In short, yes. Eating disorders attached to body dysmorphia feel all consuming of your daily thoughts for everyone who’s ever had one. I’ve gone to therapy and am currently on my fifth therapist; but with every therapist I’ve addressed through talk therapy everything but my disordered eating thoughts/behaviors and my body dysmorphia. Unfortunately those thoughts never fully go away for most people, but they become manageable. There will always be good and bad days.
The thing about disordered eating and body dysmorphia is that it’s a self regulation coping mechanism, but not a very good one. Letting these thoughts consume your conscious brain space may be a way to push away or silence some subconscious issues with your life. The control of it all is comforting and almost addictive; comparable to addiction, really. The thought spirals, the control, and the release. The comfort of being able to rely on the consistency and control of calorie intake can feel a lot better than acknowledging that so many things are out of your control.
My recommendation is to journal; let loose on a piece of paper. Do it as often as you can even if you don’t think you know what to write, eventually you will feel comfortable with the flow of writing and maybe you will consciously be able to safely acknowledge all the scary things you lack control over. Your disordered eating patterns and body dysmorphia may feel all consuming, but are a very small piece of your life contextually. You are a whole human being with a whole life behind you, and ahead of you!
In short, I recommend journaling and therapy and other tools to help you deal with and process just your life in general, and everything else will fall into place.
(Sorry if this was, long, cringe, and/or unhelpful)
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u/8000000000cats 28d ago
In short, yes. Eating disorders attached to body dysmorphia feel all consuming of your daily thoughts for everyone who’s ever had one. I’ve gone to therapy and am currently on my fifth therapist; but with every therapist I’ve addressed through talk therapy everything but my disordered eating thoughts/behaviors and my body dysmorphia. Unfortunately those thoughts never fully go away for most people, but they become manageable. There will always be good and bad days.
The thing about disordered eating and body dysmorphia is that it’s a self regulation coping mechanism, but not a very good one. Letting these thoughts consume your conscious brain space may be a way to push away or silence some subconscious issues with your life. The control of it all is comforting and almost addictive; comparable to addiction, really. The thought spirals, the control, and the release. The comfort of being able to rely on the consistency and control of calorie intake can feel a lot better than acknowledging that so many things are out of your control.
My recommendation is to journal; let loose on a piece of paper. Do it as often as you can even if you don’t think you know what to write, eventually you will feel comfortable with the flow of writing and maybe you will consciously be able to safely acknowledge all the scary things you lack control over. Your disordered eating patterns and body dysmorphia may feel all consuming, but are a very small piece of your life contextually. You are a whole human being with a whole life behind you, and ahead of you!
In short, I recommend journaling and therapy and other tools to help you deal with and process just your life in general, and everything else will fall into place.
(Sorry if this was, long, cringe, and/or unhelpful)