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.

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Increase the Recovery Value of Your Journal

Joanna Poppink, MFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice. All appointments ae virtual. For a free telephone consultation e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Healing Your Hungry Heart: recovering from your eating disorder