Can hypnotherapy help with food noise?

You wake up, and the first thing you think about is food. What shall you have for breakfast? Dinner? You go to work, and thoughts of food are constantly there. You’re not even hungry, but you’re thinking about food. If you experience food noise, you know how frustrating, consuming, and overwhelming it can be. 

What exactly is food noise? 

It’s persistent, incessant, and repetitive thoughts about food and eating that often have nothing to do with hunger or the food itself. Many people say that once they eat the food, it does not taste as good as they thought it would. 

Food noise is not about weakness, a lack of willpower, or greed. Food noise is often a pattern that our brains developed over time to encourage us to hunt for food, as the brain has learnt that food meets our emotional needs, such as love and comfort, albeit briefly. 

The psychology of food noise

Food cues

We are constantly presented with food cues, signals that trigger a desire to eat. It could be the smell, sight, or sound of food. It could even be a time of day. Through repeated pairings, the brain learns that these cues lead us to food, and food makes us feel good. This is a big part of food noise.

Learned habits

Every time a cue sends us on a trip to get food, the brain learns that pathway. Over time, the brain saves the pathway so we can obtain food unconsciously, without thinking about how to get from cue to food. This is how a habit loop forms. The brain learns the sequence: cue → craving → action → reward. Each time we eat, it rewards us; it reinforces this habit loop. This is why food noise happens automatically. 

Regulating emotions

Over time, the brain has learned that food can help us regulate our emotions. When we feel a little down, sad, stressed, or any other difficult or intense emotion, we have a psychological desire to self-soothe. Again, through repeated pairings over time, the brain has learned that food is a great coping strategy, so it presents food as a great distraction and relief from having to feel those hard feelings.

With food noise, we can see that it really is the brain working for our reward and survival. The good news is that what the brain can learn, it can also unlearn. 

How can hypnotherapy quieten the food noise?

Hypnotherapy takes us into a deeply relaxed, focused state. Here’s how it can help with food noise. 

Turning down the volume

Hypnotherapy can help us release tension and manage stress more effectively. When we’re stressed, tired, or not feeling our best, food looks more tempting. Hypnotherapy can calm our brains and bodies so the food noise feels less loud.  

Strengthening our mind

Hypnotherapy can help us see our patterns and habits more clearly, bringing autopilot habits into conscious awareness. That awareness builds confidence and resilience. We become aware of our thoughts around food and what they are trying to get us to do. We then feel better equipped to deal with food noise, and you feel in control of how you want to deal with it. 

Rewarding ourselves

Through hypnotherapy, we can learn how food rewarded us, and we can recreate those emotions intrinsically, weakening the association between food and good feelings. This means we stop becoming dependent on food to feel good. 

Helping us to feel good

Hypnotherapy offers positive suggestions that can help us feel good, build confidence, and build resilience. For example, ‘you may notice feeling more confident within yourself’, ‘you may notice how calm and in control you feel when you enter the kitchen’. 

Supporting ourselves

Very often, after eating because of food noise, we blame ourselves. This, in turn, takes us further down a negative spiral, and guess what makes us feel better? Yes, food. 

Through the therapeutic relationship, we learn to accept empathy and compassion and develop that within ourselves. This helps us to feel better and stronger. 

Building new habits

Through visualisation, we can rehearse new, alternative ways that meet the same need that food previously met. 

Hypnotherapy sessions for food noise

What is likely to happen over a period of sessions? 

The hypnotherapist will typically ask you for some information as to when food noise happens, how often it happens, and what happens when food noise comes in. Together you will work out your patterns and habits. You will most likely work together to understand what your food cues are and what the rewards feel like. The hypnotherapist can then help you to visualise new habits.

With hypnotherapy, the food cues may become less appealing; we can have better control and more choice around how we feel. New habits may start to feel natural. Many people say they become more confident and the food noise quietens down.