Emotional Regulation is nearly Impossible without food, rest, and safety.
There’s something I’ve been sitting with lately, and it’s uncomfortable. Not just because of the topic, but because it’s made me re-examine how I talk about healing, nervous system regulation, and emotional resilience, especially in my work as an emotions therapist and clinical nutritionist.
So much of what I do is helping people learn how to regulate their nervous systems, so that when a trigger shows up, they have the emotional resilience to respond instead of react. To stay present, instead of shutting down or spiraling out.
That’s why I was so struck by a recent Substack piece by the brilliant Dr. Stacey Patton, Starving You is the Point: The Neuroscience of Hunger and Obedience in America, about why the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for massive cuts to food assistance programs.
Keeping people in a constant state of fear, exhaustion, and triggering stress shuts down their capacity to respond, to think clearly, or to resist. And as Dr. Stacey points out, this isn’t abstract. It’s happening right now.
Cruelty is the point
She draws a direct line between state incited violence, poverty, and how our bodies react under pressure. This isn’t theoretical. It’s biological. When we don’t have enough food, or we’re constantly afraid, or we’re being pushed past our limits just to survive, our stress systems flood the body. Cortisol spikes. Adrenaline rises. The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain we need for long-term thinking, problem-solving, and planning, shuts down.
In other words, when people are dysregulated, they don’t just feel worse… they become easier to control. That’s not a flaw in the system, says Dr. Stacey. It is the system.
And this strategy is not new. Hunger and deprivation have been used for centuries as tools of obedience, from feudal Europe, to the colonization of the Americas, to Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
The Trump administration is leaning hard into this logic, cutting SNAP benefits, ramping up work requirements, and treating poverty like a moral failure. But the playbook is older than Trump. The cruelty isn’t new. It’s just more efficient now. Dr. Stacey asserts, “A starving population doesn’t resist. It obeys.”
Authoritarianism Targets the Bottom of the Pyramid
In my work, I offer people tools for emotional regulation: trauma-informed therapy, movement and breathwork, somatic work, and nutritional healing. And it’s incredibly effective – that is when a person’s basic needs are met: food, shelter, sleep, relative safety.
Maslow’s hierarchy makes these essential needs foundational for a reason. If someone is stuck at that first and second tier (Physiological and Safety), the nervous system isn’t interested in reflection or growth or resistance. It’s just trying to survive. Bracing. Shutting down. Disconnecting. Not because something’s wrong with them, but because their body is doing exactly what it was designed to do under threat.
This is why telling people to “just regulate” or “just calm down” or “just be mindful” is not only ineffective – it’s cruel. It’s hard to ask someone to self-regulate while an authoritarian system actively works to destabilize them.
So, what do we do with this?
First, I believe we need to start telling this truth. This needs to become a talking point in our conversations. The Trump regime is deliberately using hunger as a bargaining chip – and as a result, nearly 42 million people could lose food assistance on November 1st (that’s tomorrow). Remember, MAGA Republicans are refusing to support food assistance programs unless Democrats agree to let them strip health care from millions. This isn’t negotiation. It’s extortion.
As Dr. Stacey makes clear, what remains of the social safety net is intentionally being unraveled. If programs like SNAP are gutted, the suffering that follows won’t be seen as a failure of policy, it will be used to justify even more control.
Hunger will lead to desperation (like stealing for food), and the regime will blame that desperation on individuals, not systems. The response? More policing. More punishment. More austerity. All while the root causes deliberately go unaddressed.
Secondly, for those dedicated to democracy, mutual aid becomes not just an act of compassion, but a form of resistance, a way to meet immediate needs when the Trump administration withdraws support from those who need it most.
Join a network. Share what you have. Feed someone. Mutual aid is how we practice the world we’re trying to build, even as the systems around us collapse. (Here’s a community effort in Wisconsin.)
I’m curious what this stirs for you. If you’ve witnessed versions of this in your own life, work, or community? I invite you to drop down to the comments. I’m listening, and I know others are, too.
With Love,
Becca
P.S. Yes, nervous system regulation leading to emotional resilience is everything!
And our [free] online Cannabis Elevation Ceremony does just that – so come and join me for our upcoming gathering on Sunday, November 16th. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to register here.
