Is full eating disorder recovery possible?
Happy National Eating Disorders Awareness Week! I’ll be addressing another eating disorder topic to honor this week of bringing light to these often misunderstood mental disorders and the recovery process to heal from them.
Is full recovery from an eating disorder possible?
This question has been popping up recently, especially wondering about the difference between being “in-recovery” and being “recovered.”
How do we know where we are?
What do we aim for?
Today I’ll be sharing my answers to these questions.
I do believe full recovery from an eating disorder is possible.
I also believe the ability to recover fully depends on many factors, including:
Length of time the eating disorder has been/was in control
Types and quality of treatment/recovery support experienced
Engagement in treatment/recovery support
Severity of the eating disorder
Support, or lack of support, for recovery
Time in recovery vs. in lapse/relapse
Ongoing exposure to diet culture and other eating disorder triggers
Exposure to recovery narratives and community
This is not an exhaustive list, yet I imagine you get the point: each recovery experience is unique.
“If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
- Henry Ford
Ultimately, I believe we each decide what recovery means for us and if/when we feel fully recovered.
How do we understand the difference between in-recovery and recovered?
In-recovery
For some considering themselves in-recovery is supportive because it is a reminder that recovery is an ongoing process that often requires continued awareness, effort, and energy to maintain, especially at the beginning. We may choose to be in-recovery for the rest of our lives. Holding onto the in-recovery identity may be an important part of our commitment to our health and healing. Perhaps being in-recovery also gives us more permission to bring grace to the ups and downs of the healing process. Regardless of if we choose to consider ourselves in-recovery long-term, we all experience being in-recovery in the beginning because there is no fast-tract directly from eating disorder to full recovery.
Recovered
For others there comes a point when recovery feels so solid that the term recovered feels like a better fit. The eating disorder voice may have subsided to an occasional background noise or have ceased to exist altogether. That doesn’t mean the eating disorder voice couldn’t pop up in a stressful situation but it probably isn’t something we think about often. We may feel ourselves outgrowing the in-recovery identity, finding our energy has been freed up from focusing on recovery maintenance to instead fuel other aspects of our lives. In my experience, the more time (think years) we away from the eating disorder, the more rooted we become in recovery, being recovered, and/or living an expansive eating-disorder-free life.
You get to decide what to aim for and what term best fits for you in a given moment.
Many of us bounce between feeling recovered and in-recovery for a while before, maybe, landing in a place of full recovery.
One important caveat: eating disorders are tricky and sneakily convincing which means that the ED voice may try to convince us that we are recovered when that isn’t true. If you still find yourself experiencing thoughts, urges, and behaviors related to food, body, and exercise (even if normalized by diet culture) and you consider yourself “fine” or “recovered,” I encourage you to talk to an eating disorder professional who can provide a more objective perspective. There is no shame in going through this phase; our eating disorders are as smart as we are (since they use our brains) which means they can trick us into thinking we’re ok when we are still struggling.
TLDR: difference between in-recovery and recovered
In recovery = thinking about recovery all, most, or some of the time
Recovered = not thinking about recovery very often
Recovery can take a long time (again, years) and be a metric ton of hard work, AND recovery is 1000% worth it.
You are worth it.
You deserve to live free from the eating disorder.
I’d love to know what you think about all this!
Do you believe full recovery from an eating disorder is possible?
How do you understand in-recovery and recovered?
Happy National Eating Disorders Awareness Week again! Let’s keep easing the stigma and stepping out of the darkness about these deadly mental illnesses.
4 things:
I care about you;
having a body is beautiful;
recovery is possible;
and we choose what matters in this one wildly precious life!
