The eating disorder mindset is truly unique but involves a lot of thought patterns that are completely irrational yet common to most of us with this illness. One of these is the way that the eating disordered brain will cling onto what we did yesterday, or on the same day last week perhaps, in terms […]
Category: Exercise / Compulsive Movement
A couple of days ago I wrote a post about the Covid-19 pandemic that is sweeping the globe and the impact it might be having on those with eating disorders. That post included my more general thoughts about how difficult this period of time can be for someone with an eating disorder but that it […]
Within the eating disorder recovery community there is a large following of the ‘strong not skinny’ movement and a focus on this in terms of recovering from a restrictive eating disorder. Being the naive person that I can be at times, on first hearing the term ‘strong not skinny’ when it was used in relation […]
When I first became ill with anorexia nervosa, I was a 27 year old woman who had never had any form of disordered eating, history of dieting or weight manipulation and I was at a stage in my life where I felt happy and settled. Therefore finding myself with a severe eating disorder was a […]
This morning I woke up to the best message ever in my inbox… a message from another woman, of a similar age to me, who has had anorexia for years, telling me, “Today is the day… I am doing it!!”. … Yes, after a turbulent few days of indecision she is taking the terrifying and […]
An eating disorder can keep us trapped for years and over those years we develop brains that are hard wired to think and make us act in certain ways… A brain that has developed disordered and often completely screwed up ways of thinking about food, exercise and weight. But also, often a brain that is […]
In recovery from an eating disorder, it takes constant vigilance to keep the momentum of recovery going. And when life starts to get more involved again after years of illness and takes over in other wonderful ways, it can be easy to take your eye off the recovery ball and not instantly notice that recovery […]
In my last post I wrote about the reflections that I had been making on my eating disorder recovery so far – where I was at the start of this journey and where I am now in recovery and life terms. And I suppose, the truth is that yes, I’ve come a bloody long way […]
I recently published my 200th blog post on this website… and I started writing these posts when I was at the start of this eating disorder recovery attempt – a time that feels a long time ago in many ways and yet also like it was yesterday. In fact, it was about 6 months ago! […]
“Christmas”…. one little word that can strike sheer terror and deep nostalgic sadness into the heart of anyone with an eating disorder. A time of year, those of us with eating disorders long to enjoy in the carefree and relaxed way people around us do and in the way we did before we became […]
When it comes to eating disorder recovery, it gets worse before it gets better. The side effects of recovery are often unpleasant, frequently distressing and at times just plain brutal! When I started out on this very determined and most definitely final recovery attempt a few months ago, I jumped into a process of eating […]
Today I went to the theatre on a wild, spontaneous, spur of the moment decision! I’ve always loved live theatre and can still remember the magic of seeing Cats on stage when I was a little girl. Since then the magic of the live stage has always captivated me. Sadly, for many reasons, my enjoyment […]
Let me talk a bit more about compulsive exercise and movement with an eating disorder and in recovery because it is not spoken about as much as it should be, yet it is a key factor in keeping many of us sick and rarely addressed sufficiently in treatment. Why it is not addressed more in […]
Currently, when we talk about recovery from a restrictive eating disorder, the term ‘all in’ is often used. ‘All in’ refers to an approach where the person eats to their body’s real demands. They do not eat to a meal plan or to another form of prescribed amount of food, but instead really give in […]
Inspired by a recent conversation with a couple of my ED bashing colleagues, I thought I’d write a little post about the importance of changing our actions before expecting our thoughts or beliefs or fears to change. And I believe this is what we call ‘rewiring’, but we talk a lot about rewiring in eating […]
RECOVERING NOMAD 