Recovery

'If you don't want to slip, stay out of slippery places.'

Warning signs to a relapse:

·        Stopping medications on one’s own or against the advice of medical professionals

·        Hanging around old drinking haunts and drug using friends – slippery places

·        Isolating – not attending meetings – not using the telephone for support

• Keeping alcohol, drugs, and paraphernalia around the house for any reason
• Obsessive thinking about using drugs or drinking
• Failing to follow ones treatment plan – quitting therapy – skipping doctors appointments
• Feeling overconfident – that you no longer need support
• Relationship difficulties – ongoing serious conflicts – a spouse who still uses
• Setting unrealistic goals – perfectionism – being too hard on ourselves
• Changes in eating and sleeping patterns, personal hygiene, or energy levels
• Feeling overwhelmed – confused – useless – stressed out
• Constant boredom – irritability – lack of routine and structure in life
• Sudden changes in psychiatric symptoms
• Dwelling on resentments and past hurts – anger – unresolved conflicts
• Avoidance – refusing to deal with personal issues and other problems of daily living
• Engaging in obsessive behaviors – workaholism – gambling – sexual excess and acting out
• Major life changes – loss – grief – trauma – painful emotions – winning the lottery
• Ignoring relapse warning signs and triggers More

A healthy lifestyle insulates against major relapse:

• Get at least eight hours of sleep every night, more if you need it. Sleep deprivation seems to impair the way the human body uses insulin, which can lead to overweight and possible problems with blood sugar.

• Do thirty to sixty minutes of physical activity every day. It does not have to be done all at one time, and routine activities such as climbing stairs and yard maintenance count.

• Nurture supportive relationships with friends, family members and romantic partners. Enjoy being with people you like and who like you back.

• Deliberately make choices. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you are the victim of forces over which you have no control. As soon as you reaize you are making choices, you can decide to choose other possibilities.

• Do something fun every day. Let yourself experience pleasure too. When you play and enjoy yourself, you don't have to turn to diet books or binge food for release from daily stress.

• No smoking. Anything. Ever.

• And if you use alcohol, no more than two standard servings per day for males and one standard serving per day for females.

• No abuse of prescription drugs or use of recreational drugs. In addition to hurting your body, these substances impair brain function and muddy your thoughts. If you want to be healthy and free of relapses, you need your wits about you. If you are dependent on alcohol or other drugs, get treatment and get clean. Many people with eating disorders are also chemically dependent.

• A nutritious breakfast every morning. Ninety-six percent of everyone who loses weight and keeps it off eats breakfast every day, according to Ann Yelmokas McDermot, a nutrition scientist at Tufts University (USDA Nutrition Research Center)

• Plus all the things your mother has probably nagged you about: Wear your seat belt when in a car. No unprotected sex unless you are in a strictly monogamous relationship. Insist on counseling or leave relationships if you are being physically, sexually, or emotionally abused. Also get counseling if you have painful issues in your past that have not been resolved. More 

If you feel yourself slipping back into unhealthy habits, call your therapist and schedule an appointment. Returning to counseling in no way means you have failed. It means only that it's time to reevaluate and fine tune your recovery plan.

          **Never ever let yourself get so hungry that the urge to binge is overwhelming. People who recover from bulimia say that they eat regularly. Because they are never ravenous, they have no physical reason to binge eat. Hunger is the most powerful binge trigger there is. It is a recognized fact that the longer one has dieted, and the more severely calories have been restricted, the higher the risk of binge eating.

         **Never ever deprive yourself of good-tasting food, even if it has more fat and calories than "safe" diet foods. If you refuse to eat appealing foods that you really want, you will feel deprived and crave them. Then you are vulnerable to bingeing. Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? The one food they were not supposed to eat was the one they could not stay away from.

         **Don't deprive yourself of other satisfying experiences either. If you make yourself feel needy, you will be tempted to look for comfort in the refrigerator. Make sure that every day you spend time with friends. In person is best, but phone calls and e-mail are better than nothing.

         **Also every day spend time doing things you are good at, things you can take pride in, things that demonstrate your competency and abilities. Allow yourself to enjoy your accomplishments and refuse to listen to the nagging inner voice that insists you could do better if only you tried harder.

         **Last, but by no means least, every day do something that's fun and pleasurable. Watch comedy videos and laugh out loud at outrageous jokes. Play something -- a board game, a computer game, tapes or CDs. Go outside and enjoy the birds, trees, flowers, and fresh air. If you live in the middle of a big city, go to a park. Figure out how to give yourself a fun break from the daily routine, and then do it.

         **Keep tabs on your feelings. Several times during the day, especially in the first stages of recovery, take time out and ask yourself how you feel. If you notice rising stress, anger, fear, sadness -- and even strong joy -- be alert to the possibility that you may try to dull these strong emotions by turning to food. Find a better way of dealing with your feelings such as talking them over with a trusted friend. The 12-step folks have a useful formula. When they feel on the verge of falling into old behaviors, they say HALT! Then they ask, "Am I too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely, or too Tired?" All of those states are strong binge triggers. Additional triggers for people with eating disorders seem to be Boredom and Unstructured time. If you find yourself in any of these states, figure out a healthier and more effective way of dealing with the situation than binge eating.  

         **Until you have achieved some balance and perspective, stay away from temptation. Don't go to all-you-can-eat salad bars. If ice cream is a binge trigger, don't keep it in your freezer. When you want potato salad, for example, or rocky road ice cream, go to a sit-down restaurant and order a single portion, ideally as part of a balanced meal. By doing so, you accomplish three things. You avoid depriving yourself. You avoid the urges to binge created by deprivation, and you also learn how to integrate normal food into a reasonable and healthy meal plan.  

         **When you do feel powerful urges to binge, postpone the act for thirty minutes. Surely you can wait half an hour. During that time think about what is going on in your life. What stresses are you facing? What is missing right now from your life that you need in order to be happy and avoid the looming binge? Make a list of things you could you do instead of binge eating to deal with your situation. If you are truly committed to recovery, at least some of the time you will choose one of these healthier behaviors instead of binge food. 

         **Take charge of your life. Stop using words like, "I wish," "I want," "I hope," and "I can't." They are weak victim words. Say instead things like, "I choose," even if you are choosing to binge. Say, "I will," even if the thing you will do is vomit. These are words that express responsibility, power, and control. If you can choose to binge, then by implication at some future time you can choose NOT to binge. If you will vomit, then next week or next month or next year you can choose to say, "I WON'T vomit." More