In the Mind of Someone With Anorexia

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In the mind of someone with anorexia: people with Anorexia often report the illness give them an identity, a sense of pride, and a feeling that they are unique... In my own sessions providing counseling me often, hear phrases such as “I don’t know who I would be without my Eating Disorder.” Many people with Anorexia believe they have found a clear way to measure their self-worth. Clients in my own therapy sessions often report the number on the scale shapes their mood for the day. My client’s have said phrases such as “If I am a higher weight I am a bad person and if I am a lower weight I am a good person” Since people with Anorexia tend to be rigid thinkers, they appear to be enticed by having a seemingly clear cut way to measure their self worth.

People with Anorexia often have had great difficulty with identifying and expressing their own values, thoughts, and beliefs. They especially tend to have great difficulty expressing emotions they view as negative such as jealousy, anger, and sadness. Also, the physical affects of the starvation (becoming smaller/thinner) may be viewed as a metaphor to express that the individual is feeling unworthy of taking up space, feeling a desire to disappear, or that they are feeling unnoticed or invisible to others. In my own therapy sessions, barriers to recovery are often a common theme. When discussing recovery in therapy sessions I often hear girls admit fears such as “If I get better, then everyone will think that everything is OK, and everything is not OK

by Jill Cohen, M.S.W., LCSW