Coping with Food Anxiety in Eating Disorder Recovery

I’m a foodie! I love food and I love cookbooks. I love my kitchen. Also, preparing food for the people I love knows no bounds! Let's pause for a second....I've also recovered from bulimia. I haven't purged, binged or self-harmed for many years. Have I restricted at times? Yes? Overeaten when a guest at another’s table, or plainly out of stress? Yes.

Learning to Live with Food Anxiety

Mostly, on any given day, I ask myself a lot of questions about food, and how I relate to what I eat or don’t eat. The difference between now and when I suffered from bulimia, is that I can rationalize my thoughts surrounding food; one of the big reasons as to why I’m recovered.

I get a lot of questions from people asking me what it’s like to cope with food anxiety while in recovery, and even beyond. The simple truth is that having suffered from this disease, food will never be innocuous. Time after time, my eating habits become affected when I find myself going through trying times.

Here it goes; I’ll admit it…Suffering from food anxiety is one of my big challenges. When I'm stressed out at work or in my personal life, my mind goes straight to examining my food intake. Am I eating enough of it; should I eat less of this kind; is eating xyz the reason why I have a knot in my stomach? When I overindulge, my mind will play tricks on me and tell me I'm a fraud.

Perhaps I'll always have food 'issues'; in other words, despite being recovered, maybe I'll always be susceptible to the illness, but being recovered means that I have the tools and abilities to overcome those moments of doubt.

Will I ever have a 'normal' way of dealing with food: i.e., not thinking about it the way I do? I don’t know, but I sure as hell I’m trying to manage the anxiety it brings about, and I'll never give up.

In this video I aim to explore with you how I stop these irrational thoughts about food, and perhaps how you can too.

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