--- title: Increase the the Recovery Value of Your Journal description: Getting more eating disorder recovery value from keeping an unpacked journal canonical_url: https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph language: en-GB date: 2025-12-12T05:06:00Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1309 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ![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. #### Increase Eating Disorder Recovery Value I suggest you use a technique called "unpacking" in philosophy studies to make your journal an even more powerful recovery tool. Take a general word like "fine," which may appear in your writing. Such a word holds so many possible meanings that it becomes meaningless. Then you "unpack" it. You can do the unpacking of your journal on your own or with your psychotherapist. You unpack the word fine by listing all the possible descriptions within it, all the possible meanings it could have and all the possible experiences or feelings it covers up. This list doesn't have to refer to feeling you are covering up yourself. You work on the word itself. When you've done this and looked over your unpacked journal entry, you can make essential and surprising discoveries. You may find some unexpected keys to your eating disorder recovery as you open those sealed packages in your writing. Try it, and let me know how unpacking a few of your journal entries works for you. [The Power Of Journaling And Why It Matters In Your Career](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lucianapaulise/2023/08/14/the-power-of-journaling-and-why-it-matters-in-your-career/?sh=25be2ced69aa) [5 Benefits of Journaling for Mental Health](https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/) [Keeping a Dream Journal Can Speed Eating Disorder Recovery](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/dreams/dream-journal) [Increase the Recovery Value of Your Journal](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/self-help/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph) *For a free telephone consultation, e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.* ***Claiming the Lost Self: An Essential Task for Midlife Women* — a seven part series.** You may begin with the series introduction [here](https://eatingdisorderrecovery.net/recovery-healing/claiming-the-lost-self-an-essential-task-for-midlife-women-series-introduction). ```json { "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/#joanna_poppink_da79445421" }, "dateModified": "2025-12-12T05:06:00Z", "datePublished": "2021-11-29T00:00:00Z", "description": "Getting more eating disorder recovery value from keeping an unpacked journal", "headline": "Increase the the Recovery Value of Your Journal", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/images\/opening_package.jpg", "caption": null, "description": "opening package", "width": 612, "height": 408 } ], "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/self-help\/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/self-help\/a-term-ive-heard-used-in-some-philosoph" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joanna Poppink", "@id": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/#joanna_poppink_da79445421" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/", "logo": { "@id": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "Eating Disorder Recovery and Woman's Power" }, { "@id": "https:\/\/eatingdisorderrecovery.net\/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "", "width": "", "height": "" } ] } ```