New question: "I'm out of inpatient treatment for anorexia. My team says I'm at a healthy weight. I never thought I'd be over 120, but now I'm over 130! Can I get down to 120 and still be healthy?"

You are doing great! Hang in there with what your recovery team is telling you. You are definitely on your healing path.

You title your question "Eating Disorder Recovery and its Aftermath." Your title is an example of what I find to be so confusing for many people beginning their path to healing. Once you stop your eating disorder behaviors and establish a healthy body weight, even deeper recovery work is required.

When you have an eating disorder, your eating disorder behaviors are part of your way of coping with life. When you stop those behaviors, you become terribly anxious and bewildered because you have lost a major coping mechanism, and life keeps on happening.

You are at the wonderful stage where thank goodness, your physical health is much improved, and your brain is getting the nourishment it needs. You find that you are thinking more clearly with a well-nourished mind.

However, you also need to develop new emotional and psychological ways in order to respond well and live in this challenging world. How much you weigh is not the primary issue. The primary issue is your psychological sturdiness and resilience. That will increase as you proceed with your ongoing psychotherapy.

You are at a healthy weight. That's a rung on the ladder you are climbing to complete physical and mental health that you maintain in an ordinary way. Playing with your weight and attempting to adjust the boundary to a lower weight is part of the seductive dance of anorexia.

Please carry on with your recovery work and the psychological development you need.

Don't let the scale or the mirror get in the way of your building a better and healthier life.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Written by Joanna Poppink, MFT. Joanna is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in eating disorder recovery, stress, PTSD, and adult development.

She is licensed in CA, AZ, OR, and FL. Author of the Book: Healing Your Hungry Heart: Recovering from Your Eating Disorder

Appointments are 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.