Small Victories
Happy Recovery Month! As part of our celebrations, let's share some small victories here and in the feed!
-----
In eating disorder recovery, sometimes it's the little, day-to-day victories that mean the most, so I wanted to create a thread for us to share those.
I'll start. Yesterday at a football watch party, I let go of my hang-up about cream-cheese based dips (I know, weirdly specific, but there it is) and ate some delicious cheesecake dip that a friend made that normally I wouldn't have let myself have. Yum!
Hello! Youve found a clue for the Pen Pals event for Mental Health Awareness Month. This is a clue for ED support, the clue was ‘progress is incredible - heres where you can be appreciated and the term is victories! Thank you for participating.
I was at a healthy weight about 6 months ago. I then tried to go vegan at the beginning of the year and ended up loosing too much weight so I became anorexic. Then my grandmother started abusing me again and I started binge/stress eating and gained almost [edited by Anomalia to remove weight specifics] pounds. Now I am slowly trying to recover from the stress eating on my own with no help and to lose back down to my goal where I had been for 17 years until this year. Losing weight is so much harder to do than to gain weight..... I wish it was opposite lol. I cant believe I let myself stress eat and gain so much. I have no energy now, am extremely out of shape again and have to try so hard to lose the weight again.....the stress gets so hard that it gets very difficult to ignore the urges to want to stress eat but I am slowly doing better.
@GodsBabyGirl1981 I hope it was ok for me to post this
@GodsBabyGirl1981 - It is absolutely hard to find yourself swinging from one side to the other and not feeling comfortable with the change, but as you said, slowly doing better counts for a lot! I'm proud of you for making those steps towards health and we are here to support you!
I've been struggling a lot recently and been finding it hard to battle my thoughts but i managed to eat a little something today. It wasn't a full meal - probably not even a quarter but it was something. I am struggling at the moment with my thoughts but i'm battling back and i'll get through this night.
@myparalleluniverse - Three simple words stood out to me - "It was something". And that counts for a lot! It's hard to take those steps, and those first small ones are what it takes to start looking for bigger ones later. We all start somewhere, and "something" is a great thing!
@Anomalia
how do you recover from a eating disorder?
@Katiets - That's a great question, but not an easy one to answer. Recovery looks a little different for every person and the resources available to people can vary.
In general, I think that eating disorder recovery has two big pieces - one is dealing with the physical side (meaning stopping the ED behaviors like restricting, purging, or binging and restoring the body to health). the other is dealing with the mentail/emotional side (meaning the pieces that sit beneath the behaviors and make the eating disorder feel like it fills a need). Both are important and they both have to happen to really reach recovery, in my mind, though often we view only the physical side as what needs treating which tends to lead to relapse at the next major stressor because the underlying issues haven't been resolved and the person hasn't developed alternative healthy coping mechanisms.
I am a big believer in professional help, so where possible I think it's important for people struggling with an eating disorder to work with a professional (or team of professionals) - like a therapist, a doctor, a dietitian, etc. That said, there are also important steps that can be started at any time and that can be done with support from friends, family, listeners, etc. that go hand in hand with professional support. These can be things like starting to talk about it, challenging the thoughts that the eating disorder brings up, testing other coping mechanisms and challenging oneself to work on the behaviors - eating a little more or trying fear foods if someone is restricting, working to avoid purging or binging with distraction techniques or other coping mechanisms, etc.
Hope that helps - I'm always happy to talk more if you want to reach out.
@Anomalia
that's a beautiful reply!!!!
@Katiets
Heya, i'm just a pm away if you need emotional support!
Well it is Tuesday now, Tuesday late evening, but I wanted to post this anyway.
#EDWarriors , report from Platy ...
I made and ate Lunch on Saturday!!! This is big for me because much more often breakfast sort of overtakes lunch time, and then later is a snack and later still supper. So to have a meal - even a small meal - at lunchtime? This is very good. 
Platy
@Anomalia @piercetheaiden @emsworld @Kate @pinkfluffyunicorns8706
@cyanPlatypus6370 - 
It's Recovery Month and we're celebrating this week in the Eating Disorder community. One of my favorite things to talk about with recovery are the small victories because I think we too often forget to give ourselves credit for them, but those small victories add up!
Today's small victory for me: Letting myself have a treat at brunch without feeling guilty :)
@Anomalia
*celebrates* proud of you and your victory!!!!
I resisted given into my urges. I haven't been in the best mindset recently and today things came falling down and it was really hard for me to push aside my ED thoughts. I'm frustrated that I've been going backwards in recovery lately but I'm just glad I didn't give in and go deeper into my ed behaviors
@myparalleluniverse - Great job of fighting back, Parallel!!! You are right, it is NOT easy, but YOU CAN do it! 
and we here can help you - especially if you let us.
Good job, dear parallel ! EDs, even ones that are 'over' or in the past, are tricky - we need lots of good weapons of truth to use against the lies of the ED!
@myparalleluniverse - I'm really proud of you! It's hard when everything feels overwhelming to continue to fight the urges, but it's such a big step to be able to stop yourself from going deeper. Well done!
@Anomalia
i did not binge eat when I got stressed yesterday even though I wanted to
@lamusiqueestlavie - That's fantastic! I'm really proud of you for making it through those urges and not giving in. What helped you to avoid it?
@Anomalia
i was talking to my best friend on the phone we have not talked ever since I moved away
Hi fellow ED Warriors!
Today, I went to the grocery store alone with no list but just a sort-of "wish list." And it went really well !!!!
Previously going to the grocery store was something that was scary and produced a lot of anxiety. Today my trip to the store took a LONG time, but I came home with two bags for others and about one and half bags for me here at home (oh wait a few of those are gifts too). Anyway, I bought 4 bananas for a recipe that I hope we will actually put together and freeze tomorrow or Tuesday ... AND I bought one extra banana for me ( @Anomalia @emsworld )
Sometimes I feel so silly writing down small victories like this. But if any of you wrote it - same thing - I would be like, "Yeah! Go you! Great job!" So I guess it's okay/good to tell you my little victories too, right? Okay, I've got to go. Time for one banana to be eaten by one Platypus. 
#KeepFighting #EDSupport #EDWarriors and definitely MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! Platy
@cyanPlatypus6370 - I never caught up on my December notifications so I'm just seeing this now, but this definitely counts as a victory and this is a great thread to share it in! I'm proud of you for that (and your many other) small victories! <3
It's been a week of not eating enough. But today I eat twice and drink sugary drink 🌼🌼🌼 Wow to me, I've gotten better 🌹 Still not talking to people though. Taking my time with that. Bit progress is progress 🌸🌸🌸
Proud of you for taking those steps! Well done, both on that and on recognizing that progress is progress!
@MieraCurie
Today I have eaten more than I usually do. It's "only" a little, but it's better than nothing. It's also very difficult to be happy about eating more, bc I both don't wanna and wanna recover. It's very hard, bc of my ED thoughts and trigger thoughts that fills up my head, and it sucks like hell. But at least I feel happy.