I’ve had moments which made me doubt my recovery. Why I asked. Why it must be so hard.
But the focus never left my conscious. I put all my faith into the success of my recovery.
Many people believe that Eating disorders are a result of abuse, life problems, trauma or childhood issues. But the more research I was doing and the more I was experiencing during my recovery, I came to completely different conclusion.
Everything happens in our brain and my anorexia / bulimia was a consequence of constant restrictions. I starved my body.
Some of us are genetically prone to suffer from ED. And if we realise that fact and stop linking it to life issues, the recovery focus will shift to what is happening in our minds. Some people suffered a lot and never experienced any eating disorder. ED is not a mental illness nor a result of your trauma. It is linked because of the coping strategies wired in your brain, but it’s not a root cause.
Let’s focus on rewiring our brains rather than past trauma. It is a topic for another story. Here, we want to recover from an eating disorder, and a healthy body and mind will help you to heal from any past traumas and be happy in life.
The first and most important thing is to visualise the neuropathway. Imagine a tall grass with a path running through it. One path.
Step towards the high grass as you take a new pathway through that field. It’s a healthy pathway, without the eating disorder, based on structured eating, a balanced diet and delicious meals you cook with love and enjoy.
Think about how many years you followed the ED pathway. That’s the answer to why recovery is tough. Building new pathways takes time, but the more you follow them, the stronger the reinforcement. The old path will eventually disappear, and the grass will grow.
Let me quote here
“Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or brain plasticity, is a process that involves adaptive structural and functional changes to the brain”(National Library of Medicine).
The stage of building the new pathway starts when you start your recovery. It starts with a thought. And the more you follow the process and live in the fact that you are recovering, the more you succeed in your life journey.
False beliefs
Letting go of false beliefs is hard. What are the false beliefs? For example, Believing that you overeat while you eat normally, and when you think you binge while your body tries to refeed. Then, instead of listening to your body, you end up purging, exercising or dieting instead of slowing down and letting the body heal.
Starvation and its reasoning happen before we become aware of what is happening to us! It takes time before your body is exhausted, starved and screaming for nutrition! However, the red line has been crossed, and it is important to act and build a healthy relationship with food.
Therefore you need to feel completely free of any restraints which would stop you from recovering.
There are few do-it-now steps which can help you kick-off your recovery and heal
1. Throw away the scale and stopped looking in the mirror.
2. Write a diary every day.
3. Structure your eating to 6 meals per day: 3 main meals and 3 snacks. Don’t skip the meals, no matter what.
4. Accept that not every meal will be as you expected. Let it go.
5. Step by step, include all forbidden foods into your meals. Don’t be afraid.
6. If ED talk is loud, listen to music. You are beautiful
7. You are beautiful. Accept this fact.
8. Never give up.
Love and light
Kasia
The Power in You 