Finding Your Passion Helps Your Eating Disorder Recovery

I've learned that finding your passion is critical in eating disorder recovery. Passion is what keeps us pushing through life, through the worst and the best of days it remains a driving force. While a prisoner of my eating disorder, I lost passion for any and all things this life had to offer. I realized during my eating disorder recovery journey that passion is something we need to reconnect with to find the strength to keep persevering in wellness.

Finding Your Passion After the Eating Disorder Robs You of It

Eating disorders can consume every thought and every choice we make. With this being the case, there is no room for any extra interests or joy. Everything we once loved slowly vanishes, feels boring, and may seem like a waste of time.

I thought for a time my interests generally just changed, thinking the things I once loved just weren't for me. This is exactly what my eating disorder wanted me to believe.

The truth is, this disease will rob you of everything in your life so slowly that you may not even know it is happening. Our eating disorders want to be number one in our life. They want to be the one and only thing we care about.

Re-Finding Your Passion in Eating Disorder Recovery

Once on your journey to wellness, you will find that you need to get to know yourself again, almost like a reintroduction. Little by little things will begin to spark your interest once again. These passions will start to replace the obsessive thoughts of your eating disorder.

I found, for me, a new passion during eating disorder recovery. I found that writing held a special place in my heart and was also extremely therapeutic. Even further into recovery, I discovered that I felt a need to speak of my experience and try to reach others through my writing.

This new passion takes the energy my eating disorder used to hold and uses it in a positive way. I believe finding your passion again in eating disorder recovery is so important because it gives us a sense of reason. It brings joy back into our lives and gives us motivation to keep going. I know one reason I am determined to stay well is because I want so badly to inform and educate others about eating disorders. This is something I cannot do if I am active in my disorder.

I challenge you to get to know yourself again. Try new things or get back to things that brought you joy in the past, just try something. Find a positive way to expend your energy and something other than your eating disorder to focus on.

This can be a fun process if you let it be. Enjoy your reintroduction to you.