Restriction in Eating Disorders: Is It Really About The Food?

Restricting food is more than just trying to eat less, ignoring hunger cues, or trying to make the body into a smaller size.

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Restricting food, eating disorders, and disordered eating are symbols for the needs that cannot be asked for but want to be expressed.

Restricting food is a symbol feeling more protected by coming across as not having any needs.

Restricting food is a symbol for fearing what happens if intimacy comes in too close.

Restricting food is a symbol for wanting to state healthy boundaries but not knowing how.

Restricting food is a symbol for putting a lid on big emotions, sensations, expressions, impulses because it feels scary to let them out.

Restricting food is a symbol of one’s inner power yearning to be expressed but terrified what will happen when one steps into it.

Restricting food is a symbol of one’s love deeply, quietly, strongly calling out to be shared.

Restricting food is a sign pointing you towards your deepest wisdom and truth.

Restriction in eating disorder is more than just restricting food or the body’s size.

Restriction is an attempt to keep things the same; there is a fear of the unknown, of letting go of well-outlined plans, and of releasing the grip.

For many people, an eating disorder began as a protective strategy during a time where there was a lot of unknown and chaos. The ritualistic food and body behaviours are ways to bring in order, control, and certainty. Over time, these attempts to restrict no longer work as well as they once did and start affecting our wellbeing in the long run.

We start to realize that this attempt at trying to control and keep things the same is an illusion because even behind the meticulous calorie counting, exercise tracking, and strict food planning, internally things still feel out of control - and above all else, we still don’t actually know what comes next.

Recovery from restriction asks us to accept the fundamental truth - that the only thing that is constant is change; and to be with that groundless change, we have to find safety, ground, and home within ourselves.

Recovery asks to rebuild safety in our bodies, regulation in our nervous system, and authentic expression within our somas, so that we can be with, open to, and free with the ebbs and flows of life.

Recovery is about shifting from restricting change to opening up to it.

Photo by Simone Pellegrini on Unsplash