Compulsive movement or exercise is a key part of an eating disorder for many… and I can confirm, first hand, that it is a miserable and cruel thing to live with. Feeling compelled to keep moving your body, no matter what, and when not doing so feels overwhelmingly wrong and terrifying, makes the movement side […]
Tag: lower level movement
Fundraising for charities or non-profit organisations is a challenge to say the least. It is hard work to raise money for organisations when you are up against so many charities now all competing for the public’s spare change. Eating disorder charities have the additional problem that eating disorders are considered by many in the general […]
Today I have spent the whole afternoon and evening wrapped under a blanket, on my sofa with some reading, TV and music… And it has felt incredible. Perhaps, it has felt even more incredible because not so long ago, when I was still deep in the eating disorder that I experienced for over a decade, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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..? […]
Why I believe compulsive movement in eating disorders is as serious & needs to be treated as such as any other form of purging… Somebody who purges through vomiting or laxatives to compensate or manage anxiety after eating is performing an action that is difficult for anyone to justify as non-disordered. Those of us who […]
For years, compulsive movement has taken up my every waking moment. If I couldn’t be moving then I would be hyper-anxious and my thoughts would be consumed by the need to move. This was my status quo and movement was my drug. If I was a smoker then movement would be my nicotine rush or […]
I’ve written in previous posts about lower level movement compulsions in eating disorders & the importance of addressing them in recovery. Facing up to eating more food and weight restoration alone does not a full recovery make! Recovery entails overcoming all the little behaviours and compulsions that have wormed in over the years – some […]
Resting & relaxing can be the hardest & most exhausting thing in the world! In eating disorder recovery, we are always told we must rest, relax & heal. To most people, this probably sounds wonderful & peaceful – creating images of lolling about on a sofa, taking naps, reading books, watching Netflix & generally just […]
Last night I watched The King’s Speech. It’s a film I have wanted to see since it came out 9 years ago! Films are one thing I have missed out a lot on during the years of having an Eating Disorder & I know that I am far from alone in that. The primary reason […]
So often in eating disorder recovery we hear people advocate to just ‘let go’ of the illness or claiming that they are ‘letting go’ in their recovery. For a long time I’ve longed to ‘let go’. It sounded liberating, joyous & like a weight would lift from suffocating my life & drift away! But I […]
Giving up compulsive movement in ED recovery is HARD! For those with compulsive movement/ exercise tendencies, stopping could be compared to an addict coming off heroin & that is not an exaggeration! I’ve found attempts to reduce activity levels to minimal amounts, while not reducing food intake, the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.. […]
A post originally written for my Instagram account: The summer can make recovery from an eating disorder even tougher for many of us, although the sun also has benefits! On the hottest day ever in the UK today, many without eating disorders were struggling, but I know I’m not the only one who had an […]
Cold Turkey To Overcome Movement Compulsions?? This is a question I’ve asked myself many times – how we approach stopping exercise & compulsive movement in eating disorder recovery? Cold turkey or gradually decrease? I don’t think there is a one size fits all approach. Recovery is messy & complicated & takes a lot of trial […]
RECOVERING NOMAD 