Do we ever fully recover?

I don't remember waking up one day and thinking, 'I'm going to recover starting from now.' But I also know that I am actively recovering- no longer engaging in eating disorder behaviours; learning how to cope without them. I have also been in recovery multiple times. I have also relapsed many times after being 'in recovery'.

What is the actual definition of eating disorder recovery, do we treat it the same as any other addiction? When recovering from alcoholism, or drug abuse, we use the term sober. If we were to look at it in the same light, like we are often told to do so, recovery would be defined by the day you stopped engaging with eating disorder thoughts and behaviours. A relapse would diminish any effort of recovery- if an alcoholic is 50 days sober, and has a drink, he is no longer sober. 

I am not disagreeing nor agreeing with this idea. An eating disorder is an addiction and I have been told by a number of professionals to treat it as any other addiction.

The difference is, people recovering from addictions such as: substance abuse, sex, self-harm and so on, can avoid it to help recovery. Yet our addiction is already about avoiding; we avoid food. We need food to survive. In our case, food is our medicine (my apologies if you have heard this a thousand times!) and we need to eat to  recover. So is it really like any addiction? Should we be treating it the same way?

Another perspective, is the saying: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." This is used to emphasise that alcoholism is a chronic disease. To destroy the myths that someone 'chooses' to be an alcoholic; that they could 'just stop'.

I have heard too many times that I am choosing to not eat.

I'm choosing to live like this.

"Just eat!"

What people often forget is that we did not choose to have this disorder, but we do make the decision to recover. Making that decision is one of the hardest, most daunting things a person can do and every day is a fight. Every meal, every bite is a challenge. But its well-known that when you do something repeatedly, especially if it was tough to begin with, it gradually gets easier. There will be moments you question why, and desperately want to give up. However, with the right support, the right help, we become better equipped to get back on track.

So, do we every fully recover? Or are we always recovering? I do fully believe that further into recovery (and i mean years of hard-work and rewiring thoughts) it becomes a lot easier. The voices are rarely there, with the occasional disordered thought that we are able to laugh about and ignore. However, in my opinion I think there will always be a small part of our brain that is disordered. But the more work we put in towards a life free of restriction and full of freedom, the smaller that part of our brain becomes.

What are your thoughts? Do you think its possible to be 'cured'? 

Should we treat eating disorders like addictions? 

I'd love to hear others opinions on this topic, feel free to email enquiries@nourish2flourish.uk or fill out the form below!