Recovery

The first step to a successful journey to help someone recover from eating distress is to expand one’s knowledge of the condition. Not understanding is dangerous. Many people claim to know a lot about this disease, but often it is just knowledge of the medical definitions.

If we want to help somebody recover from ED we need to know what contributes to the development and maintenance of Eating Distress. We cannot simply blame society because we are a part of it. That means that we may hold certain societal messages without our conscious awareness. We need to become aware of how society influences our thinking about ourselves.

The body is often described by the media as an instrument. The body is a possession to be moulded by us. Our bodies are products of a consumption society. This view of our bodies leads to; low frustration tolerance, instant intimacy, and no social responsibility, an ‘ I see I want it’ attitude.

Many people put a lot of energy into finding out the reason why a person has an eating distress. This logical thinking reasons that by rectifying the causes, a person will recover. This is in many cases waste of energy. When we work with a person with an eating disorder all our energy needs to go into finding out the reasons for recovery.

For years eating distress was treated as if it was weight problem. Often we heard that eating disorders are chronic, progressive, addictive illnesses that can be arrested, but not cured. Sufferers went on different diets to put on or to lose weight. But, abnormal food patterns are only symptoms of underlining issues.

Recovery means learning how to deal with life’s problems in constructive ways without turning to food or starvation. Recovery involves learning how to get more out of life while learning how to balance life with other things like friendships, work, hobbies and interests. Anything that offers hope has the potential to heal. Hope is more powerful than any other therapeutic technique.

Recovery is about making better choices in life. It is important to learn not to be afraid of recovery. Instead, focus on learning how to enjoy the journey to find the real self. Recovery involves letting go of the desire to be rescued and taking responsibility to find out who we are.

Recovery means something else to every person. But in our experience, we found that nearly everybody’s recovery includes the points listed below.