Recovery Is Now

One Friday, about four weeks into residential treatment, I had a particularly bad day. In a moment of distress and vulnerability, I slipped up and used a behavior, which ended up costing me dearly in that very strict, “merit-based” treatment structure.

My roommate and another friend rallied around me. That night, the three of us skipped the mandatory family group and camped out in our bedroom, hiding like truant teenagers from the counselors who came around to check that everyone was at the group.

We sat on the floor between our beds and played cards, gossiping about our housemates and talking about our lives outside of the treatment center. For an hour-and-a-half, we took a break from being patients battling a deadly illness and simply were three young women spending time together on a Friday night.

That time we had to ourselves doing nothing in particular was as healing — if not more so — than all of the therapy I had received up until that point. For that brief time, I experienced what it was like to have friends who dropped everything to be there for me in a difficult moment. Friends who made me laugh when I wanted to scream and cry. Friends who helped me to finally, after so many weeks of feeling alternately like a patient and a prisoner, feel almost normal.

I couldn’t help but think back to that evening in February of 2014 when Emily, one of the two young women, told me recently that she had reached a goal many months in the making — the publication of her first book. And of course, I’m super proud of her, so I have to share it with all of you.

Recovery Is Now

The book, Recovery Is Now, is  -->a monthly planning tool --> designed to log your progress as you go through the eating disorder recovery process. The planner includes daily meal logs, short- and long-term goals, space to take appointment notes, and reflection questions to help think back and plan ahead. And, as any good recovery tool should have, there are plenty of motivational notes, recovery tips, affirmations, and places to list your accomplishments.

Emily has never ceased to amaze me with the strides she has made in recovery despite many obstacles. She has a lot of wisdom and inspiration to share about the eating disorder recovery process.

So check her out! In case you haven’t noticed yet, many of the links in this post lead to her website, RecoveryIsNow.com. If that click bait was too subtle, though, here is an obvious one: Visit her website!

---

© The Middle Ground, 2014 to present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the article’s author and The Middle Ground with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.