--- title: Home description: Internationally acclaimed recovery site focused on eating disorders, moving from fragility to power, developing confidence at work and in relationships, and narcissistic abuse recovery. Created by Joanna Poppink, MFT canonical_url: https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/home/page-16 language: en-GB notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/home/page-16. markdown-tokens: 2180 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/home/page-16. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ## [ Toxic Friendship: How to Recognize a Friend Who is Not Good for You ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/toxic-friendship-how-to-recognize-a-friend-who-is-not-good-for-you) Details Created: 07 July 2023 ![dock fog jetty](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/dock_fog_jetty.jpg)*Toxic Friendship: Where does it lead you?* **Friendship: Recognizing a Toxic Friendship:** If you have or had an eating disorder or PTSD or other condition that affects or affects your perceptions and your self-worth, recognizing the potential for a genuine friendship can be a challenge. You may choose friendship based on your low self-esteem and your weak sense of self-worth. You may accept other people’s standards of behavior because you haven’t learned to establish boundaries based on your own values. You also may not appreciate the qualities of a good friend and your responsibilities to maintain that friendship. [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/toxic-friendship-how-to-recognize-a-friend-who-is-not-good-for-you) ## [ Embrace Novelty to Increase Creativity ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/embracing-novelty-is-related-to-increased-creativity) Details Created: 05 July 2023 ![Novelty can be your perspective. Is the a fern unfolding or a nautilus leaving a trail?](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/fern_nautilus.jpg)*Novelty can be your perspective. Is this a fern unfolding or a nautilus leaving a trail?*Embracing novelty is closely related to creativity as it fuels the creative process and expands our creative potential. Here's what embracing novelty can do for you. **Stimulate new ideas:** Embracing novelty exposes us to new experiences, perspectives, and information. This influx of novel stimuli can serve as a rich source of inspiration for generating new ideas. By engaging in diverse activities, exploring different environments, and encountering unfamiliar concepts, we broaden our creative palette and enhance our ability to think outside the box. [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/embracing-novelty-is-related-to-increased-creativity) ## [ How to Embrace Novelty: End Boredom and Discover New Joys in Life ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/embrace-novelty-end-boredom-discover-joys) Details Created: 04 July 2023 ![Novelty in flight and experience brings new awareness](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/3-yellow/chickadee.jpg) Embracing novelty is a valuable opening, always available, that can give you more fulfillment and joy than you might imagine. Boredom, listlessness, feeling that you are alone while everyone else is at the party are triggers for depression, anxiety, eating disorder behaviors. You want to stop these feelings through numbness or distraction. There’s a better way. When your normal routines seem lackluster and nothing excites your interest it’s time to embrace novelty, even when you can’t think of anything that’s new and interesting. Embracing novelty involves being open and receptive to new experiences, ideas, and [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/embrace-novelty-end-boredom-discover-joys) ## [ Eating Disorder Behavior Triggered by Sleep Deprivation ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/eating-disorder-behavior-triggered-by-sleep-deprivation) Details Created: 03 July 2023 ![Eating Disorder Behavior Triggered by Sleep Deprivation](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/3-yellow/specialist_woman_in_black_with_wheel_cogs.jpg) *Eating Disorder Behavior Triggered by Sleep Deprivation* Sleep deprivation can have significant consequences on both physical and mental health and trigger eating disorder behaviors. If you suffer with an eating disorder, knowing the consequences of sleep deprivation can help you recognize and avoid triggers that cause you to act out. ## Here are some common effects of sleep deprivation. Look for effects that trigger your eating disorder. **Impaired Cognitive Function:** Lack of sleep can lead to difficulties with concentration, memory, and overall [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/eating-disorder-behavior-triggered-by-sleep-deprivation) ## [ Striving for Perfection: A governing issue in eating disorders ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/perfection-what-a-start-gracian-series-1) Details Created: 16 September 2010 ![striving for perfection in eating disorders](https://images.iop.org/objects/phw/news/13/6/8/protein.jpg) ### [Double helix, is an 'electric slide' for proteins.](https://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/39512) It doesn't strive for perfection. It is what it is, DNA in the process of becoming. Striving for perfection is a desperate and consuming aspect of living with an eating disorder. If you are in the thick of an eating disorder you know that finding fault with yourself is a constant issue. You may not even know that you are striving for perfection because your perceived faults, especially in the mirror, are overwhelming. [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/perfection-what-a-start-gracian-series-1) ## [ Anxiety in Professional Women Today: Personal Growth is the Solution ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/anxiety-in-professional-women) Details Created: 03 January 2008 **![Anxiety in Professional Women](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/gold_star_colorful-1289314_640.png)*The gold standard we use to evaluate our lives is changing. Anxiety is a call for us to change.* Well Educated Professional Woman's Anxiety and Worry** An intelligent, educated professional woman is anxious. Her meals last as long as the movie she is watching. Her sleep is disrupted. She's not interested in sex with her husband. She can't see how to make a safe and secure future for her children. She built her career, her marriage and her life with a thoughtful appraisal of hopes, risks and requirements. She planned to maintain the life she values. She has, or had, at least a general picture of what obstacles she would need to face to move into a satisfying future. The future she anticipated is crashing. Deeper personal growth is needed now. [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/anxiety-in-professional-women) ## [ Increase the the Recovery Value of Your Journal ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph) Details Created: 15 July 2010 ![opening package](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/opening_package.jpg) Eating disorder recovery advances more quickly if you combine journal writing with your psychotherapy. You can gain even more value from your journal by using an "unpacking" technique. #### Recovery Value of Your Journal Writing about your feelings and thoughts, as well as your daily activities, can give you more stability in emotionally turbulent times. It also helps you discover some hidden underlying causes and themes to your bulimia, anorexia, binge eating or compulsive eating. You gain value, insight, and sometimes vital revelations when you read your journal entries two months after you've written them. The time-lapse gives you enough time and distance to understand and see through your words to a deeper personal meaning than you could when you originally wrote. You can make connections that you couldn't see before. [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph) ## [ Our enthusiasms show us our next steps in eating disorder recovery ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/follow-the-metaphor-how-our-enthusiasm-in-tasks-can-show-us-our-next-steps-in-life) Details Created: 20 January 2020 ![follow the metaphor gardening 2518377 640](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/images/follow_the_metaphor_gardening-2518377_640.jpg) \* Dig deepEating disorders block our intuition and sense of deep self. Our passionate actions can mirror back to us the unconscious processes of our psyches. That mirroring allows us to catch the callings of our deep self and recognize where we are on our path to eating disorder recovery, wholeness and fulfillment. When we seem removed from our inner life planning and enthusiastically enter into an unexpected task we are often being guided by our deep Self, giving us answers to questions we haven’t allowed ourselves to ask. Paying attention to these actions can bring us to a deeper understanding of our state of mind, our choices, decisions and especially what lies ahead for us in life. [ Read more … ](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/follow-the-metaphor-how-our-enthusiasm-in-tasks-can-show-us-our-next-steps-in-life)