I am a visual person. I still use a paper calendar, post-its and to-do lists. I’ve learned over the years that when I don’t see something I often forget about it. My sweaters, in a bin under my guest bed, are rarely worn. Candles, tucked away neatly in a box in my basement, I often don’t touch. In my recovery from anorexia I have used many visual cues and reminders to keep me on track and to move forward in my recovery.
Recently I created a visual cue on my large white board in my home office. I am on my computer each day and I can clearly see it from my office chair. I have two positive affirmations that I see daily:
- I accept my here-and-now body
- Full recovery is possible
I also use hearts and dashes to represent parts of my recovery. The hearts represent pro-recovery days and the dashes represent days when I engage in an eating disorder behavior or spiral with eating disorder thoughts. The chart helps me to notice patterns. And when you know your patterns you can create a DBT cope-ahead plan to help manage it.
On the “dash days” I treat myself with self-compassion. I come from a curious place, not a judgmental one. I try and identify certain vulnerability factors. I’ve noticed that Sundays are typically more distressing. I’ve identified that the lack of structure that comes with a lazy Sunday does not bode well for me and my recovery. Recovery from an eating disorder is hard AND it is glorious because it opens the door to so many possibilities.
Maybe a visual cue can help your recovery.
Full recovery is possible!!
Serenity Always,
Meredith
