We are excited to announce that our blog has been named number 26 out of 100 Best Eating Disorder Blogs!  Our blog provides content for clinicians, individuals struggling with an eating disorder, and loved ones looking for information on how to support someone with an eating disorder.

Our team is happy to provide blog content with the goal of helping to increase education and awareness about eating disorders.  Our blog features content around eating disorders, eating disorder recovery, body image, OCD, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, trauma-informed care, and more!

Here is the list of the 100 Best Eating Disorder Blogs: 

• https://medical.feedspot.com/eating_disorder_blogs/

If you or a loved one is struggling with an eating disorder or body image, our team would love to help!

Schedule a free 15 min consult for eating disorder therapy in MD, VA, DC, NY, FL, or recovery coaching worldwide.

Click here

​The Eating Disorder Center is a premier outpatient eating disorder therapy center founded by Jennifer Rollin. We specialize in helping teens and adults struggling with anorexia, binge eating disorder, bulimia, OSFED, and body image issues. We provide eating disorder therapy in Rockville, MD, easily accessible to individuals in Potomac, North Potomac, Bethesda, Olney, Silver Spring, Germantown, and Washington D.C. We also provide eating disorder therapy in Arlington, Virginia and virtually throughout Virginia. Additionally, we offer eating disorder therapy virtually in New York (NYC), Florida, and California. We provide eating disorder recovery coaching via Zoom to people worldwide. Connect with us through our website at www.theeatingdisordercenter.com

Many individuals who struggle with eating disorders have a harsh inner critic. Some folks also struggle with perfectionism and “all or nothing thinking.”

One example of “all or nothing thinking” and self-criticism in eating disorder recovery is as follows:

• “I restricted at snack today - I’m failing at eating disorder recovery. I may as well just give up!”

​
A more self-compassionate response:

• “I restricted at snack today. I’ll work to do better in the future AND I can be kind to myself for having a tough day today in recovery.”

​Many people believe that being highly self-critical will help them to succeed or is motivating in some way. However, if you think about a small child who was learning something for the first time - do you think that a parent being highly critical would help that child to learn? Often, it’s easier for folks to visualize being kinder to others than to themselves.

Eating disorder recovery can be tough at times - and being hard on oneself can serve to only make things feel more painful.

However, the way we speak to ourselves can become habitual, so it can take some time and practice to change our relationship to ourselves.

The following are a few ways to practice more self-compassion in eating disorder recovery.

1. Start to notice the things that trigger you to be self-critical.

• When we’re working to change something it’s important to start by cultivating a mindful awareness of our current triggers and patterns.
• Start, by paying attention thought out your day (you might even take some notes in your phone) to the specific things that trigger the self-critical part of you to get louder.
• Notice what kinds of things you are saying to yourself in those moments. Sometimes individuals are not even aware of how mean their inner dialogue is until they begin to pay attention to it.

2. If self-compassion feels inaccessible at first, think about how you can start by speaking
more neutrally to yourself.

• Sometimes the jump from harsh self-criticism to self-compassion feels too challenging. In that instance, you can start by practicing being even a bit more neutral towards yourself.
• Example:
• Self-critical thought: “I’m so pathetic for struggling with an eating disorder. I hate myself.”
• Neutral thought: “Many people struggle with eating disorders. It’s not a character flaw-it’s a mental illness.”

3. Think of your best friend or a small child in your life and how you would speak to them.

• When you’re ready to practice applying self-compassion it’s ok to start in small steps.
• Pick one moment in your week when you notice yourself being harshly self-critical and respond to yourself the way that you’d respond to a small child or your best friend. If looking at a picture of them feels helpful to channel more self-compassionate dialogue-try that!

The Bottom Line
Like any new skill, practicing self-compassion (and thus changing your relationship with yourself) can take time and practice.

If you are struggling with motivation to work on being kinder to yourself in eating disorder recovery, consider doing a pro/con list and looking at the ways that harsh self-criticism may be negatively impacting you.
​
You cannot shame yourself into healing. You deserve to treat yourself more compassionately.