Anxiety Can Lead to Obesity in Your Kids Too!

Earlier this week we shared a story from Time.com about the link found between obesity and childhood trauma. Parents Ask expert Ann Corwin explained that any trauma, psychological/physical abuse or neglect is something that is completely 'out of a child's control'. In fact, obesity is not about 'out of control eating' it is just the opposite! Eating disorders and chronic over-eating is always about a child/person being able to FINALLY CONTROL something and that is what they put into their own body...they are in charge.  No one else can control that part of their life, so they eat to get control.

Well, according to Parents Ask expert Bonnie Zucker Psy.D , this theory not only speaks to the mind-body connection, but can be linked to connection that exists between stress/anxiety and health/weight gain.

Bonnie says many children with untreated anxiety use food to calm themselves down, as eating can be self-soothing:

There are other physiological processes that take place when someone is anxious/very stressed- including the over-release of adrenaline and cortisol in the body. These two hormones are released during the stress response, and if over-released (as in chronic anxiety), weight gain can occur (to be more specific, glucose is not absorbed properly when there is too much cortisol). Weight gain related to chronic anxiety usually occurs in the lower abdomen.

Poor management of anxiety implies poor self-regulation. Self-regulation describes our ability to manage our response to an event. When someone is "dysregulated" or has poor self-regulation, they cannot properly manage their response and may turn to unhealthy behaviors such as over-eating, using illicit drugs, etc.