Should We Believe Eating Disorder Threats?

Eating Disorder Threats: Are They Real?
Maybe!

I think the thing that keeps me & others trapped in an eating disorder, preventing full recovery, is believing the threats ED generates.

‘If you eat that then you must restrict & compensate later.’

‘Rest now & you will pay later as I won’t let you eat or will make you exercise harder.’

‘Eat more & rest -you will gain weight, you won’t tolerate it & will come running back to my safe, disordered life!’

‘Ignore my rules & routines & I will make you feel so terrible you WILL regret it!’

I know what I have to do to recover -eat, rest, weight restore, rewire a very disordered brain!
Yet these threats have time & again stopped me in my tracks.

BUT are the threats real?

As I progress in recovery now, I discover the truth behind the threats.

And, in honesty -yes, some of the threats are real.

I eat or rest more & later that day or the next, ED has bitten back with stronger urges to restrict or move & with intense anxiety & feelings of guilt & disgust.

I eat more, I rest more & yes I have gained weight.

BUT despite the fact it has felt unbearable at times & a large part of me has wanted to rewind & go back to the false safety of my ED bubble existence, I am learning.

I am learning the threats ED throws up might be true BUT I CAN TOLERATE THEM.

ED might make me pay later for a ‘recovery win’ but I can hold onto the sides & ride those storms.
I can then regain my strength, regroup my army & feel strong enough to push against ED once more.

I am learning I rest, I eat & yes, I will gain weight BUT that is also the point of recovery -my body needs to renourish & repair.
AND as I gain weight I learn I might not feel comfortable with it BUT I can tolerate it!

So, yes – some of ED’s threats are real BUT if we hold back from recovery action because of them we stay trapped.  We never recover.

Some ED threats might be true BUT I CAN tolerate what ED throws at me for breaking its rules & if I can there is no doubt YOU CAN TOO.

WE CAN tolerate ED threats & in fact we MUST do so to recover.

And each time we do override ED, it gives us an inch more confidence & gets us one tiny step closer to recovery.