Cravings, urges, temptations each stimulate and lure you to the edge of action. Will you eat the ice cream or diet frozen yogurt? Will you do a drive by at your ex-boyfriend's house? Will you stay on the treadmill another hour? What is the power behind your decision?

A kind of circle develops between my patients, my garden and me where we share and appreciate the giving and receiving that is happening naturally for the benefit of all of us.

*pix View from my office window. Patient waiting area is to the right in the shaded area not visible.

Functioning in the world without an eating disorder can be just as daunting as functioning on the moon. Both require new learning and practice.

In social media, where people with eating disorders call out to each other, look for support, try to find recovery, and give warnings to others about what treatment didn't work, the shared pain, fear, and frustration are clear.

If you haven't asked yourself yet you will be asking yourself eventually, "What is the meaning of life?"

More to the point, you'll ask, "What is the meaning of my life?"
(pix*)

You focus on your recovery to stop pain and live a better life. Yet your personal recovery efforts mean much more than your own health and prosperity.

The people in and around your life will benefit from your health and ability to take positive action  and share your gifts in the world.

Yet there is more. Those of us who have or had an eating disorder are metaphors for the imbalanced consumption human beings demonstrate around the world. Our eating disorders and global consumption disorders affect every phase of our lives and every phase of life on this planet..See:  Humanity's consumption disorders 

Our eating disorder recovery work is similar to the tasks required by global humanity to move our planet into a healthy and sustainable state.

in your recovery work, you are not only saving your own life. You are creating a new way of life that makes you sustainable and can help support changes in human living that support the health of our planet.

In my sustainability studies I continually hear the call to "think big." This means:

1. expand your vision 
2. take on the really big jobs 
3. don't be afraid to stretch your imagination
4. work to keep up.
5. save the world

Save the world is not too big a goal. And for us, we who have or had an eating disorder, saving our own world comes first.

Eating disorders destroy our bodies and our sensibilities. They leave us in a severely restricted life. We don't know what we are missing.

Yet, every step we take to live our lives in a healthy and sustainable way moves us toward a more rich and healthy life. Those steps become examples to others. They are a teaching gift to a world that needs the lessons we are learning in recovery.

In recovery work we expand our vision and our self worth. We stop seeing ourselves as weak, damaged and suffering people with dark secrets that can never be shared or understood.  We being to see ourselves and others on the recovery path as spiritual warriors leading even more people the the path of health and well being.

Recovery from an eating disorder requires that we:

1. stand up for ourselves,
2. make changes in our lives,
3. reach out to new and positive resources for help,
4. face our fears and our terrors and grow through them,
5. learn new ways of living, discover our real values,
6. and above all, build a quality life that we can be happy to live and share.

Meaning of Sustainability: 

"Sus" comes from Latin and means "stand up."
"Tenere" the source of "tain" comes from Latin and means "hold."

Isn't that the goal of recovery? To be able to stand up for yourself and hold your existence? 

Your recovery journey has tremendous value, starting with yourself and moving to the people you love and who love you. The value spreads to your community, your culture, your country and the world.

You can know this now, regardless of what stage of recovery you are in. You matter and every recovery step you take matters. I include the steps you might consider slips or falls. They are part of the journey.

So many people in recovery and after recovery ask me, "How can I help others?" People with eating disorders want to help others recover. They want their journey to mean something in this world.

You don't have to wait until you are recovered to bring valuable lessons of meaning and help to this troubled world. Your struggle and pathway to recovery is in itself the valuable teaching example the world needs.

So think big and bigger. Your recovery is about you, and it is about much more than you.

Questions for you:

How would you think differently about yourself if you knew that your personal recovery effort

1. supports creating a world that is healthy and vibrant for you and everyone you love?
2. is more far reaching than what you weigh or how you appear but is inspiring to others?
3. including your slips, serve as a teaching example to bring peace and abundance to the world?
4. helps restore a balance in nature and in human relationship with nature?
5. could stop extinctions and support life in the seas, forests, mountains and deserts of this world?
6. was influential in bringing social justice to women and children and men?
7. including your bouts of despair, serve as a beacon for others to heal, find love and meaning.
8. give you and others the ability to stand and hold in the best life possible.

Think big and bigger. And please know, your efforts to recover can save your life and the lives of countless others.

For a free telephone consultation, contact Joanna: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For a free telephone consultation, e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

A young woman with very little money ranted about wasting her last therapy appointment complaining about how her support group was ending. She spoke in broken sentences. She tried to overwhelm her fear and grief with rage. *

Recovery work involves developing your mind, heart, body and soul from a fragile and insubstantial state to a more mature and capable condition that is your authentic you.

You can heal your way, develop your way, grow your way out of an eating disorder.  Solid recovery from an eating disorder is not about fighting the disorder and winning.  That gives an incorrect impression that you remain the same and the eating disorder leaves.  Solid recovery occurs when you no longer need your eating disorder to cope with the stresses and challenges in your life now or in the future.  * pix

The New York Times, in the April 25, 2011 issues, ran a pessimistic article that risks leaving readers with the idea that you cannot recover

Eating disorders are serious illnesses that affect the mind, body and spirit and can be lethal. They impede a person's quality of life. Without treatmet eating disorders get worse.   Recovery requires healing and emotional development.

On this site you can find definitions and descriptions of eating disorders as given by the American Psychological Association and the National Institute of Mental Health.

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If, after reading these descriptions, you have questions about your personal situation or the situation of someone you love, please feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or ask your questions on the discussion forum on this site or both.