🕯️ IFS and Pica

Everything IFS
Oct 11
3 min read

There are some behaviors that confuse even those who live with them. Reaching for dirt, chalk, hair, paper, ice, or soap can feel strange, even shameful. And yet, something in the body insists. Something in the system demands it.

This is the reality of Pica, an eating disorder marked by consuming non-food substances. Traditionally it’s seen as bizarre or dangerous. IFS sees it differently: as a part’s way of soothing, regulating, or symbolically expressing what words never could.

🕯️ The Traditional View of Pica

In the DSM, Pica is defined as the persistent eating of non-nutritive, non-food substances for at least a month.

It is most commonly described in:

Children
Pregnant women
People with developmental disabilities
Those with nutritional deficiencies (iron, zinc, etc.)

From the traditional perspective, causes may include:

Nutrient deficiency
Sensory-seeking behavior
Developmental delays
Compulsivity or OCD-like mechanisms

Treatment usually focuses on:

Correcting deficiencies
Behavioral modification
Environmental controls to reduce access
Addressing co-occurring conditions

These approaches can help manage risk, but they often leave out the lived meaning:

Why does this part of me want to eat something not meant for food?

🕯️ How IFS Sees Pica

Internal Family Systems (IFS) doesn’t reduce pica to a “strange symptom.”It sees the urge as communication.

From an IFS perspective:

A Soothing part may crave textures like clay, ice, or paper to calm the body.
A Grounding part may eat earth-like substances to feel tethered, heavy, safe.
A Punishing part may use pica behaviors to harm the body in subtle ways.
A Childlike part may reenact early sensory exploration, reaching for safety through familiar sensations.

And beneath these protectors are exiles —young ones who felt hungry, deprived, unseen, or starved for comfort. Children who couldn’t ask for nourishment, who had to settle for substitutes. IFS sees pica not as irrationality, but as a language of longing.

🕯️ IFS Doesn’t Shame the Behavior, It Builds Relationship

Rather than saying, “This is bizarre, stop it,” IFS asks:

“What does this part hope to feel when it eats that?”
“What is it afraid would happen if it didn’t?”
“Can I be with it long enough to understand what it’s trying to give me?”

The behavior is not endorsed, but neither is it shamed. Instead, it is honored as a protector’s attempt to care for the system in the only way it knew how.

🕯️ The Power of Staying

Many with pica feel isolated — “No one else would understand this.”IFS offers a different truth: every behavior makes sense in context.

By staying with the part who craves the substance, listening instead of judging, something begins to soften. The system learns there are other ways to soothe the exile’s hunger, other ways to ground, other ways to feel cared for.

🕯️ Yes, Use Medical Support, And Still Talk to Your Parts

Medical evaluation is vital for pica, since it can cause harm or signal deficiencies. But alongside medical care, IFS asks us to listen inward:

“Who in me is reaching for this?”
“What are they protecting?”
“What do they truly long for?”

Because pica is never random. It is the body’s poetry, the psyche’s attempt at nourishment.

🕯️ What Liberation Looks Like in IFS

Liberation doesn’t come from shaming the behavior. It comes from meeting the part who drives it — and offering it real relationship.

Healing looks like saying:

“I see why you reached for that. You were trying to help. You don’t have to do it alone anymore.”

When protectors trust they’re not alone, and exiles finally feel fed with presence and love, the behavior loses its urgency.

IFS doesn’t see pica as “strange.” It sees it as longing, disguised as appetite .And it knows that longing can be met — with compassion, safety, and care.

🕯️ Disclaimer & Support

This article is for reflection and education, not a substitute for professional care. If you are struggling with pica or harmful eating behaviors, please reach out to a medical provider or mental health professional. You do not have to navigate this alone.

Crisis Support Hotlines

U.S.: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988, or chat via 988lifeline.org
Canada: Talk Suicide Canada — 1-833-456-4566 or talksuicide.ca
UK: Samaritans — Call 116 123 or visit samaritans.org
Australia: Lifeline — Call 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au
International: findahelpline.com

IFS sees pica not as brokenness, but as parts doing their best to soothe a hunger that words could never name. And it promises: that hunger can be met in gentler ways.