Just a week or two ago, I posted on my Instagram account asking my followers to take part in a survey I created inquiring about the types of writing they have used in their own recoveries and what they find the most helpful, and wow! They blew me away with how responsive they were to that post and how many of them took the time to take the survey. (Big thank you to any Insta followers who are reading this.) This survey was just a piece of the research I did as part of an english assignment involving writing an exploratory essay on a topic of our choosing. Today, I’d like to summarize my findings for all of you because I, for one, found them quite interesting and surprisingly in-line with my own experiences.

So, what types of writing are people in recovery from eating disorders using and how are they using them?

Firstly, the survey: 

Most gals found journaling helpful— it’s definitely a habit I formed in recovery. This act helped me distance myself from my thoughts and gave me a more objective view on what was going on in my own head. It also just gave the thoughts a place to go instead of hanging out in my brain. This experience was reflected in many of the responses given in the survey. Responses also focused on how this separation from thoughts helps with rationalization of thoughts.

Secondly, what the professionals are saying about this:

I found a couple of fascinating articles.* One article talked about the unwillingness people with anorexia exhibit when it comes to experiencing and outwardly expressing emotions they perceive as negative such as anger, preferring to instead project the emotion inward onto their body— resonate with anyone else? Another article explored ways to help clients with anorexia get past their inhibition and to a point of recognizing, confronting, and working through those “negative” emotions through journaling.

Thirdly, writing tasks used by my dietitian:

I emailed my amazing dietitian, M, and asked her about the types of writing she uses with her eating disorder clients. I had done food journals with her, so mention of those dreaded charts wasn’t a surprise to me. The point of having a client document what and how much they’re eating is to give her a better picture of what’s going on diet wise, which I get, but am I the only one who hated those things with a passion? I never liked having to go back to the already partially filled in chart to write down the next meal or snack because I couldn’t stand looking at everything else I’d already eaten. In conjunction with filling out the food journals though, M often asks clients to journal before and after meals. In my own experience this was more helpful in working through what was going on around meals. Was I actually hungry? Did I have heightened awareness of my body? Could I feel the fat “seeping” into my cells? When I was able to put a voice and description to things such as these, M could help me connect these underlying feelings to how eating had been going. From there we could talk about how to improve meal-plan compliance and reduce meal-time anxiety. I certainly wasn’t the first client M did this with, and I definitely wasn’t the last either. These writing tasks work, thus she continues to ask her clients to complete them as part of their treatment.

Lastly, I had the pleasure of FaceTime interviewing Kayla from Discovering Kayla:

Kayla talked about her blog and Instagram and the platform those have given her to speak about recovery from a Christian’s perspective. She talks openly of the struggles she has in keeping her faith strong and trusting God through the ups and downs. Anyone who follows her as well knows exactly what I’m talking about. Kayla hopes that her vulnerability and rawness about her journey will help and inspire others in turn. At the very least, she noted that vulnerability benefits her by helping her confront and release her negative emotions, venting them to a community which can then come around her with love and support. Kayla said that the community aspect of the writing she does helps to hold her accountable, keeping her moving forward.

The common thread in all of this research was this: a hugely important part of recovering from an eating disorder is learning to face the hard emotions and cope with them in a healthy manner, and people often do this best through personal writing such as journaling. It’s a form of writing I know I’ve come to love and engage regularly. You can say whatever you want in a journal without hurting anybody or worrying about what others will think. That freedom is what I found helped me start to write about and thus face the difficult emotions pulsing through my body. It was at that point of confrontation that I was able to start taking steps forward, bringing me to the place of freedom I’ve found today.

*The articles I used in my research were:

Geller, Josie, Sarah J. Cockell, Paul L. Hewitt, Elliot M. Goldner, and Gordon L. Flett. “Inhibited Expression of Negative Emotions and Interpersonal Orientation in Anorexia Nervosa.” International Journal of Eating Disorders. 28.1 (2000): 8-19. Print.

Schmidt, Ulrike, Gillian Bone, Saskia Hems, Joey Lessem, and Janet Treasure. “Structured Therapeutic Writing Tasks As an Adjunct to Treatment in Eating Disorders.” European Eating Disorders Review. 10.5 (2002): 299-315. Print.