About Anorexia-Say-No - Who We AreI'm a recovered anorexic and bulimic, and would like to share the experience of my recovery with others. I recovered with the help of a very good cognitive behavior therapist, and highly recommend cognitive behavior therapy as an aid to recovery from anyone suffering from any type of eating disorder. This type of therapy is different to many others in that it involves reprogramming your mind, so that you can think more clearly, and identify and work with the problems in your life one by one. My therapist did not spend time discussing food or weight issues with me and we spoke only briefly about my past. The therapy sessions were spent, instead, in talking about my life as it was at the time, where I wanted to be and what was stopping me from getting there. I came to realize that the only thing stopping me was myself, and the negative way in which I perceived myself. By helping me to slow down and become aware of my thoughts, I started to see that my negative self-image was permeating every area of my life. I began to realize that the thoughts I was having, of which I had previously been so unaware, were causing the feeling of panic which I had become so used to. Being anorexic and bulimic was, for me, an attempt to escape from the things I was afraid to face up to. I had a young child. My relationship with his father was unsatisfactory. I had recently returned from abroad, with no money, and had had to move back in with my parents. I wasn't happy with my job. Before I began to have therapy it never really occurred to me that I could change any of these things. The only thing I felt I could change, and control, was my body. Therapy showed me that the changes I could make to my life were what counted, and as I began to make these, I also began to lose the need to control my weight, my size and my shape through my anorexic and bulimic behavior. These concerns became more and more insignificant to me as I began to build the life for myself and my son that we need and deserve. I was undoing the thought patterns which had led to my becoming anorexic and bulimic, and replacing them with new, positive ones. I've since married a wonderful man, who's a great dad to my little boy, we're just about to buy a new home, and I couldn't be happier...or healthier!
If you would like to know more about how cognitive behaviour therapy can help the anorexic or bulimic, please click here
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