This wonderful recovery story was sent in to me this week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hi everyone, I am a community-based therapist in the Bay Area.\u00a0 I have struggled with binge eating since I was an adolescent.\u00a0 I have come a long way from the person I was at seventeen, and feel much healthier in my mind and body.\u00a0 I still struggle sometimes, but have created a primarily healthy adult life.\u00a0 The most valuable thing I\u2019ve learned over the years is how to take care of myself.\u00a0 My hope is to offer a perspective and some support that stems from a combination of my professional and personal experiences.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n When I was in my late teens, a very wise person told me \u201cyou just need to change the tapes in your head.\u201d\u00a0 Part of me wanted to run to the snack drawer in my family\u2019s kitchen and inhale the homemade scones or cookies that I\u2019d abstained from all week.\u00a0 \u201cJust change those tapes\u201d I thought, \u201cthat\u2019s it,\u201d I muttered under my breath in a huff.\u00a0 I was angry and sad and anxious, and in that moment at seventeen that advice felt like an insurmountable chore.\u00a0 I had to lose weight first.\u00a0 I had to go for a run.\u00a0 Would I ever look like I did when I was sixteen?\u00a0 I had to do get thin again.\u00a0 My gaining weight was probably why the boy I thought I loved broke up with me.\u00a0 It was clear that these were the exact tapes I was being told I needed change, but I didn\u2019t see them as tapes.\u00a0 These were true, and if I started thinking \u2013 a walk would feel good or my boyfriend and I weren\u2019t right for each other or I was wonderful just the way I was – then I was only covering up the truth; lying to myself so I would feel better.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ve come a long way since seventeen.\u00a0 Recovering from an eating disorder is absolutely a process that often involves several different kinds of support and levels of self-discovery.\u00a0 However, just as this blog talks about the power of language \u2013 fat talk, thinking you have to do this or that \u2013 an important piece of recovery is changing those tapes, and it may be a good place to start.\u00a0 Over the years, it has also become apparent to me that we too often privilege negative over positive thought.\u00a0 This privileging can be attributed to the fear that focusing on positive thought means you are giving up or lying to yourself.\u00a0 I have certainly been scared that focusing on the positives will mean the truth will come back and hurt.\u00a0 But when we think about it, negative and positive thoughts are created in the same place, so why would we not give them equal voice?\u00a0 And to take that step further, consider how negative thoughts impact your life\u2026if I think, \u201cI can\u2019t have a good day unless I run\u201d it doesn\u2019t serve me at all, but instead I feel trapped and unable to gain consistent contentment in my life.\u00a0 If I then think, \u201cI will have a good day because I am strong and capable\u201d that is no less true, and I feel empowered and competent.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n So, that wise person was onto something.\u00a0 It took me a long time, and the forming of my frontal lobe, to recognize the power in what we say to ourselves.\u00a0 I am certainly not immune to negative thinking, but I am better at stopping those thoughts or at least questioning why I am giving them power.\u00a0 I encourage you to do the same.\u00a0 If you have negative thoughts, pause, ask yourself where they stem from, learn from them, and then flip them upside-down.<\/em><\/p>\n Thanks for reading.<\/em><\/p>\n If you have a recovery story that you’d like to share here, please submit it to bingeeatingtherapy \u00a0(at) gmail (dot) com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This wonderful recovery story was sent in to me this week. Hi everyone, I am a community-based therapist in the Bay Area.\u00a0 I have struggled with binge eating since I was an adolescent.\u00a0 I have come a long way from the person I was at seventeen, and feel much healthier in my mind and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,559,23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n