Inner stability in an Unstable World
By Joanna Poppink, MFT
Summary
When external chaos is ongoing, inner stability is not a feeling. It is a set of capacities that a woman slowly builds and strengthens. We all live in today’s world, characterized by ongoing instability. Political turmoil, economic uncertainty, social fragmentation, and threats to personal autonomy create a state of perpetual alertness. This article addresses how this impacts a woman with a past or current eating disorder. When she lives at the edge of her stress tolerance, even minor disruptions can overwhelm her. Her nervous system overloads and activates eating disorder behaviors. Today, more than ever, recovery needs to strengthen her inner stability so she can face external chaos without collapsing into old survival systems.
Inner Stability in an Unstable World
External instability creates a constant strain on the nervous system. What once felt like ordinary stress now lands on a system already pushed to its limits.
Women are living in an environment where fear is never fully released. Inner stability can be fragile. News cycles warn of danger from civil unrest and ICE arrests. We see unrelenting coverage and experience the impact of changes in the law and voting rights, inflation, less reliable health care, tension and violence between countries, and dthe destruction of familiar national landmarks. The rights of women are at risk. Healthcare is less available and more costly. An unexpected bill or price hike can impact personal finances. Climate change disrupts the ordinary seasonal patterns we have come to expect. The future is unclear.
This constant instability pushes many women into a permanent state of readiness for the next blow. Her nervous system never resets. She adapts by staying alert, managing risk, and scanning for threats. When a woman has used an eating disorder to regulate emotional overload, this chronic external stress becomes the foundation on which every stressor lands.
When Instability Outside Overwhelms Inner Stability
When a baseline is already overloaded, the smallest increase in pressure can activate survival responses.
Why “small problems” feel threatening
Stressors accumulate. What appears minor is experienced as the final impact that collapses her remaining capacity.
Ordinary or mild shifts in routine can push a woman on the containing side of her eating disorder over into acting it out.
Examples can be mild or significant:
• A sudden increase in insurance premiums
• A dentist appointment that must be rescheduled
• A child’s illness requiring missed responsibilities
• A new skill required at work with little warning
• Clothes cleaning delay
• A flat tire in the driveway
In a stable world, these situations can be manageable irritations.
In an unstable world, they can be a tipping point.
Her system is not reacting to the car repair or the scheduling conflict. It is reacting to years of tension that have been piled beneath it.
When she reaches her tipping point, she shuts down her appetite or binges for relief or exercises until she is numb. This response is not irrational. It is a learned survival reflex that activates when life feels unsafe.
How Midlife Women Experience Emotional Pressure and Eating Disorder Recovery Challenges
External expectations remain high while emotional reserves are depleted.
Daily life requires a new level of inner stability and strength.
Minor disruptions can cause a collapse in functioning when capacity is already at its limit.
The One Who Must Stay Composed
She manages her household, aging parents, and financial demands. News of rising healthcare costs arrives. It is one more challenge on top of many. She hits an emotional wall and restricts food because disappearing feels easier than confronting more responsibility.
The High Performer
Work expectations grow while job security shrinks. She overeats in secret because eating offers a momentary stop to the pressure. Shame returns, and the cycle deepens.
These behaviors are not signs of personal failure. They arise from a world that requires more effort and inner stability than ever before.
The Body Signals Stress Before the Mind Understands It
The body shows vulnerability first; the mind tries to keep up.
The nervous system reacts to a threat faster than conscious thought.
This is biology, not weakness.
Before the mind forms a sentence, the body reacts:
• Heart rate increases
• Stomach tightens
• Breathing shortens
• Muscles prepare for impact
The eating disorder offers immediate action to reduce discomfort. It takes over because that is what it was built to do.
Recovery begins when a woman learns to recognize the context of her distress.
This is not about the spilled cereal.
This is about the world I live in.
Inner Stability Skills That Reduce Eating Disorder Reactions
Stability grows as a woman develops skills that allow her to respond before symptoms activate.
Pausing interrupts the automatic old and out-of-date survival system.
This makes space for choice and self-support.
Inner work includes:
• Recognizing when the reaction exceeds the event
• Naming the real source of overload
• Pausing before acting
• Staying connected to physical sensation
• Understanding what the eating disorder is trying to manage
• Choosing action based on values instead of fear
• Allowing support without collapsing identity
This inner work builds capacity. She becomes able to handle more of life without collapsing or self-punishment.
Depth Psychotherapy Strengthens Inner Authority
When external reality is unstable, inner authority must take the lead.
Depth therapy supports the woman in becoming more reliable and steadfast.
This represents a reorganization of the relationship with oneself.
Therapy supports:
• Understanding what her body is signaling
• Separating current stress from old trauma
• Regulating the nervous system before action
• Identifying beliefs shaped by fear
• Choosing a response rather than collapsing into reaction
• Building a connection to self as a secure base
Inner authority grows. She becomes someone she can depend on.
Grounded Recovery for Midlife Women in a Relentless World
Recovery focuses on building a self that remains intact under pressure.
The body can remember calm and inner stability even when the world does not offer it.
Real safety signals create real relief.
A calm shoreline is not an escape into fantasy. It is a real interaction between the body and a stable environment. Light, air, and motion give the nervous system new information.
The danger is not here.
I can continue.
This grounding offers the possibility of stability without self-harm. Recovery is not self-improvement. It is reclaiming the capacity to respond to the world rather than be ruled by it.
Women in midlife and beyond are particularly suited for this developmental work. They have lived enough life to recognize when the old ways no longer serve them. They are ready for an inner stability that does not depend on constant self-policing.
With reflection and support, they can develop their inner strength to cope effectively in this changing and unstable world with sturdiness and courage.
Written by Joanna Poppink, MFT
Licensed in California, Arizona, Oregon, and Florida
Psychotherapist specializing in eating disorder recovery, trauma healing, and adult development
Virtual appointments available
For free telephone consultation write:
www.eatingdisorderrecovery.net
Further Reading and Research Support
• Reclaiming Inner Authority — Joanna Poppink, MFT
• Depth Psychotherapy for Midlife Women — Joanna Poppink, MFT
• Depth Oriented Recovery for Eating Disorders: Beyond Symptoms — Joanna Poppink, MFT
• Economic uncertainty and mental health: Global evidence• Eating disorders in midlife — Harvard Health Publishing
• The social determinants of mental health and disorder
• Women, disasters and resilience — American Psychiatric Association
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