Slipping After Inpatient Treatment

Question:

I have been out of the hospital since last March, and have been doing well. I have had my ups and downs, but seemed to reach a plateau where I was healthy and happy a few months ago. Now, I am engrossed in all my ed thoughts, even though I learned so much during my hospital stay. I am torn, feeling that I shouldn't do this and the other part feeling that I need to do this. I'm a mess with holidays coming up. Does this sound like a "blip" in my road of recovery or am I relapsing?

Thank you for your time...

Answer:

As you have already experienced, recovery is not a straight line and a period of difficulty does not mean the end of your growth process.

Outpatient treatment is always recommended after hospitalization for an eating disorder, to maintain progress and continue the healing process. Aftercare often includes nutrition counseling, medical and/or psychiatric follow-up, group therapy and family therapy as well as individual therapy.

I hope that you are taking care of yourself and getting support for your ongoing recovery by working with an outpatient therapist and using whatever other services have worked for you. It is important to understand why your eating disorder thoughts have returned. You and your therapist can explore and identify the needs or feelings these symptomatic thoughts are expressing, and what other coping mechanisms you could use.