Are eating disorder recovery accounts helpful?

You’re in recovery scrolling through social media when you stumble across an eating disorder recovery account. However, you come across a post about their journey. Inside the post are photos. Yes. We know the photos we’re talking about. Those photos. The photos you ignorantly save or screenshot incase you wanna look back on. Comparison comes along with recovery. As do setbacks and struggles. But what YOU choose to do with those setbacks and struggles are on you.

Let’s say you’re in recovery. You then start to post YOUR journey. Without thought you post a “What I eat in a day.” Now, we’ve all seen the “What I eat in a day” on tiktok or instagram etc. Let’s face it. It’s ALL DIET FOOD. Rice cakes and hummus are not a substitute for a proper meal. “At least im eating.”, Yeah, at least you’re eating rabbit food. Not to be insensitive, but the “Recovery” foods shows on recovery is almost as if it’s mocking recovery. Let’s backtrack. You’re showing a what I eat in a day to help other young people the importance of recovery. But is it really helpful?

I want to go more in depth and talk about the pathology of what makes an eating disorder recovery account what it is and how it can be harmful to others. We talked about the food. That’s done for. But let’s talk about the motivation that comes with recovery. As someone who struggled with an eating disorder, I can attest that we do get rushes of recovery and motivation. But guess what. I got those in the DEPTHS of my recovery when I was struggling immensely. I would say “Screw it, let’s get a cookie.” Yes, at that time, I thought that was a major breakthrough. And in that element in time, it was for me. But paradoxically, when people in eating disorder recovery say, “Screw it, Im getting the cookie.” You’re still giving in to the realms of your ED. You’re giving into the self conscious of your eating disorder. Recovery isn’t just about food. It’s about MUCH more than that because if all your life focus is around food and intuitive eating, you’re still tied down to your eating disorder. I could go into a whole other story about intuitive eating. But that’s another day. So we talked about mirror pics, and motivation and food. One last thing before I end this because I want to keep this short and sweet and the more I will talk, the more redundant this all will sound; But in recovery there’s a huge flood of individuals who rush to get the, NEDA TATTOO. Oh boy. Now, you do what you want. But I will NEVER EVER get that tattoo on my body. When you get that tattoo, you’re branding yourself as an eating disorder victim. You’re never gonna free yourself from the shackles of your eating disorder. I saw in an article that people who get that tattoo said that when you get the it, it means you’ve overcome a hard battle. It may mean your tattoo is saying you’re willing to continue recovery. But really, you’ve lost. You’ve made a permanent decision to your body saying, “Look everyone, I HAVE AN EATING DISORDER.” MY recovery is ignoring it. Yes, at one point in time, I struggled with an eating disorder. I made posts, I WAS the girl that had rushes of recovery. I’m not perfect.

Now in the present moment, my recovery is going out with friends, hanging with my family. Going to the movies, drawing, singing, art. Notice how none of it has to do with food? I don’t need to constantly talk about healthy eating or food intuitiveness to show i’m in recovery. To wrap up, I want to leave you with a few reminders. You’re not your eating disorder. Literally. Stop branding yourself, stop posting “ED recovery pics” at your lowest. Don’t talk numbers. Don’t eat rice cakes for a meal. And don’t say screw it im getting a cookie. Just eat the damn cookie. Thank you.