Eating disorders are very common and often handled in an unhealthy way. Having an ED ( Eating Disorder ) distorts the way you think about food, your body, and your nutrition, causing harmful effects on your physical and mental health. Research shows that with ED, your brain releases chemical changes that impact the way you think about food and your body. By acknowledging that eating disorders cause mental distortions can help separate yourself from your ED. Many have their ED voice, which is a negative, critical voice telling them examples like “I will gain X amount of pound from eating that” or “I can’t eat that unless I exercise for X amount of minutes”. Your eating disorder voice can get louder when you start refraining from disordered eating and exercise behaviours. Learning how to recognise your ED voice is especially important to progress to fight this voice and continue working towards healthy eating and exercising habits. Instead of letting it dominate your self-talk, practise talking to yourself in a compassionate voice as you would to your loved ones. Remember to include yourself as the same standard as you would others, learn to speak with love, care and compassion to yourself and others.
Recovery is not linear, so go easy on yourself. It’s easier said than done to focus on healthier food and get a balanced healthy diet. If you want to overcome ED alone, it’s important to address the disorder and write or talk about improving and changing the ED voice by disobeying it and fighting for positive affirmations. On paper, make a list with two columns; one is headlined “ED says,” In the other column, write “Recovery Requires”. This gives you the chance to write down what your ED says to you, while on the corresponding line, you will note how you will specifically disobey what ED says. Narrative therapy is important to try and keep up, and by physically writing these down, your brain is recognising the wrongs and rights.
For example: “ED says to skip dinner” – “Recovery requires me to eat dinner.”
Your ED may have helped you through emotionally testing periods at points in life, so it’s normal if you start to feel more anxious and uncomfortable in your body when you start moving away from disordered eating behaviours. If you find you’re are struggling to make the change of recognising the disorder or feeling like you can’t find a way of tackling it alone, contact The Devon Clinic and speak to our ED Counsellor or try the effective method of Hypnotherapy. We are here to help the long term effects and overcome your ED together.
Call on 01803 500300 or email us at reception@devonclinic.co.uk
