Written by Francesca Bas
Often times when an eating disorder voice becomes strong one feels as if they are their eating disorder, that the eating disorder is a synonym for their identity … This is not the case, I promise.
I know at times it may feel this way but you are not your eating disorder, you are you a whole and beautiful person who happens to be struggling with an eating disorder in this moment of time.
The reason why it’s so important to differentiate from your eating disorder voice is because it’s impossible to heal from something you think you are, something you feel is a veil over your identity. So how are we going to differentiate you from the eating disorder, lets start with a little exercise which helps this separation visually.
I want you to close your eyes and visualize what it looks like, mine is a grumpy old bald man called ED. And yours? What does your ED look like is it tall? Small? Blue? Pink? Young? Old? Take your time really visualize an image of your ED.
You have it? Great now give it a name, make sure the name you decide is a neutral name to you, don’t name it after your best friend or a loved one. Now that you have your Eds whole image I want you to visualize it going from wherever you feel it in your body, maybe your chest, your stomach, your mind, veiling over you, wherever you feel ED is sitting visualize him moving to a chair next to you.
Congratulations you have now identified your ED and put him next to you instead of inside or on top of you. Now you can visually see that you are not your ED, and further you can now start to more easily differentiate when you are talking vs when your ED is talking.
But of course it’s not as simple as it sounds on the writing, healing is not linear. It takes time, consistency and a supportive team. Further there might be some times when you cannot differentiate who is talking, whether it’s you or your ED. That’s ok, it takes time. The hope for this exercise is the more you practice differentiating these voices the easier it will get and as the separation becomes clearer and clearer it will make the healing process just a little easier. It’s all about the little things, I hope this little thing makes a little, or big impact on helping you in your healing journey.
