The Emotional Impact of Sensory Eating Difficulties
Shame, Anxiety, Trauma and Mental Health - Part 2
Healing a difficult relationship with food is not simply about increasing the number of foods someone can eat. It is also about rebuilding trust.
In this second part, I explore what that trust can look like: trust in the body, trust in the nervous system and trust that a mealtime will not automatically lead to pressure or humiliation. When anxiety has surrounded eating for a long time, the brain may begin preparing for distress before food is even served. New experiences of calm and respect are therefore an important part of change.
The article looks at self-compassion and the harsh labels many people have carried into adulthood. Words such as difficult, childish or broken often reflect years of misunderstanding, not the truth about the person. Learning to respond to distress with kindness does not mean pretending eating is easy. It means recognising that fear and sensory discomfort deserve care rather than criticism.
I also consider emotional triggers that may sit around food: a smell linked with a frightening memory, a table associated with conflict, being watched while eating or the expectation that somebody will insist on one more bite. Recognising these triggers can help us create support that is specific and genuinely person-centred.
This resource offers a hopeful but realistic message. Recovery is not a race and progress is not always visible from the plate. Being able to sit near a food, communicate a boundary, remain regulated or eat without apologising can all be meaningful changes.
For parents, carers and professionals, the invitation is to become a safe presence rather than another source of pressure. For people experiencing sensory eating difficulties themselves, it is permission to stop measuring worth through food.
The nervous system learns through experience. Every calm, respectful mealtime can begin teaching it that something different is possible. Understanding cannot erase every difficult memory, but it can create the conditions for confidence, connection and a kinder relationship with food to grow.
By Maggie Learoyd
Psychotherapist | ADHD, Autism & ARFID Specialist
Founder of Space to Breathe Therapy
