Posts Tagged ‘Eating Disorder Recovery’

**Content warning: This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences in recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, or symptom use. Please use discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

Emily Formea is a writer and coach passionate about eating disorder recovery, food freedom, and self-love. She is the author of Gaining a Life – The Untold Story of my Eating Disorder & Recovery and the host of the To The Girl podcast. To learn more about Emily, visit her website, and find her on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Your eating disorder THRIVES off stress.

Don’t believe me?

When do you feel most likely to restrict? When do you feel most likely to binge? When do you feel most likely to make yourself sick, start a new diet, limit your food, binge in secret, weigh yourself, weigh yourself again?

When you are stressed, my love. I know this because I do the exact same thing.

During times of stress, we want to have a constant. It’s human nature. We like routine, we like constants, we like ‘norms’ and ‘usuals’—and if you’re a bit more wound-up than the average person, like I am, then you also like control.

We love being in control. It brings us a sense of balance and self-management. When we feel most out of control with our emotions or the world around us, we want to control something to make up for it.

Enter your eating disorder.

**Content warning: Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

Be Full

By Kaitlyn Rose

This emptiness that calls
with such urgency
is a lie,

A false promise of safety
and the ability
to Breathe
amidst
the pain.

**Content warning: This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences in recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, and symptoms. Please use your discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

Rachel Freeman is a special education teacher, poet, creator, and lover of life. She is the author of The Hunger, a compilation of poems about identity, body image, and eating disorder recovery.

Here Rachel shares a few of her poems, as well as advice for others struggling with an eating disorder. 

**Content warning: This is one person’s story; everyone will have unique experiences in recovery and beyond. Some stories may mention eating disorder thoughts, behaviors, or symptom use. Please use your own discretion when reading and speak with your support system as needed.

Bronwen Clark is a Los Angeles-based writer and therapist. She is the author of Don’t Be Weird, a memoir that follows her journey through treatment and toward eating disorder recovery. Find Bronwen at bronwenclark.com and @bforboundless on Instagram and Twitter.

Here Bronwen opens up about the purpose and process of writing Don’t Be Weird, and shares with us a selection of excerpts.

The question of what constitutes recovery from an eating disorder is one that has been debated in many places by many people. Providers, families, and clients often have different perspectives, and there is a wide spectrum of beliefs within each of these groups. A key reason for this is that eating disorders have distinct physical and psychological manifestations. 

The physical manifestations of eating disorders are usually what drive people to the highest level of care. That is because these manifestations often carry an immediate risk to one’s physical health and require intensive clinical support. Recovery from physical manifestations is very important, but it does not constitute full recovery.

It’s a phrase repeated often in recovery: You are not your eating disorder. Your disorder does not define you. You are not anorexic. You are not bulimic. You are not a binge eater.

You may have these illnesses, but you are not them.

So, who are you?

The question may be met with uncertainty, fear, and anxiety, especially in the early stages of eating disorder recovery. Three short words, one giant question: Who am I?