Eating Disorders
First, I want you to be aware that...
You are NOT your eating disorder!
Your eating disorder is something that affects you and your life. Your eating disorder served/serves some kind of a purpose in your life; it protected you from other situations and areas of your life. You feel safe with your eating disorder; it has always been there for you when others haven't maybe. It can be a terrifying notion to be without your eating disorder; without the rules and rigidity.
You may feel you have your eating disorder "under control," but you don't. No one can control an eating disorder; it only lets you believe you're in control at times. It takes ahold of your mind, your body, your values... everything.
I understand where you are at. I've been there. Now you are at the place of deciding if you are safer with your eating disorder, or with the unknown world of recovery.
The second thing I would like you to know is...
You CAN be fully RECOVERED from an eating disorder!
There is the recovery process, which is a different path for each person; a recovered person has walked their path and left the eating disorder behind. You deserve to be completely free of obsessive thoughts, behaviors, and negative body and self-image. You want control, but you do not gain control through food, calorie, and exercise manipulation; you gain control of your life through recovery.
Eating disorders are all consuming of your life, and simply put, your eating disorder wants to remove you from the equation. Your eating disorder thrives when you are suffering, and your eating disorder suffers when you are thriving in recovery. And ultimately, your eating disorder is dead when you are recovered.
Being fully recovered, not only in recovery, from an eating disorder means you are free; you are able to be your true authentic self.
Whether you are struggling with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, or any disordered eating or behaviors in combination, we can get you through it. If you are ready to step onto the recovery path, and find your way to a recovered life, therapy will give you that. You will rediscover who you truly are, who you want to be, and respect the body you are in.
Being recovered to me is when the person can accept his or her natural body size and shape and no longer has a self destructive or unnatural relationship with food or exercise. When you are recovered, food and weight take a proper perspective in your life and what you weigh is not more important than who you are; in fact, actual numbers are of little or no importance at all. When recovered, you will not compromise your health or betray your soul to look a certain way, wear a certain size or reach a certain number on a scale. When recovered, you do not use eating disorder behaviors to deal with, distract from, or cope with other problem.
-Carolyn Costin-