By Logan Strouther, MSc, BACP (Accred)
Understanding Emotional Overwhelm
Many people recovering from eating disorders describe feeling overwhelmed by emotions that seem impossible to switch off. One concept that can help us understand this experience is ‘somatic shifting’ – a way you might, subconsciously, be managing emotional overwhelm.
Before I explain Somatic Shifting, let’s learn about emotional overwhelm and eating disorders. One useful framework for understanding these behaviours is the Emotional Cascade Model. This model suggests that when we experience a stressful event or difficult emotion, we can become caught in a cycle of increasing emotional distress.
The cycle typically follows three stages:
- A trigger occurs, creating emotional discomfort or distress.
- Rumination develops, where we repeatedly overthink about the situation.
- Behavioural dysregulation follows, where the emotion is so overwhelming that we seek relief through behaviours such as binge eating or purging.
These behaviours are often misunderstood as self-sabotage. In reality, they frequently serve a purpose: helping someone escape or reduce emotional overwhelm, even if only temporarily.
Emotional Overwhelm and “somatic shifting”.
Somatic shifting occurs when emotional distress is redirected into a physical sensation. Rather than focusing on difficult thoughts or emotions, the mind shifts its attention to something happening within the body.
In many ways, physical sensations can feel easier to manage than emotional ones. They are often more predictable, more tangible, and have a clearer beginning and end.
For example, someone who binge eats may reach a point of extreme fullness where their attention becomes focused entirely on the physical discomfort they are experiencing. The emotional distress that felt overwhelming beforehand is temporarily replaced by a bodily sensation that feels more concrete and understandable.
This does not mean the emotional distress has disappeared. Rather, it has been displaced into a physical experience that feels more manageable in that moment.
Breaking the Cycle
Understanding somatic shifting can be an important part of recovery. When we recognise that a behaviour is serving a function, we can begin to develop healthier ways of meeting that need. Recovery often involves:
- Increasing awareness of the triggers and stresses that drive emotional overwhelm.
- Learning to recognise rumination before it escalates.
- Building tolerance for uncertainty, distress, and intense emotions.
- Developing alternative somatic coping strategies that help the body process stress safely and effectively.
The goal is not to eliminate difficult emotions. Instead, it is to develop confidence in our ability to experience them without needing to redirect them into these behaviours.
When we understand what our behaviours are trying to achieve, we can begin to respond to ourselves with greater compassion and create new ways of coping that support long-term recovery rather than short-term relief.
If you want to understand more about your relationship with food, you can reach out here for support, or to learn more.
You can also learn more from the NHS page on eating disorders here.
Somatic Shifting: When Emotional Pain Becomes Physical in Eating Disorders
For many people living with an eating disorder, the struggle isn’t really about food—it’s about finding a way to cope with overwhelming emotional pain. Sometimes, difficult emotions such as shame, grief, fear, loneliness or anxiety can feel impossible to process. Restricting food, binge eating, purging or over-exercising may shift that emotional distress into physical sensations such as hunger, fullness, exhaustion or physical discomfort. In this way, the body can become a place where emotional pain is expressed because physical pain or control can feel more manageable than emotional suffering. At Garden Room Therapy, we offer low-cost online therapy, in-person counselling in Sheffield and Matlock, and walk and talk therapy to help people explore the emotional roots of eating disorders with compassion. Therapy can support you in understanding the purpose your eating disorder has served while developing safer ways to process emotions and reconnect with yourself.
