Levels five and six of six to recognize and move beyond bulimia triggers.
Level 5
With more practice and more recovery you learn to anticipate what can trigger you. You make self-care arrangements for yourself in advance of compelling urges.
Level 6
With solid recovery, you use your stable, healthy, integrated self and positive, realistic sense of yourself to get through periods of stress without the aid of eating disorder actions.
Progress, Not Perfection
Do you ever go backwards? Yes. Is that failure? No. Going back levels simply means you need more practice, more growth, and more development.
Raising the Stakes
You may not appreciate that you have raised the stakes during your progression toward health. If you remember the fundamental principle behind these levels, i.e. explore your situation, you may find that some situations are more complex and stressful than others.
Anytime you move back a level you probably have encountered a situation that calls upon you to develop more fully. For example, if a visit to friends for dinner is a triggering event for you and you overcome it, then you might think you are at level four or even five.
But if you then are to attend a family dinner and find yourself unable to stop a binge or purge episode, that doesn’t mean you are failing. It means you have more issues to explore and resolve with your family than you do with your friends. That’s normal and even predictable.
Failure or Progress?
Once you are on your recovery path, an episode is not a failure. An episode serves you. An episode lets you know that embedded in the triggering situation are some life lessons for you, some issues that need to be understood and resolved, some strength in you that needs to be more developed.
In your recovery process, wherever you are in your progress toward healing, health and development, please remember to pay attention to what is going on in your life – outside and inside, like it or not. This reflection on your experience gives you the opportunity to recognize your eating disorder episode triggers.
Giving yourself respectful attention as you go through your life experiences is key to creating an eating disorder free life. Plus, you can discover what is genuinely meaningful to you and rally your strength and energy to go for what might give you real and sustained joy.
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