Practicing Resilience in Eating Disorder Treatment and Recovery
Written by ‘Ai Pono Hawaii Staff Writer
You may have heard that being in recovery from an eating disorder takes a lot of strength, courage, vulnerability and resilience. But what does resilience actually mean? Does it mean learning to ignore overwhelming emotions and learning to stand on your own, or is resilience something else?
Read on to learn more about:
- What resilience is and isn't
- Understanding the role of eating disorder behaviors
- Why resilience is important in eating disorder treatment
- 5 ways to practice resilience in treatment
What is Resilience?
According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, resilience is “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands. A number of factors contribute to how well people adapt to adversities, predominant among them (a) the ways in which individuals view and engage with the world, (b) the availability and quality of social resources, and (c) specific coping strategies. Psychological research demonstrates that the resources and skills associated with more positive adaptation (i.e., greater resilience) can be cultivated and practiced.
Resiliency isn’t a fixed trait, it is complex and personal. Many circumstances can contribute to how resilient one is, and there isn’t an exact formula to become resilient. We are all individual people with many factors contributing to how we exist in the world. It is important to remember that struggling with resilience is not a flaw or something to be ashamed of. In fact, the ability to recognize you need to build resilience is an indication of how resilient you are!
The Role of Eating Disorder Behaviors
Eating disorder behaviors are an example of a maladaptive coping behavior. What are maladaptive coping behaviors? For most people struggling with an eating disorder, binging, purging, restricting, over-exercising, or any disordered eating behavior serves as a way to soothe oneself in moments of anxiety, stress, or fear. What makes something maladaptive is when these behaviors interrupt or interfere with living life. These types of behaviors feel like they help in the short term, but will end up making you feel worse in the long run. You may find yourself turning back to eating disorder behaviors or doing it more often even when you want to stop, or the behaviors cause feelings of shame.
So, Why Resilience is Important in Eating Disorder Treatment?
One of the main goals of eating disorder treatment and recovery as a whole is reducing or eliminating behaviors such as binging, purging, restricting or over-exercising. But, in order to be able to reduce and eliminate these behaviors, exploring and understanding the purpose of the eating disorder is extremely important. That is why a big part of treatment focuses on therapy, both individual and/or group. With a therapist, you are able to talk about your behaviors, thoughts and feelings related to your eating disorder. By understanding the reasons your eating disorder developed and exists in the first place, you and your treatment team are able to restore healthy behaviors, learn to cope without your eating disorder and begin building a life that doesn't rely on ones eating disorder to survive.
Unfortunately, life doesn’t stop when in treatment, difficult moments and adversity exists at all times. These types of events can include things like illness, loss of a loved one, abuse, financial struggles, or large scale tragic events in the news such as terrorist attacks, mass shootings, natural disasters, or pandemics. These challenging life experiences can disrupt our daily lives, causing stress, anxiety, fear. These moments are when disordered behaviors become easy to lean on. Practicing resilience during these times allows for a stronger foundation to stand on to keep yourself on track in recovery.
What Resilience isn’t
Sometimes people mistake resilience for not allowing themselves to feel difficult emotions. The truth is, resilience is actually the ability to allow yourself to feel difficult emotions and to work through stress, painful moments in life without avoiding these emotions or events.
Resilience also does not mean you have to work through things alone. Recognizing when you are in need of support and learning to lean on others for help is the opposite of weak, it means you are strong enough to know when you need help.
5 Ways to Practice Resilience in Eating Disorder Treatment
1. Be honest with your treatment team
In recovery, learning to be honest with yourself, loved ones, and your treatment team is crucial. Being truthful with yourself about how much you are struggling and being able to communicate that to your support is the best way to not let your eating disorder thrive in secrecy and isolation. By being honest and practicing transparency, you are able to continue working towards full recovery.
2. Learn & practice coping skills
Building coping skills is a huge part of the eating disorder recovery process. Coping skills have been defined as learned resourcefulness or a set of skills which a person uses to control certain internal events that might cause unwanted pain, feelings, or fear. By building a toolkit of coping skills, the likelihood of returning to disordered behaviors decreases. This practice of resilience allows you to learn to deal with stressful situations healthily without turning to your eating disorder.
3. Lean on support
As mentioned earlier, resilience is not learning to deal with difficult moments on your own. In recovery, it is important to learn how to lean on your support in times of need. This may look like asking for extra support during meals, discussing higher levels of care with your treatment team, or simply asking a friend to hang out with you when you need a distraction to avoid using behaviors.
4. Learn to recognize your feelings
Many people who struggle with an eating disorder will discover in treatment that a core issue is the inability to identify their own feelings. When in the depths of an eating disorder, it becomes easy to blame our bodies rather than recognize the actual issue at hand and the feelings that you are experiencing. By being able to correctly identify emotions when triggered or dealing with a difficult moment, you can learn to sit with those uncomfortable emotions and assess why they’re there, instead of having a knee jerk reaction and engaging in disordered behaviors.
5. Plan ahead
Creating a relapse prevention plan is a great way to prepare for challenges in recovery. To do this, you may want to think about what triggers your symptoms and what type of support you may need to stay on track is a strong practice of resilience. By having an action plan of who to call, talk to, and what steps have to be taken is a proactive way to getting your needs met.
Remember, you are able to build resilience and deserve to live a life free from your eating disorder. If you are looking for support on your journey to recover from your eating disorder, our team at ‘Ai Pono would be honored to help. Learn more about our programs by reaching out to us today.