Many women and young girls, who experience an emotionally or psychologically traumatic event, form an unhealthy relationship with food later in life. These individuals may develop anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder as a way to help them manage or cope with upsetting emotions and difficult memories.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often a co-occurring issue with individuals who suffer from an eating disorder. When a person experiences an exceptionally harrowing event—one that may involve physical harm, emotional trauma, or the threat of physical harm—their sense of security may become damaged. As a result, females may develop an eating disorder as an attempt to gain control over their feelings of vulnerability, hyper-arousal, intrusive thoughts of the event, sense of isolation, depression, anxiety, or feelings of detachment related to the trauma.