18 Quotes About Eating Disorder Recovery

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to managing an eating disorder – each person has a different set of triggers and ways of coping – here you’ll find some great advice and encouragement for anyone struggling with an eating disorder.

Soon, when all is well, you're going to look back...
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Soon, when all is well, you're going to look back on this period of your life and be so glad that you never gave up. Brittany Burgunder
Hold yourself back, or heal yourself back together. You decide.
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Hold yourself back, or heal yourself back together. You decide. Brittany Burgunder
Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.
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Recovery is hard. Regret is harder. Brittany Burgunder
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Whatever you did today is enough. Whatever you felt today is valid. Whatever you thought today isn't to be judged. Repeat the above each day. Brittany Burgunder
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Sometimes we take leaps of faith, and sometimes we take tiny steps. Even the tiniest step can require a lot of courage. Like climbing out of denial and admitting my real need for help. Like trusting someone who said I wouldn’t die from eating a bowl of pasta, and taking another bite. Like reaching for a pen or a yoga mat when what I really wanted to do was reach for a cookie. Like searching for a smile in my heart when my mind was busy screaming about how sad and serious I should be. Shannon Kopp
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Because the truth is, while bulimia is a devastating illness I would wish upon no one, it has taught me about the fragility of life and the vital need for compassion. Today, I’m quick to love and throw my arms around any girl who has ever stared at a puddle of her own vomit and questioned the point of her life. Or who has ever let a Photoshopped image on a glossy magazine preach to her about her own self-worth, her own beauty. Or who has ever been afraid to face the pain and suffering, within and outside of herself. Today, I’m quick to love. Shannon Kopp
7
So many nights, I stared out at the inky black ocean, believing that if I could only learn how to eat again and keep my hands out of my throat, that would be enough. I prayed hard and desperately to God and the sun and the moon and the ocean and the universe and every shelter dog I’d ever met, as if they were all genies, that I wouldn’t ask for anything more. But perhaps God isn’t a collection of genies, and perhaps it’s okay to hope for more than relief. To hope big. To hope for Sunny’s limitless capacity to love. Shannon Kopp
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When I was around Sunny, there was no time to dream about some easier, prettier, more comprehensible, less fucked-up existence. Now was all we had: Sunny lifting her eyes to meet mine. Cupping water in my own hands to rinse the blood off her head. Sunny’s tongue on my nose, her tail thudding on my leg. The reach of my hand across her spine. The words of comfort and rage and fear and sadness and hope that I spoke only in her presence. Shannon Kopp
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My only choice was to fight my way out, even if I didn't think I would make it. Laurie Halse Anderson
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Eating disorder recovery becomes possible when you keep making the next right decision over and over. With time, these decisions become automatic. Brittany Burgunder
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While she is still hospitalised, I take Emma out for strengthening walks, for her muscles and been under-used for a long time. She is sometimes breathless, I notice with concern, and there are other changes in her, either through a nerve her therapy touches, or through her illness, or both, which make her, quite often, disagreeable to be with. Carol Lee
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The reasons for Emma's illness and for her decision to allow life in, rather than die, are intertwined and involve the beginnings of her feelings of belonging, of safety and of competence to be in the world. Carol Lee
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I am made of a thousand ghosts, only you can shoot me down. Bella James
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Recovery doesn't mean putting your life on hold. Recovery means holding on so you can live your best life. Brittany Burgunder
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Let go of toxic control, in order to regain healthy control. Kayla Rose Kotecki
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Find Your Balance. Kayla Kotecki