How long does it take to be considere... - Talk ED (eating d...

Talk ED (eating disorders)

3,547 members1,490 posts

How long does it take to be considered "recovered" from an Eating Disorder?

Nocastle2go profile image
14 Replies

What if you still deal with your body image after you've got normal weight?...

Am I actually "recovered" if I keep looking myself in the mirror wishing to be slimmer or counting calories...?

Even after almost four years that I have a "normal weight"...

Written by
Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
14 Replies
njam profile image
njam

Sorry to say it but I don't think you are recovered. I lived at a relatively normal weight on and off over the yrs. I thought I was recovered but I wasn't. I just didn't want to face the truth and I didn't know what the truth meant. I'd called it maintenance. ..a half life k

njam profile image
njam

Got cut short half way through typing...anyway...

it's not really living is it when you feel so bad about yourself...all I can say is that the whole time I knew somehow that it was all part if my journey i kept an ounce of faith that this happened for a reason and that one day I would be free and it is only now that I am starting to think that maybe just maybe recovery really does exist. Good luck on your journey

n

Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go

Yes, that's what I'm afraid of...I'm afraid that's what truly recovery is too, but it's been so long to me to get to that point, it's like I am just trying to make everyone else "happy" or just not make them to be worried about me and I hid most of them this truth but my mind is a whole mess, you know...?

I've been physically "ok" but mentally just...

EeyoreLover profile image
EeyoreLover

There is such a thing as fully recovered - I've done it! It took a lot but I'm happy with my weight as I know I am slim but healthy, I can eat a take away and not feel like I've put on a stone! You'll know your recovered when you stop focusing on how you look, and take yourself for who you are and you enjoy life - going out with friends - lying in the beach in a bikini that sort or thing. But you need to ask for help you need to speak to someone I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have the support and advice that I got!

Good Luck!

Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go in reply to EeyoreLover

Thank you very much...

njam profile image
njam

Well my glimmer of hope went out today. I am too old, been this way too long and with 2 children it is too complicated to move on. I've given up. Noone listens...story of my life really and well I can't go through it again on my own. It's my birthday soon. I'm damned if I'm living another yr in hell. I wish you all the best x

Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go in reply to njam

I haven't been here for a while. Don't ever give up, the worst fight is the one you never do, I am not sure if I have translated this right (my first language is Spanish), what I mean, I am not sure if I will ever get to be "normal" again, specially talking about body image, I guess I will always critizice my body or myself, but I keep fighting because I do consider myself a figther, somehow the ED made so, I used to fight against my body, now I fight with it and for it...Hope you're doing good or ok at least, my best wishes!

njam profile image
njam

Hello

This took me back 4months!!! December was a dark time for me.

I'm ok...I didn't give up...but then i wanted to quit again but didn't over and over again sometimes several times a day.

A little voice inside me kept saying fight this is your last chance. I've had unwavering faith and support from my psychologist and a true friend and that faith has got me to today and recent developments are I am starting to have faith I can do this so...u was born fur this journey and in the future I will help people and make a difference.

This is controversial...I suggested this once on here and it didn't go down well but I think anorexia is a blessing in disguise. During recent months my brain has been totally screwed by odd memories...scarey stuff. ..bad stuff. ..I think more is to come but I guess it was all stuff I had forgotten...in fact right now I can't remember any of it but it is in there I know that much...just buried...

What I did learn from it was no wonder I developed an eating disorder!!!

I realised noone in my family cared about me...probably because stuff happened to them they couldn't handle and so I had noone to listen to me noone to care. My eating disorder became my world. ..my everything. ..I could depend on it and it never left me. ..yes it could say I was fat but when I lost weight it praised me and noone ever praised me at home. That's why giving it up is so hard. ..I still have no family who care..not really.

I always felt this was my journey. ..my path. ..it never scared me...others told me it was bad and dangerous...eat you look too thin when what they really meant to di was scare me into leaving anorexia and looking ok weight wise enough to not attract interest from others that there might be a problem...it never left me that voice not ever...I somehow never felt alone with it there. I feel now I am just picking up life again where I was before my ed took over and when it took over exactly I'm not sure but I was very young...I'm trying not to look too far ahead and take things a minute at a time. ..I don't know what the future holds but I'm not worried about it. God gave me this life because of faith in me to live it...survive it...it had been testing but it won't go ti waste. ..I'm learning and growing. Some lovely people have faith in me And because if that faith in me I now have an ounce if faith I will be ok. I still swing ftom high to very low...knowing I'll be ok to wanting to commit suicide but I eill kerp fighting.

Look deep inside. ..feel it. ..signs of life are there and fight for it...im hoping it leads to a happy life...I wish the same for you.

n

Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go

Interesting thought, a blessing in disguise...Anyway, don't ever think you are alone, it might sound cliché, but the most important thing you have is yourself and your faith, which I can tell is great =). I believe things happens for some reason, which sometimes we don't see clearly, but yes I also thing this could happen to me so I can help others, I'm studying Nutrition and Dietry and I want to help people some day with this, I do have to learn myself how to see food as life instead of see as threating thing.

The things right now for me are hard also because of what is happening in my country, there are student protests and we haven't had classes and everything is so tense, and it broke my rutines and my habbit and that sort of freaks me out, because I feel like I'm not doing any academic progress and that my goals are further...=/

njam profile image
njam

Yes a blessing in disguise :o)

Think about it. ..something pretty bad or sad or both must lead to anorexia. ..I'm pretty sure weight/food/my size/exercise became a obsession or a distraction from whatever was happening at the time that my brain couldn't cope with and no one supported me with. So how can something that helped me survive be such a bad thing. If what I've felt lately (very fat...someone will notice how fat. .. confused, alone and scared....absolutely terrified evrn) if I felt that as a young child it must hsve been earth shattering!!! God only knows how I was...I don't remember. ...it wasn't a conscious thing to lose weight....I judt didn't want to eat...I acted more deliberately as I got older...I was already trapped into it by then I guess. I certainly didn't know the changes that have happened would happen. I was resigned to staying that way forever. Thankfully I found someone with faith in me and it has blown my brain out. ..it is amazing ti be told you're getting better!!!!???? Me at 38!!!! I am beating the odds!!!

If I can do this anyone can...have hope and faith and God will send you what you need at the right time...in time. .trust the journey.

Sorry I don't know what is happening in Spain. ..I apologise for my ignorance...too much to juggle in my brain at the moment. Sorry to hear it's affecting you. I would love to hi to Barcelona to see Gaudi stuff I bet it is beautiful.

I believe you can help people once truly recovered si uih csn say with conviction I did it. Work towards that as much ad you can :o)

Good luck on your journey

n

Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go in reply to njam

Yeah, my ED started when I was a teenager, hard times, everythings changing in your body, you are growing up, blah, blah, blah, but I was also trying to get good greads in school and fight against myself to apply in College tests and my school was really strict and idk, one thing lead to the other and then it all got worse

Right now, a bit older, at my 23, I see things a bit different because I've got through another things, I know now my body wasn't the key to cope with pressure, I know it conciously but sometimes ED beatraves me, you know =/

And no, I am from Venezuela, right now there have been students protests because of all issues in this country: crime, shortages, inflation, people is also very devided...It's complicated

Gaining weight is not a sign of recovery. It is very hard to determine what recovery actually is. In my experience, recovery is when your anorexia no longer has any power over you any more. It is when you look in the mirror and even though you may not like what you see, you no longer feel the need to starve etc. It is when the anorexic voice in your head has gone.

I don't like how I look but this has no impact whatsoever on my lifestyle. The majority of people don't like how they look. You don't have to be anorexic to have body image issues.

Eating disorders are pervasive and very hard to recover fully from. But it is possible. I completely recovered from anorexia and I know have my own counselling clinic in Derbyshire. I also offer online therapy and counselling via the accredited Liverperson website.

You may find my profile at this link. If you would like to engage in counselling sessions with me then it is very easy to start via this link

liveperson.com/expert/m-blo...

Nocastle2go profile image
Nocastle2go in reply to mark1962fullyrecovered

That's what I feel recovery is, like ED no longer having power in my thoughts, and I haven't get there, I'm physically "healthy", but my mind still goes on and off. I'm trying to find my way to recovery, I'm still in therapy and I do like it, it is interesting to see how it works, and I am studying Nutrition and Dietry, and I want aswell to help others with this, because I know how it is, but yet again I have to recover first...

fallenbat profile image
fallenbat

The power of google...if you ever get this..hello <3

You may also like...

Binge eating disorder

Hi all, I'm new to this platform and am looking to find some people who might be going through the...

Hot flashes from lack of estrogen

cause is no estrogen in my body? Also I know the real treatment is to gain weight and that...

Long Term Issues Due to Anorexia?

lymphocytes they, that it appears normal for me as they have always been low and still are... Is...