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Looking for and understanding the RED FLAGS
I read this quote by Aimee Liu many months ago. It is something I have saved and reflect upon time and again. It is a great way to explain how eating disorders are symptoms expressing larger, underlying emotions.
“…keep in mind that all eating disorders, on one level anyway, function as pantomimes. We are acting out through our bodies the feelings of emptiness, being fed up, stuffed with so much shame or anger we have to get rid of it, or just being so hungry for something that we can never be filled up. I strongly suspect that you don’t hate your body but what your body has come to represent.”
In treatment I encourage my patients time and time again to identify what they are feeling. When someone comes in and says “I could not stop looking in the mirror this week. I felt so fat.” Or, ” I could not stop thinking about food. I was really preoccupied the last couple of days.” I always ask “What else has been going on?”
When you see your preoccupations, binge/purge or body dissatisfaction behaviors intensify try to think of it as a RED FLAG for other things bothering you. Ask yourself, “What else is really going on?”Like Aimee says, it is not your body you really hate. Same goes for feelings about food, weight, and other ed related preoccupations. It is not about the food but about the representations and meanings these things have developed for you over time.
Does anyone esle have other strategies that help cut through the ED behaviors and allow you to address some underlying issues?
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