In traditional treatment for eating disorders, meal plans are the ‘prescription’ every patient who walks through the door is given. They are the basis that treatment has been built upon for years. Wherever you live in the world and whether it is eating disorder treatment as an inpatient, out-patient, day patient or something in-between, meal […]
Category: Restriction
Many of us with an eating disorder are told (probably because it is true) that we have very black and white thinking. I do not believe that the black and white mindset is a pre-existing ‘personality trait’ of a person with an eating disorder, which some ‘professionals’ might try to persuade us is the case, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Currently, when we talk about recovery from a restrictive eating disorder, the term ‘all in’ is often used. ‘All in’ is usually referring to the notion that a person will eat to their body’s real demands… not to a meal plan or to another form of prescribed amount of food, but to 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 […]
This week was always going to be a more challenging one for me, with situations to face that the eating disordered side of my brain finds very hard to cope with. And so, perhaps it was inevitable that the very persuasive and convincing eating disorder generated anxieties, thoughts and beliefs that I experienced would be […]
Over the past week or so I have been experiencing more extremes in my mood and anxiety levels than usual. Some days and evenings I am on a high – life is feeling possible and I feel that the world is opening its doors to me. I want to be in the world and I […]
You know what? I don’t think I’ve eaten a restaurant meal in almost a decade because of my eating disorder and in this last week I have eaten a proper meal in a restaurant without huge anxiety and without compensating and with being able to be present with the company I was with on more […]
One of the most common questions about eating disorder recovery that I get a lot and that I asked myself when trying to work out how to approach recovery is do we address all the fears… the eating more food, the resting, the stopping all the other weird s**t we do at the same time..? […]
