In this ‘brain post’ I want to explain a little more about two important brain regions that play big parts in how we think and act and how these two different parts of the brain often work against one another, trying to take the driver’s seat in guiding our behaviours. The two parts of the […]
Tag: recovery is hard
In eating disorder recovery communities, the term ‘all in’ has now been used for a few years to describe the eat all you can approach to recovery that many promote and have success with. I have written before about the concept of ‘all in’ on this site but I have never been a big fan […]
In the UK, this week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week. I am always uncomfortable about these awareness weeks because of the amount of damaging, stereotypical information on eating disorders that still rears its ugly and harmful head every year, but I wanted to do something to acknowledge the week in my own small way. Therefore, […]
If you are going into the start of this Christmas with increasing anxiety and fear as it is another year of having to get through the ‘festive’ season with an eating disorder as your main companion then please trust me, I do know your pain. I spent too many Christmases with an eating disorder that […]
A human brain can only concentrate and pay attention to one thing at a time. This fact is a reality for us all… that even with the most accomplished or expert brain, focusing on more than one thing at a time is just not possible. Multi tasking is a myth…. I know all you female […]
The fear is real in eating disorder recovery, but what if we can turn that fear into excitement? With an eating disorder, we develop very intense and real fear responses whenever we try to eat and rest more or change other hard wired disordered behaviours that have developed over the course of the illness. Although […]
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 […]
This post is a sharp reality hit about eating disorder recovery. I write this post because recognising how real and unavoidable this truth is, if full recovery is ever to actually be realised, took me far too many years in my recovery but it need not be so for others. And the truth I want […]
Within an eating disorder, the ‘martyr complex’, in which people will act like a martyr to the point of self destruction is a feature seen more often than not. ‘Martyr complex’ is a recognised term to describe people who seek out the feeling of being a martyr, putting others needs above their own suffering as […]
Is the dreaded ‘quasi-recovery’ an inevitability in the recovery process from an eating disorder? This is a question that occurred to me recently. Before I continue though, for those who are not aware of this term, ‘quasi recovery’ refers to the half-way (or maybe a bit more than half-way) recovery state that many people hit […]
This is a slightly different post today. I don’t usually share things like this but I am currently studying neuroscience and part of the course is about brain plasticity which of course is very relevant to eating disorder recovery. With an eating disorder, we have a brain that is hard wired to perform disordered behaviours, […]
If you are here now, reading recovery blogs online and you have an eating disorder then you are already a superhero because whether you have taken any other positive steps into recovery yet or not, you are obviously not just accepting life in the illness and at the very least, you are contemplating the terrifying […]
As humans, our brains are hardwired to dislike uncertainty in any aspect of our lives and I find this an interesting topic and particularly relevant here as the ability to tolerate uncertainty is key in eating disorder recovery. Every human brain loves certainty. Our basic survival brain perceives uncertainty as a danger and so it […]
I have recently made a really tough decision – perhaps idiotic, perhaps wise, maybe brave, possibly cowardly…. whatever it is, it was very very hard to make and then to put the necessary wheels into motion. And I want to share my current decision and situation, to be real and to show that recovery is […]
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 […]
RECOVERING NOMAD 