Reach for Recovery

Extremes pop up in so many areas of eating disorder recovery. One that I’ve been contemplating recently is the idea that it is either “not about the food” or so much emphasis put on the food itself that we negate other essential aspects of the recovery process. I think there is a ton of gray area within food being our medicine and not the real issue. I also think that we have to account for each individual having a different experience and therefore needing varying amounts of healing in specific areas.

One thing that makes ED recovery so challenging is that it is very much a whole person illness. It is physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. So yes, we need to nourish our bodies and of course, food is vitally essential to this processes. We simply cannot recover without it. But I think most of us will find the need to also do some deep inward healing in order to reach a firm state of recovery. This is why it is dangerous to prescribe a one size fits all approach. There are some universal truths that experts have noted in terms of eating disorder recovery but all of us have unique experiences with what works and what does not work.

I encourage you to explore what works best for YOU, not getting too caught up in what others are doing on social media. A big thing for me in my own process has been curiosity. I don’t just assume something will or will not work for me until I try it and see what happens with the help of my team. If it seems to have benefited me, I continue it. If not, I tell myself “that was good for someone else but it wasn’t good for me.” And I let it go.

I’m not here to be the example of the “perfect” recovery. I won’t pretend I have the entire process figured out or that I don’t make mistakes from time to time. 

As I have taken a deeper dive into my own recovery I have noticed how a restrictive mindset can happen with many things, not just food. I’ve restricted sleep, restricted pleasure, restricted LIFE. A key part of healing for me has been kindness to myself. My therapist told me I should do the “reverse golden rule” which is to treat myself the way I would treat others. That means that even on days I’m not feeling it I can treat myself with respect, compassion, and understanding.