ED Recovery People: Sick And Tired Of The Numbers Game?

Numbers have always played a part in my eating disorder. What I realize now is playing the numbers game can be dangerous to ED recovery.

The day I turned 43 I sat in a coffee shop sipping a mocha and indulging myself in a morning all to myself. I couldn’t help but look back at my life. Birthdays are such an interesting phenomenon. When we’re younger we can’t wait for birthdays. Then suddenly, almost with out warning, we hit a number and flip to dreading them.

Birthdays are all about numbers. They can also be a marker in time when we measure our “successes” and look back at how far we’ve come. Often I become introspective and nostalgic on my birthdays. Like many, without even realizing it, I attached certain goals to specific ages. I “should” have my first great job at 23, I “need” to be married by 25.  And I “have” to have my first child by the time I’m 30. At the time I was not aware of the connection between this focus on numbers and my ED recovery.

The trouble with numbers

It’s funny how focusing too much on numbers, any numbers really, has gotten me into trouble.

The problem is, I was attaching my worth as a person to meeting these benchmark goals I’d arbitrarily assigned to random ages.

When I graduated with my Master’s degree I had my first taste of things not going according to my plan. Instead of having a job right away, it took me 9 months to find my first job in my field. But I got through it and still clung to my goals.

When I got married just one month shy of my 25th birthday, I breathed a sigh of relief as again I met my imaginary deadline. Yet, this is where my path took a hard left and I was suddenly off track of my goals. As I approached the dreaded 30th birthday, not only was I NOT going to meet my goal of having my first child, but I was actually in the process of getting divorced.

Can you really control them?

Needless to say, I spent several of my next birthdays in a dark place. But as I sit here, many years later, it is finally starting to sink in. Focusing too much on any numbers in my ED recovery was not helpful.

Number games in my head have done nothing but hurt me. Because age, just like weight, just like calories, just like miles run… are just numbers.

When we attach value to these numbers, and when we assume we can some how manipulate and control them, we are always setting ourselves up for failure.  Even if we reach the goal with the number, it rarely satisfies us for long.  A new goal with a new number surfaces. It is never enough. 

Then there are the times we don’t reach our goal. Because while life is full of many amazing and beautiful blessings and gifts, it is also unpredictable and uncontrollable. The more I tried to control these numbers, the harder I fell. I didn’t merely turn 30 while going through a divorce. In my mind I was turning 30 and had was way off track for  whole life. These failures meant I would never have the life or dreams I had hoped for.  All because having a divorce at 29 was not in my plan.

Those looming numbers in ED recovery…

When I approached the dreaded 40th birthday I found myself once again staring a number in the face. I’d been in and out of various levels of treatment for an eating disorder that at best stood at bay and was “controlled’ and at worst led me to very dark and lonely places. I’d trudged through recovery and pieced together a life together with an amazing husband. We built a family that looked nothing like the one I created in my head. Yet, I loved it.

Through it all, the eating disorder loomed underneath. Numbers still held power and space in my head. The fact that I was going to be 40 when I had our third son loomed heavily in my mind. Worse, as I approached 40, I realized I’d spent more than half my life hating my body and struggling to change it or accept it.

Numbers still threatened to undermine my ED recovery.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure there was any other way.

The messy truth

Here is where it all comes back to the numbers, and letting go of the meaning attached to them. As much as I would like to write that when I turned 40, I finally let go of my eating disorder, lived in the moment, and focused on my family… if I wrote that, I would be lying. The truth is much messier.

The truth is after having my third son I was not only utterly overwhelmed with having three small children, but it was complicated by postpartum depression and anxiety. Is it is not surprising that once again, I turned to controlling my weight as a way to cope.

As the number on the scale and my pants size went down, instead of feeling better, I felt worse. I sank to a place where I was not present with my own children, family, or friends. It was like being underwater; I could see them, but I couldn’t reach them. I realized that I was living my life-long dream of being a mother, and yet I wasn’t really even connected to my children. And worst- I was not the mother I wanted to be for my family. I was not present. I wasn’t even enjoying it. The thing about children is they grow and change so quickly, they are a constant reminder of how quickly time actually does go by.

Finally letting go of the numbers in ED recovery

And so, once again, with help from my therapist, my husband, and some extraordinary friends, I found my way back to treatment and to the world of recovery. Finally I started realizing in order to reach true recovery from an ED, and in order to find peace and joy and live in the present, I had to let go of the numbers and the meanings I have attached to them.

Once and for all. All of them. The calories, weight, age…

This battle can only be won by letting go of the meaning we attach to the numbers.

At 43,  for the first time in my life, I started truly working on loving my body at what ever number it settled on.

I stated focusing more on love and on living life joyfully than I on my pants size. And as a result, I was able to find excitement about the future regardless of how many years old I was. Thankful for my health and the health of my family, I have hope and curiosity about what is to come. For someone who spent her life anxious about what would happen next and imprisoned my the fear,THIS is the biggest shift and the most valuable one.

And you can not attach a number to that.

To read more from Lisette and learn about opportunities to work with her in private coaching please visit her website here, or follow her on instagram here.