What Do I Do About My Eating Disorder?

Whether you know you have an eating disorder or are thinking you might have one, a good idea is to get an assessment from a mental health professional who specializes in eating disorders.  A good assessment should take at least three sessions (in my professional opinion) so that the therapist can get as full of a picture as possible when trying to help you understand yourself and your eating disorder better.

Choose a therapist or counselor who you feel as comfortable as possible with and who you imagine you might be able to share some of your most vulnerable things with (over time).  Choose someone who has recovered from their own disordered eating.  It is helpful to know that they have been THROUGH it and will “get you” when times get tough. 

If you are unable to see a therapist, see my resources page for helpful books and resources so that you can educate yourself about what is happening inside you.  The more education the better. 

Reach out to a trusted friend, family member or mentor who will validate your experience with compassion and understanding and helpfulness.  This can be tricky because sometimes we reach out and don’t get heard or seen in the way we need and it can send us flying back into our disordered eating behaviors.  If you don’t get the response you need, try again with someone new.

Journal.  Write write write.  Write from your “Healthy Self” and your “Eating Disorder Self”.  See what they each have to say.  What do they have to say to each other?  Get to know yourself as deeply as possible and whatever arises, hold it with as much kindness and compassion as possible.

And, when compassion and kindness is absent, see if you can have compassion towards that.

Healing from an Eating Disorder takes a lot of patience, kindness, effort and support.  If you shame yourself into trying to change, it will never happen.  You have to do it through wanting to be healthy and whole and that has to happen through love.