Situation - verge of a binge:

• You are on the verge of a binge.
• You are deciding what and how much you will eat.
• You promise yourself you will stop at reasonable limits (although you rarely succeed in keeping this promise.)

Situation - anxiety - an amorphous feeling spreading out of your undefinable self. You can't tell if it's going in or going out or both. It feel like it will overwhelm you.  Yet, like the reflection nebulae, there is a shape to it, and while the anxiety is vast, it's not endless.  But you won't know that if you eat or binge to block your awareness.

To rally your internal forces to keep you committed and motivated on your recovery path, please explore this checklist and compare the items with your life experience.

Your doctor, friends, family, nutritionist, and calorie tables may describe your eating as too much, too little, or strange. They may describe it as healthy and within reasonable limits. Only you know the details of your eating habits and the influence food has on your life.

Do any of these food-related statements describe your experience?

Privacy and safety are essential for your early recovery work. You need to feel safe enough to feel whatever feelings come up in you. You need privacy so you are free to experience your feelings with no concern about how someone might react to your emotions.

Establishing a place of privacy and safety, even for a short time once a week, may be a new and challenging experience for you. Your secret places for acting out your eating disorders are not safe.

Determining what is a safe and private place and giving yourself regular access to this place is a crucial part of your recovery. Over time, as you make progress in your recovery you will find that you have more safety and privacy in your life because you are learning how to create it for yourself.

For now, you begin with manageable steps. For a short time, once a week, you enter your safe and private space. What you write is for your eyes only.

If you have any worries that someone will read what you have written, you will censor yourself. If you feel someone is looking over your shoulder and reading what you write, you will not put down your private thoughts and emotional experiences. You may even prevent yourself from knowing what you actually think or feel as a way of protecting yourself.

You need a private and secure place for your book. You need to develop the habit of taking it from your private place when you are going to write and then returning it to your private place when you are finished.

Step Four:

Select a safe and private place for your appointments with yourself and a place of safekeeping for your notebook.

Step Five:

Read the seven introduction points again.

Step Six:

Choose one of the secret discovering questions.

Questions: 1- 9

Questions: 10-20

Make your choice using your own criteria. For example, you may select a question because:

• It touches you the most.
• It intrigues you the most.
• It causes you a degree of emotion you feel you can tolerate.
• You feel it's the safest place to begin.

Eating Disorder Recovery Action Steps in Online Self Help Workbook  1-3

Eating Disorder Recovery Action Steps in Online Self Help Workbook  4-6

Eating Disorder Recovery Action Steps in Online Self Help Workbook  7-9

Eating Disorder Recovery Action Steps in Online Self Help Workbook  10-12

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, FL, and UT. 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.