Relapse Prevention plan (eating disorders)

[angelic212]

Relapse prevention

The road to recovery is usually long and hard. No one travels it gracefully. There are many slips, trips, and lapses. Those who eventually do recover learn to pick themselves up when they fall, brush off the dust, and keep going. By doing so, they keep temporary lapses from turning into full-blown relapses. Here are things to do when relapse threatens:
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Relapse prevention: bulimia nervosa

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.

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."

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.
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Relapse prevention: anorexia nervosa

It sounds simplistic, but it is true: if no one ever dieted there would be no anorexia nervosa. Instead of dieting, design a meal plan that gives your body all the nutrition it needs for normal growth and health. If you want to work towards a healthy weight, then limit (but don't eliminate) your intake of fatty and sugary foods and refined carbohydrates. Eat lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and enough dairy and protein foods to maintain strong bones and healthy muscles and organs. Also get 30 to 60 minutes of exercise or physical activity three to five days a week. Unless you are working under the supervision of a coach or trainer, anything more rigorous is excessive.

When you start to get overwhelmed by "feeling fat," instead of dwelling on your appearance, ask yourself how your life would be better if you were thinner. What would you have then that you don't have now? Friends? Self-confidence? Love? Control? The admiration of others? Their acceptance? Success and status?

Then realize that being unhealthfully thin will bring you none of these things, only a fragile illusion of success that has to be constantly reinforced with even more weight loss. All of the items listed in the preceding paragraph are legitimate goals of healthy people, but working to achieve them directly is much more effective than trying to be successful by losing weight. If weight loss brought happiness, then starving Third World children would be ecstatic with joy. They are not. They are miserable and depressed, just like people who have anorexia nervosa.

Accept that your body shape is determined in part by genetics. Accept that you may never have a totally flat stomach. Even if you are very thin, your internal organs will give your belly a certain roundedness, especially after you eat. That's normal, especially if people in your family tend to store fat in the midsection.

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.

Relapse prevention: binge eating disorder

Same as for bulimia, above
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.
Relapse prevention: everyone

Nourish yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually. Accept that everyone has needs, legitimate needs, and you don't need to be ashamed of yours. Learn how to meet your needs in healthy, responsible ways. If you make yourself feel needy, you will be tempted to look for comfort in diet books or the refrigerator. Especially 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.

Schedule something to look forward to every day, something that's fun and pleasurable. Watch comedy videos and laugh out loud at outrageous jokes. Play something -- a board game, a computer game, a musical instrument, 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. Make something with your own hands. 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, anxiety, fear, sadness -- and even strong joy -- be alert to the possibility that you may try to dull these strong emotions by turning to, or away from, food. Find a better way of dealing with your feelings such as talking them over with a trusted friend.

Do someting meaningful every day, something that gives you a sense of having made the world a better place, if only in some small way. If you do this consistently, you will build a sense of your dignity, value and ability to make a difference in your world.
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 stressed by any of these feelings, figure out a healthier and more effective way of dealing with them than binge eating or starving.'

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.

( i found this on the internet, i think this is very helpful)

[black_23]

Thank-you for posting this

[recovering4me]

thank you for posting this its also helpful for other problems too such as cutting and SI

[WorkDaySarcasm]

Thanks for this its really useful

[angelic212]

i should probably take my own advice that i give here,
if i take my own advice that i post here on the coping board, i think i would be able to cope and deal with things better

[maenad]

Thank you for posting that - it's really useful for me