Body over Mind: Accepting Recovery

The false premise of anyone with an eating disorder is that our mind can control our bodies. The truth is that our bodies always win.

The glorification of thinness and dieting is pervasive in our society. Many people are shocked when they realize everyone doesn’t ascribe to the philosophy of dieting and weight loss. In fact, many people consider other things more important than weight and usually live happier lives. The driving force for overvaluing thinness is industry, and the business model is based on the impossible goals set forth.

We can’t ever control our bodies. Survival is the only goal for us as humans, and the most primitive part of our brains drive the hunger instinct especially if our health is threatened. Thus, diets don’t work.

Long-term restricting almost always leads to extreme hunger and binging. And our bodies determine weight based on a number of biological factors that improve our chance of survival, not based on any thoughts or desires to attain a certain weight.

The comparatively rare person with chronic restrictive anorexia appears to have a genetic variant that allows interminable food restriction. The adaptation likely enabled a small percentage of the population to survive extremely long famines and gave them an advantage in a very specific setting. Due to the advantage, the genetic variant has persisted.

Recovery from an eating disorder means accepting that our bodies determine how and when we eat. There are many ways one can attempt to trick our bodies to continue to restrict or compensate for binging. But these behavioral changes solidify the grasp of the eating disorder because the hunger only intensifies and in the end only make people sicker.

Acceptance of body over mind is humbling, but it’s the only path to recovery.

The Pitfalls of Saying “My Eating Disorder”

The concept of mental health is increasingly considered a part of our overall health. It’s high time we conceive of mental health when we think about our well being.

Once it’s easier to take ownership of our mental health struggles, people can be more transparent about taking care of themselves. That may mean being patient with ourselves during hard times, recognizing how to support others with mental health struggles or identifying our own mental illness.

The acceptance of psychiatric diagnoses and various types of treatment including medication has enabled a newer generation to equate mental health with physical health. Conversation and openness about daily psychological and emotional challenges normalize a once taboo experience.

All of the changes apply to eating disorders as well. Since shame is central to these illnesses, tolerance and understanding make it much easier for people with eating disorders to talk about their struggles and seek help. Moreover, the plethora of social media about eating disorders means you don’t have to feel alone with an eating disorder.

For young people, the evolving concept of mental health has one pitfall. It’s too easy to conflate mental illness with identity. At a time in life when people are searching for meaning and a sense of oneself, the mental health struggle itself starts to seem like the core of identity. Young people don’t talk about depression, anxiety, OCD or an eating disorder. They talk about my depression, my anxiety, my OCD or my eating disorder.

The meaning of the possessive pronoun is not just about ownership but about possession itself. The mental health issue feels like it makes the person special, makes that person who they are.

This is especially troubling for eating disorders because the illness itself is already deeply entangled with identity. A key part of treatment, written about in many places including in the blog, is to separate the eating disorder from identity.

Despite the fact that mental health needs to be just as important to people with eating disorders, it’s also critical to address that the eating disorder is an illness, not a possession or identity. The eating disorder is a mental health struggle that may be yours to face but the illness itself is not yours to own.

Dispelling the Myth About Full Recovery from an Eating Disorder

The widespread information online about eating disorders and recovery provides people suffering with these illnesses the ability to educate themselves. Access to knowledge informs people about their experience and how to get help.

The benefits of information are widespread. Patients have much more knowledge about eating disorders and treatment from the start. Research into all forms of help from medications to various types of therapy reveals many different options to get better. Broad details about clinical care gives patients the ability to express their own thoughts about the course of treatment. And educating oneself can be the best motivator to get well.

In recent years, the information available is more often from individuals rather than educational websites or non-profit organizations. Searches for eating disorders are likely to lead to Instagram influencers or marketers rather than a university hospital study or the Academy of Eating Disorders website.

Accordingly, the information people learn tends to be curated by people who may or may not be as educated about eating disorders and who may have a personal agenda. The agenda could be as simple as building a clinical practice or may reflect a personal bias about eating disorders. Since the internet equates all knowledge, people searching for useful articles can instead stumble upon biased data.

One myth that is particularly concerning is the idea that people with eating disorders will always be sick, that the best a person can do is tame the eating disorder thoughts but should expect to live with these thoughts forever. Although the belief that one can’t recover from an eating disorder is old, propagating the myth through social media runs the risk of making this idea appear to be fact.

Some people don’t get fully better from an eating disorder for a number of reasons, but the majority of people can and do get better. If people first learning about eating disorders believe they won’t get better, they approach treatment in a very different and less determined way. Armed with the myth they will never be well, these patients struggle to commit to recovery and to do the hard work needed to take on the process of recovery.

I worry that this myth is growing because more and more people grow their online presence and identity as someone who has recovered from an eating disorder but always needs to be vigilant. If people build a practice around the ever present identity of a recovered person, then being fully free of the eating disorder can jeopardize the business model. If people get well, then the practitioner needs to find a new identity to sell as part of the treatment the provide.

Although access to information can help many people learn about eating disorders and find the courage to seek help, the eating disorder community needs to be sure the goal is full recovery. Holding onto the identity of a recovered person runs the risk of helping people get better but limiting their identity to someone who is recovered. The goal of recovery needs to include becoming one’s true self.