Eating Disorders & Body Image Group

What is Recovery?

Recovery is much more than the abandonment of starving and stuffing.

At minimum it includes the following:

• Maintenance of normal or near-normal weight
• In women, regular menstrual periods (not triggered by medication)
• A varied diet of normal foods (not just low-cal, non-fat, non-sugar items)
• Elimination or major reduction of irrational food fears
• Age appropriate relationships with family members
• Awareness of cultural demands for unrealistic thinness and effective ways of repudiating those demands
• One or more mutually satisfying friendships with healthy, normal people. Such friendships involve mutual give-and-take and a minimum of caretaking and "parenting" behavior.
• Age-appropriate interest and participation in romantic relationships
• Strong repertoire of problem-solving skills
• Fun activities that have nothing to do with food, weight, or appearance
• Understanding of the process of choices and consequences
• Person has a sense of self, plus goals and a realistic plan for achieving them. Is moving towards building a meaningful, fulfilling, and satisfying life.
• Person has also learned to be kind to self and others, forsaking perfectionism and confronting flaws and disorder with grace and understanding. Person refuses to drive her/himself with criticism and demands for unrealistic performance.

The Goal of Recovery: a Healthy, Authentic Human Being

People often begin an eating disorder by dieting, thinking that if they lose weight, they will become self-confident and feel better about themselves. But it doesn't work that way. Becoming a worthy person takes a lot of hard work, including building a history of meaningful achievements and successful problem solving. Becoming authentic is never achieved by taking unhealthy shortcuts that lead to poor health, ruined relationships, depression, obsession, anxiety, guilt, and self-loathing.

Authentic human beings may be attractive -- there is no law that says they have to be ugly, but physical attributes are their least important qualities. Authentic human beings make a lasting impact, quietly or dramatically, on people they meet. They have personal presence. They are solid, intelligent, humorous, sexy and full of life. They are reliable, strong, confident and competent. They are respected, and they respect themselves. This is the goal of treatment – not just to eat normally, important as that is, but also to develop into a person of worth and substance.