Healing from anorexia is a process.
When I was around 13 years old, I developed anorexia. I just stopped eating because, at the time, I felt that food was the only thing in my life I could control. I also think that on some level, it was to get the love and attention that I now realize, was completely missing from my life. However, that mission failed because the only response I received was to grow up and eat something.
Because I didn’t receive the response that I wanted, on some level, I gave up and started periods of binge eating to suppress the toxic emotions I was feeling. This cycle of unhealthy eating continued throughout my life until my late twenties; although the thought patterns associated with the eating disorders are still active to this day, thanks to meditation, hypnosis, and EMDR, they are nowhere near as strong.
Most of my clients with eating disorders, including anorexia, have a similar story, although it always manifests slightly differently. But generally, unhealthy emotional coping strategies can develop in teens when everything in their life seems completely out of their control and when they feel their emotional needs aren’t being met.
Modalities that can help with healing anorexia and why
Healing from anorexia and eating disorders is a process. Success is not going to happen overnight, and you need the appropriate support around you, including the right therapy and therapist that resonates with you.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is powerful for helping people change their core beliefs and create patterns of behavior that lead them to a happier future. As a therapist who has gone through eating disorders, I can relate to most of my clients, so I’m able to target some of the destructive thinking patterns and core beliefs that come with anorexia.
Many people with an eating disorder have terrible self-worth and destructive stories flowing through their minds that are simply untrue. Hypnotherapy helps you to change your old story, build your self-worth around your beautiful personality and spirit and imagine a better life after healing from anorexia.
EMDR
EMDR is essentially trauma therapy. I’ve found EMDR helps to shift the toxic feelings that are still connected to the pattern of the anorexia mind. If you don’t heal the feelings and the emotions, it’s hard to build a happier future with a healthy sense of self-worth. Through EMDR, I learned that my self-worth isn’t tied up in how I look or how much I’ve eaten. Instead, I’m more focused on helping others, looking after myself, spending time in nature and feeding my mind with loving words, and giving myself the emotional support I didn’t get when I was younger.
Meditation
Meditation is important, so you can recognize which “mind” is most active. Is it the anorexia mind trying to get you to control everything and make you feel unworthy? Or is it a more positive mind you’ve been creating through daily affirmations and new habits? We need to meditate to connect with how we think and feel throughout the day, so we can choose what we focus on and create a better life.
Meditation is how we take back control.
When healing from anorexia, the most important thing to remember is that you deserve to be happy! When you keep this in mind, you can use it as the fuel that keeps you going through tough times. It is easy to slip back into the old, eating disorder mind, but through knowing that you deserve to be happy, you’ll find it easier to stay on track to success!
