5 things to set you up for Freedom

1) It takes an army, it's not a journey you can do by yourself. You need people to have hope for you when you don't have hope for yourself, you need people to fight for you when you can't fight for yourself and you need accountability, reassurance and encouragement. You need professionals involved in giving good guided advice.

2) Parents need a support network of the right people as it takes an emotional toll and they need to be in it for the long haul because recovery is not a sprint it is a marathon.

3)You have to have a greater purpose to fight for than weight gain or recovery (because all of those are too scary). Make a list of what you are fighting for, if you are struggling to think of this maybe ask yourself what has my Eating Disorder robbed from me?

4) You need to challenge your thoughts through replacing them with new ones. The other way you challenge thoughts is to challenge them with your behaviour by doing opposite action to the Eating Disorder and seeing that your worst fears do not become true and as you do this you will build up evidence that the ED is a liar and that what is says does not become true.

5) If you are doing the right thing in recovery it will 'feel wrong' and there will be more anxiety, distress, guilt and thoughts but it will pass. You have to do opposite action to the ED in order to get your life back.