morning and afternoon coffee and cookie snack, but she was less hungry overall.

It seems that from the time she was very young, whenever she was constipated, her mother suggested that she eat a food she thought would “get things moving”. So Alyse, now a 47 year old woman, still maintained this connection, EVEN THOUGHT IT NEVER WORKED! Quite the contrary, whenever she felt constipated, she would eat, actually making herself feel heavier and even more blocked.

It seems that Alyse’s problem was not a lack of bulk, or volume in her system at all, as doctors had suggested, but rather tension in her system. The digestive system moves food through our body by alternately contracting and relaxing, contracting and relaxing. In Alyse’s case, she seemed to be very good at the contracting part of the process, but not the relaxing.

In the hypnotic process, after gaining the full support of her subconscious mind for this change, I simply created the connection between eating and the contraction and relaxation of her digestive system, all the way down to her rectum. At the second session, I suggested that she perform anal kegel exercises after each bowel movement to further train her muscles. As a side note, these exercises, taught to me by a talented hypnotherapist/nurse, Seth-Deborah Roth at http://www.hypnotherapyforhealth.com/, are also great for hemorrhoids).

Addressing the causes of the my client’s weight issues, binge eating, compulsive overeating or body image issues takes my work commonly into many issues such as internal conflict, safety and protection, depression, anxiety and trauma, but the connection between constipation and overeating was something new. I’m so glad we “happened” to address it.