Healing and Hungry: Quick! I'm sinking!

Have you heard of ACT*?

No, not the awful test you have to take for college admission.

This “ACT” refers to a form of behavioral therapy. It is a type of therapy that focuses on core values, mindfulness, openness and compassion. The main purpose of this therapy is to make living our lives as meaningful and important to us as possible. Life brings us pain. But by emphasizing acceptance, ACT teaches us to deal with that pain effectively

This week in treatment, we explored what it would mean to apply ACT to eating disorder recovery. I left feeling like a light-bulb went off in my head. So I wanted to share it with you and hopefully a little light-bulb will light up for you too.

Metaphors are used in ACT to help you understand the process of recovery.

Okay, enough of these technical terms. Let’s get into it.

I’m going to use my eating disorder as an example but you can use this for anything.

The metaphor goes as follows:

As most know, quicksand can be deadly. And as most know as well, the more you struggle to get out of the sand, the more you sink. So what do you do? They say that the most effective way to survive is to lean back and float. Yell for help and hope someone can pull you out. But the biggest thing you should avoid is moving quickly and frantically.

I’m guessing you don’t come across quicksand frequently so how does this apply to your day to day life?

The quicksand is my eating disorder. I didn’t want to “fall” into it but I did. No one wants to fall into quicksand (aka ED) but life brings us different pains and struggles and this one was mine. So now that I have fallen into the quicksand, I have two options.

I can A) struggle and resist change or B) accept the fact that I am stuck in quicksand, lean back and ask for help.

I have been doing option A for the past 10 years. Resisting change and freaking out. The more I kept resisting, the deeper I sank. My head finally completely submerged into the quicksand this past January and I hit rock bottom.

Okay so option A is no longer working. It’s working against me and pushing me further from the things that matter to me.

That brings us to option B.

Acceptance.

Acceptance didn't come easy. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I was struggling with an eating disorder. I didn’t want to be hospitalized. But that was my only way out.

Once I stopped resisting the idea of recovery, the easier recovery became. I reached out from the quicksand and asked for help. I couldn’t do it alone. I needed support to help me get out. Don't get me wrong--it's still hard but at least now I am not fighting this battle alone.

The idea simply is, the more I resisted recovery from my eating disorder, the more I sank into it. The more it consumed me.

Option A will only work for a short amount of time. Option B will give you the freedom you deserve.

I’m slowly coming out of the quicksand and finding peace in the idea of recovery.

SONG FOR POST: I Won't Let Go by Rascal Flatts

*ACT=Accept your thoughts and feelings and be present, Choose a valued direction, Take action