Four Levels of Recovery

Emotional level

A person learns to get in touch with their feelings and starts to express them appropriately. It is a stage when person starts to feel a range of emotions like fear, sadness and anger as well as love and joy. A person is able to set appropriate boundaries with people and to relate to people in close and intimate ways.

Physical level

A person learns to feel comfortable with her/his body. Health will take on importance. A person starts to enjoy and to be proud of their sexuality. However, by dwelling on only the physical aspects, a person cannot change and develop as valuable human being. A person may not be able to give up their behaviour until they learn to deal with stressful situations.

Mental level

A person builds a belief system to support and work for him /her. He/she learns to use their intellect to express themselves clearly. A person becomes open to new ideas. Most people with eating distress appear to be very bright. However, because of the energy necessary to successfully maintain their condition, they don’t use enough in other intellectual pursuits.

Spiritual level

A person learns to discover his or her own worth. He/she feels connection to their spiritual source. They learn to spend time quite and alone just ‘being’. When they get in touch with the spiritual aspects of themselves, it will help them to overcome their distress.