3 Modern Ways Women Can Heal From Anorexia
Recovery is not about just becoming smaller. It is also about you reclaiming your energy, your relationships, your confidence and also your life.
In a culture that can make wellness feel synonymous with restriction, anorexia nervosa deserves a different conversation that is a bit different. Anorexia is not a lifestyle choice, nor is it a failure of will-power, but! It is a serious illness which is shaped by biological, psychological, and also social factors. Most importantly, recovery is entirely possible.
For women navigating anorexia, modern treatment increasingly looks beyond the number on a scale. The goal is not simply to restore physical health, but it is to also rebuild a life – in which food, movement, appearance, and self-worth will no longer dictate your every decision.
Today we consider three evidence – based approaches, that can form the foundation of your recovery.
1. Build A Multi-Disciplinary Recovery Team
Anorexia affects the whole body as well as the mind, which is why today’s best care often brings several specialists together. Therefore you are not navigating this route alone, but have a support mechanism in place to make the journey a bit more manageable.
A physician can monitor the medical consequences of malnutrition, while an eating-disorder therapist addresses the psychological patterns behind restriction. Included here is also having a registered dietitian, that can provide individualized nutritional support and help restore consistent eating. This is the general coordinated plan which is person-centered to enhance recovery.
This is especially important, to have this team on hand, since someone with anorexia, can experience significant medical complications. Complications can happen even when they do not appear visibly ill. An eating disorder cannot reliably be identified just by appearance alone.
Recovery is not a beauty project. It is comprehensive healthcare.
2. Make Therapy About More Than Just Food
Recovery requires more than learning what to eat. It means understanding why restriction has become so powerful.
Eating-disorder-focused psychotherapy, can help women challenge those fears surrounding weight gain. This therapy will also examine body-image distress, normalize eating behaviors, and develop even healthier ways of responding to difficult emotions. With anorexia, the it is specifically recommended that eating-disorder-focused psychotherapy is utilised as a core treatment.
Therapy may also explore things such as perfectionism, anxiety, relationships, identity, control. It can also assist in handling the cultural messages that have influenced the way a woman sees her body.
That shift can be transformative: instead of endlessly trying to “fix” your appearance, treatment asks a more meaningful question. That question in some form would be: “What would you want your life to look like if your body were no longer a problem you had to solve?”
3. Let Your Support System – Become A Part Of Your Recovery
Anorexia can make isolation feel safer. However, doing recovery often requires moving in the opposite direction.
A trusted partner, friend, sibling, parent, or other supportive person can help make doing treatment feel a whole lot less solitary. Having a form of family-based treatment has shown particularly strong evidence for adolescents and emerging adults in making it through recovery. For adults, supportive relationships can also be really valuable.
For some women, this might mean asking someone to accompany them to appointments. For others, it could mean sharing honestly when meals feel difficult, or, allowing a loved one to challenge the inner eating-disorder voice.
There is nothing un-luxurious about asking for help. In fact, one of the most powerful forms of self-care is refusing to carry an illness alone.
A New Definition Of Wellness
The wellness world often celebrates discipline, control, and transformation. Recovery today, also asks us to reconsider those ideas.
True well-being can also mean eating without guilt. It can mean resting without having to earn it. Wearing clothes because you love them rather than because they make your body look smaller.
How about going to dinner without calculating what it means. Having enough energy to travel, work, laugh, create, fall in love, and be present in the moment.
There is currently no medication specifically approved by the FDA to treat the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, although medication may be used to address certain co-occurring conditions. In severe cases, some form of hospital or medical treatment can be necessary. Of course this can also be in conjunction with the team support previously mentioned.
Most importantly, you do not have to wait until you look “sick enough” to seek help. If you suspect that you may have anorexia or, your relationship with food and your body is becoming increasingly distressing, speaking with a doctor or qualified eating-disorder professional is an important first step.
We aren’t saying that recovery may not be effortless, but, a life beyond anorexia can still be extraordinarily fulfilling. It is a life that is worth making the room for, and enjoying.
