Breaking free from bulimia Part Three

After my near miss with binging yesterday, it seemed appropriate to continue with my posts on recovery since the third in this series is about perseverance. Recovery is a hard and slow process. It can take years and for half of the time not seem to be getting anywhere. There are bad days where you seem to forget everything you've learned and embrace the bad habits completely. But it is always worth fighting.

The day when you put the food back on the shelf at the supermarket and decide you're not buying binge supplies, that day makes the ones where you've slipped up seem less important.

The day when you can eat normal meals with friends make it worth the struggle.

There is no miracle cure. You don't just get better. But recovery is still possible.

Keeping going

Don't aim for a complete cure in one go. You're certain to slip up a load of times before you reach recovery. Trying to get better all at once is going to lead to you seeing these slip ups as failures. They're not. They just happen.

Instead, set smaller goals. "I will not binge at all tomorrow." "I will go two days without purging." "I won't binge on more than x amount of food."

Set yourself targets of short lengths of time without binging. Start with a day, then go to two days, then three. It will take a while and there will be many occasions when you don't meet the targets you set yourself, but it will feel amazing when you can say that you've gone a week without binging.

Try not to be discouraged by the times you don't meet your goals. Just set yourself another, possibly making it slightly smaller, and try again. That's the important point. Try again. And again. And again.

Sometimes it can help to try with other people, whether in real life or online. There are pro-recovery groups and online communities. Ask other members to join you in trying to go without binging for a few days. It may make it easier to succeed if you have to admit to others when you slip up. Some people find this just puts pressure on them, makes the whole thing more stressful and makes them binge more. It's up to you to do what works for you. If sharing your attempts at binge-free days helps you, then do it, if it doesn't, find something else that helps.

It might help you to keep a record of when you binge. Over time, you can look back and see the binges getting less and less frequent. On the other hand, this might be discouraging if all you see is a list of all the times you messed up. Remember, only do this if it helps you. It might be better to record the days when you don't binge, focussing on the food rather than the bad.

Find reasons to recover. Spend time with friends and people you care about. Spent time doing things you enjoy. Life can seem bleak and horrifying when you're disordered, but it is worth living. Try and spend some time each day doing things you like doing that aren't connected with food and this will serve as a reminder of why you're trying to get better.

Always, always keep fighting.