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Typically, recovery from an eating disorder takes from 1-7 years. Recovery depends on the client’s level of commitment to the treatment process.
The Four Stages:
Denial
· We still believe that we can control our eating and that everything will be okay
· We continue our eating disorder behaviors
· We deny the emotional component to our problem
· We tend to keep our feelings and problems to ourselves
· Emphasis on outer solutions
The Transition Stage
· Realize our problems go deeper than the size of our bodies
· Become aware of triggers
· Continue struggling with food, weight, or body image
· Begin to accept the need to look toward inner solutions
· Begin to recognize our insufficient ways of dealing with life
· Begin to let go of self-destructive behaviors
· Begin to experience emotions we were previously avoiding
· Often enter a crisis period
· Emergence of feelings can be a difficult and frightening experience
· Requires enormous amount of emotional support
· Reaching out can be difficult
· Without adequate support, emotions can be overwhelming and cause many to return to the Denial Stage
Early Recovery
· Things start to calm down
· Begin to depend on ourselves more
· Easier to reach out
· Increased tolerance for handling emotions/better at coping with them
· Experimentation with eating
· Begin to have faith in the recovery process
Ongoing Recovery
· About knowing and trusting ourselves/ treating ourselves with love and respect
· More and more comfortable with food and our bodies
· Know how to handle feelings
· Better able to identify our needs and speak our truth
· Use support system
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