What Recovery Means to Kate W
What Recovery Means to Kate W
"Recovery means collaboration. It needs the knowledge, understanding, strength and commitment of different people, who can each contribute along the way."
We're gathering stories from the SWEDA community and beyond, inspired by the prompt #WhatRecoveryMeansToMe. We’re building this series as a resource: something for people affected by eating disorders to read, that can support them and inspire hope, or just hear that they are not alone. We also want to raise awareness about how recovery is not a fixed or 'one size fits all' concept: it's something unique to each person and their own hopes for a life in recovery from disordered eating.
Kate W, a retired dietitian who worked in a specialist eating disorders team for over 30 years, shares her reflections:
"When I learned about SWEDA’s project on recovery, I allowed the idea to sit in my mind for a few days, and found the word that emerged most strongly is collaboration. I think it always needs the knowledge, understanding, strength and commitment of different people, who can each contribute along the way. And of course it is a way, that doesn’t have an end. What I tried to contribute was information and understanding about food, nutrition, health and eating. It’s often said that eating disorders are not about food, but they are, a bit, and finding ways to make lasting changes in thoughts and feelings about food, and to using it, must be part of the recovery process. We all need food to live, so it’s not possible to give it up, recovery means building a relationship with food that is healthy and comfortable, not perfect. We all have to think about it, make decisions about it, sometimes feel a bit stressed about it, and we can all enjoy it. We need food, to be physically healthy, to share food as part of our family and social lives, and we need to feel comfortable and confident in using it – at least most of the time.
To me, the very beginning of recovery is finding whatever way works for a person to meet their nutritional needs. Because everyone is different, this needs careful consideration of a range of ideas and options, and taking recovery forward by building on what works well, and adapting what doesn’t.
Recovery in eating means replacing useless fretting about food with productive planning. It means replacing doubt and confusion with knowledge and understanding. It means feeling safe enough to try new things, to expand and change food choices. It means experimenting, making mistakes, and learning from the experience, not retreating from it. It means replacing rigid, detailed rules with a flexible framework that supports good nutrition and has room for life changes, celebrations and surprises. It means understanding signals of hunger and fullness, knowing that they are different for every individual, and responding in a healthy way, not trying to ignore them, or feeling overwhelmed or confused by them. It means joining family and social events, not wriggling out of them, so relationships with others can grow and deepen, not be stifled. It means taking time to think about and plan to manage the challenges that come along, not avoiding them. It means feeling able to choose and prepare food comfortably, to eat alone or share with others. It means feeling able to balance individual needs for food with the needs of others, the need for sustainability, and the limits and opportunities of our lives.
Eating disorders bring misery to the experience of food and eating which can be constant and overwhelming. In time, recovery can replace the misery with growing glimmers of the pleasure and joy that food can bring to life."
