How can you explain to people that weight restoration does not mean that you no longer have a eating disorder?

weight restoration is just a step to overcoming an eating disorder, but it's a step on the right direction

Personally, I would say, "I'm in a healthier body but my state-of-mind isn't perfect yet. I'm still becoming friends with my food and re-teaching myself that food is not my enemy. I'm better but not totally over my eating disorder."

Eating disorders are not always about weight. Look at people who suffer from binge eating or Bulimia nervosa - most of them have a healthy weight. Weight resoration is a big part of the recovery, especially when you are suffering from Anorexia, but it is only one part of it. The physical recovery. The other part, the bigger and more important one is mental recovery. Eating Disorders are mental illnesses, so weight restoration is not what "heals" you.

Weight restoration does not mean your totally cured from an eating disorder that is only to help you gain health and strength. The root cause of eating disorders is why the person got into the eating disorder routine in the first place, normally there is a history and mental trauma behind it.

When someone has an eating disorder, they may at some point return to their original weight. However, if this person continues to eat in irregular patters, they have disordered eating (regardless of weight.)

off course weight restoration does not mean that you have no longer an eating disorder!!! If the person is not healthy in their mind,I mean recovered from mind and still have struggles by eating some foods, or still have strange attitudes about food, or still exersising a lot they are not mentally fine, they could be physically fine, but not mentally and not being mentally okay will make them get into the same main problem they were before

Weight restoration does not mean that you no longer have an eating disorder. Many people do not realize that your body actually stores the food you eat as fat if you are not eating adequate amounts of food. Your body basically thinks you are starving so it try's to provide a long term energy source. Also, if you are working out trying to lose weight, your body could be building muscle which weighs more than fat. Sometimes, weight gain is actually a good thing. Rather than watching the scale, you should be focusing on what you put in your mouth and what it does to you body.

A lot of people don't understand that eating disorders are a mental illness, not just a physical illness. Your physical appearance is just the easiest thing to judge on, so that's what most people do. It's important to let them know that there is more than just physical appearances and your weight does not define how you're feeling. Your thoughts are worse than how you are physically. That's the best way to explain it, that even though you are technically weight restored, it does not mean that you are magically healed, it means that your weight is in a normal range, but there is still a lot more work to do to be recovered.

In my experience, your appearance to the world is how people gauge how successful you are, how happy you are and generally how well/badly you're doing. When I explain to people about an eating disorder I remind them that just because on the outside they look happy and as if life is going well, that isn't necessarily the case. Everyone has issues in their personal life, their relationships, and 1 in 4 of us have a mental health issue. An eating disorder is a mental illness, it can creep in when we're at our most vulnerable, and will always co-exist with us. It doesn't mean that we'll forever be burdened with its complexities and that we will never learn overcome it, but it does mean that despite the number on the scales it doesn't affect the voice in our head.

Recovery is not a linear path. This means there will be times your weight fluctuates up and down but “up” does not always mean the problem has gone away. It’s a mental issue that is reflected in the physical body and until the mind is healthy the body cannot be. Eating disorders can be triggered from a range of things and the key is to get to a place mentally where the desire to be healthy and to truly love the body you have is greater than whatever you might be facing that makes you take it out on yourself. Just because numerical weight has been restored does not mean this is the case.