Bulimia Stories – Bulimia Self Help and How It Worked for Me

As a recovered bulimic, I believe self-help is a tremendously important part of successful bulimia stories of recovery. If you believe, like I do, that we are responsible for our lives and our present reality is a result of our thoughts and actions, then recovering from an eating disorder like bulimia is up to us.

Women find different ways and means to make a difference to and for themselves. Self help is about rebuilding awareness, about reinstating self confidence and self belief and living life with a new self discipline.

Unless you go the route of enrolling in a bulimia treatment facility with a structured treatment program, the road to recovery can be awkward and riddled with relapse. Each of the bulimia stories I have encountered is unique in that different things seemed to work for different women.

I know that at times during recovery you can feel happy and positively euphoric, but even then there are underlying unresolved issues that can rear their ugly head at the next turn. The recovery process is not always smooth and easy going and I believe if you know and expect that ahead of time you can be saved a lot of grief and frustration.

Bulimia Self Help that didn’t work for me

I lived with bulimia off and on for 20 years and tried a lot of things while trying to overcome by eating disorder. My mother struggled with alcoholism, depression and weight issues when I was a kid. Once she learned I had bulimia, she did attend some meetings of Overeaters Anonymous with me to help us both overcome our addictions.

This was the first type of bulimia self help that I tried and I attended meetings over a few years hoping they would help me find lasting recovery. The people in OA were always genuine and supportive, however I never really enrolled myself in their process and the fact that they opened each share with “I am a compulsive overeater” never felt good to me.

This is not to say that Overeaters Anonymous won’t be good for you or has not had a positive impact on many other bulimia stories because thousands of women have benefited tremendously. I share this because I want you to see that I tried something and found it did not work for me at that time.

Bulimia Self Help that did work for me

In my early 30’s I had grown used to regarding my bulimia as a companion who would always be with me. After 20 years, sometimes mildly bulimic and sometimes binging and purging up to 10 times a day, it seemed like my addiction would never go away. Then I attended a 3-day workshop called the Landmark Forum and it changed my life.

The Forum helped me understand that anything was possible and I could overcome bulimia if I decided I wanted it and committed myself to it. I made a declaration then and there that I was a non-bulimic and began to live my life that way and have ever since. Working on my inner game, my attitude and my everyday thoughts is what helped me rebuild my self esteem and love myself again.

Discover what will work for you

You may find attending bulimia support group meetings really helpful. Or you may find that learning stress reduction techniques such as meditation or visualization can be hugely helpful as a coping mechanism.

Effective self-help techniques could be simply picking up the phone to speak to a friend who listens without judgment, deciding to enroll in a bulimia rehab program or choosing to speak with a therapist. Even listening to hypnosis CD’s on self-esteem and overcoming addictions can be a part of self-help.

You may find that simply reading bulimia stories will help you relate to recovering bulimics struggles and learn from their mistakes and successes. Finding out how others overcame their demons can help you discover what will work best for you. In the end only you can decide what will ultimately work for you.



Source by Polly Mertens

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