The dos and don’ts of dealing with eating disorders. 

Living with and surviving an eating disorder is difficult. The effects that it can have on both your mind and body can be serious and can lead to much worse and potentially fatal physical illnesses if untreated for a long period of time.

Luckily, treatment for your disorder can be found all around you in the form of friends and family, nature, pets, activities that you enjoy or used to enjoy doing and the support of thousands of people who have devoted their lives to helping individuals who suffer from mental health disorders.

Practice Healthier Ways to Deal with Emotional Pain

When suffering from a serious eating disorder, it can be easy to lose hope and fall deeper and deeper into the disorder. Feeling out of control of your body, mind and general health can have devastating effects on your illness as well as any progress that has been made.

This is why it is important to practice ways of coping with emotional pain and trauma.

We suggest:

• Keeping a diary and making notes of your thoughts and experiences.
• Spending as much time out in nature as possible.
• Reading a good book.
• Contacting someone close to you just for a chat, even if you aren’t in the mood.
• Going out of your way to do something helpful for someone else.

Of course, not everyone gets enjoyment from the same activities so we suggest figuring out what you enjoy the most and doing those activities as much as you possible and as often as you can.

The “Do’s and Don’ts” of Dealing with an Eating Disorder

When it comes to eating disorders, there are certain things that you can do which will help you and improve the state of your overall mindset and health, while other things you should avoid doing at all costs.

Do’s:

• Experience your emotions and accept them, they are what make you, you.
• Allow yourself to open up to the people close to you, there is no need to deal with your illness alone.
• Instead of using food as a comfort, try your best to find other activities that can help you to cope.

Don’ts:

• Don’t try to suppress your emotions or hide them from yourself and your peers just because they make you uncomfortable.
• Don’t try to fool yourself into thinking that you are fine when you are not.
• Don’t allow anyone to put you down or make you feel guilty about your disorder.

Just a simple adjustment of your mindset and attitude toward your disorder can be the difference between coping and succumbing to it. There is no easy way out or “quick fix” for these illnesses and it takes a lot of time and effort to finally be able to live comfortably with it, but once you can do that, you will have won in the fight against your disorder.