Help Managing Anxiety During Recovery?
I've been trying to work through an unspecified eating disorder (I'm not seeing a therapist right now, and my primary care doctor doesn't really know much about my eating issues other than that I have a digestive disorder [IBS] which I am on medication for at the moment) but I'm trying to find ways to manage anxiety in "recovery." I know that my best bet will be working through this with a therapist but I don't always have access to professional therapy and therefore want to find healthy coping mechanisms I can use on my own during this time.
I have a lot of anxiety about feeling full/overfull, and if/how what I eat will affect my IBS. It's hardly ever about my weight/staying thin (though I do have body image issues, though I think that's more just dysmorphia than actual anorexia). I get a lot of anxiety around food, though, and it makes social situations even so much as eating on campus when I have classes very stressful. Today has been one such day. I found a lot of motivational memes about taking power back from your eating disorder which is great! And was super inspiring. It inspired me to do better with my eating today, which I was super proud of, but after dinner I started feeling sick and having a really bad IBS flare-up again. I had one a few days ago, as well, that woke me up from a deep sleep at 5am to spend the next two hours crying and hyperventilatng in the bathroom. It has been instances like this that, in the past, have made me wary of eating anything whatsoever, even foods I consider "safe" because I get terrified that eating anything will set this torture off again. I know I need to eat to be healthy and strong, but it's hard to fight through the fear and tell myself that it is not better to starve when this kind of pain is the outcome of eating. The medication I am on helps but only to a certain degree, but I would rather stay with it because I prefer it over other options. I'm also crazy emetophobic, so any food that has made me sick in the past I refuse to eat, as well. A therapist I had in the past was thinking I had ARFID, but we were unable to continue our sessions long enough for us to delve deeper into that. I've been doing some research on my own and have discovered cibophobia might be an accurate term to describe my issues, but in so many places it's considered synonymous with anorexia rather than something separate which makes me wary of that label (though I know I shouldn't diagnose myself with anything anyways when I could get diagnosed by a professional).
Either way, I just have a lot of anxiety around food, eating/eating too much or feeling full, trigger foods for my chronic illness, and foods that might make me sick. I want to keep working at this and stop restricting due to all of this fear/anxiety, but I need ways to cope so I can get through this and not let the anxiety from my eating disorder pull me back into unhealthy habits. Does anyone have any suggestions? Things that have helped them?
I am struggling very hard with physical and emotional pain that has triggered me to eat out of temporary comfort and at times to over eat. I just lost my last parent March 11th my father and I am literally on an emotional roller coaster. I spent Friday and Saturday in bed and then Sunday I went to church and felt extremely tearful and uncomfortable. I spent today Monday in bed again. I have been seeing a therapist but unfortunately they are out of the office all week so I won