You may have seen the recent BALANCE Instagram Live conversation about reframing eating disorder thoughts into positive recovery affirmations with BALANCE Founder and CEO Melainie Rogers (she/her) and BALANCE Assistant Director of Nutrition Services Sarah Mandel (she/her).

By: Korie Born

If you’re new to affirmations, reframing your anxious thoughts into positive sayings might seem completely out of the question. You might think, “There is no way this eating disorder thought can be shifted!”

The good news is that affirmations are not only a tool that is easy to learn and apply, but they are something that can help shift your thinking and impact your recovery for the better. Keep reading to learn the three basic steps involved in identifying and reframing eating disorder thoughts into recovery affirmations that can help you along the path to healing.

Start by Identifying Eating Disorder Thoughts

The first step in the process of reframing anxious or eating disorder thoughts is to identify the thoughts themselves. As Melainie and Sarah mentioned, you may notice these thoughts falling into different categories of cognitive distortions. There are three common cognitive distortions that show up often for people with eating disorders:

Black and White Thinking

This sounds like labeling all foods (or behaviors, habits, or patterns) as either good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, right or wrong. The danger here is that it doesn’t leave room for the middle ground or a grey area where most things actually happen.

Catastrophic Thinking

Jumping to extreme conclusions might assume that eating a fear or forbidden food would lead to an immediate body change and then to feeling or being unloveable. Catastrophic thinking creates false narratives about certain actions and a person’s perceived expected outcomes.

Overgeneralization

This cognitive distortion means associating one instance with an entire situation. For example, overgeneralization may look like, “I used a behavior once, so I will never recover.” Overgeneralization does not account for growth or context in many situations.

Look For the Truth in Your Thoughts

With any of the above cognitive distortions, the next essential step is to determine if there is any truth behind the thought. Just because a thought arises does not mean it is true, or you must act on it. When assessing an eating disorder or anxiety-based thought, it can be helpful to write the thought down and analyze it for facts or even ask a trusted support person or member of your treatment team to help assess these thoughts.

Reframe Your Eating Disorder Thoughts

The last step in turning anxious or eating disorder thoughts into affirmations is reframing them. Once you have taken stock of what is true in the situation causing you stress, you can shift your thinking into something positive and supportive. See the following three examples of eating disorder thoughts shifted into positive affirmations:

All foods are good or bad, and I am good or bad based on what I eat. → Foods are neither good nor bad, and my value as a person does not change based on what I eat.

Because I ate food that didn’t feel safe to me, I am shameful, and no one will love me. → What I eat does not impact how others view me, and I am worthy of love no matter what.
Because I used an eating disorder behavior once, I’ll never recover.→ Using a behavior once does not undo all of the progress I have made. Recovery is still possible for me.

Once you have reframed your thoughts, it can be helpful to write them on a sticky note and post them onto a mirror, computer, or somewhere else you’ll see it regularly to be reminded. While reframing eating disorder thoughts can feel daunting and maybe even impossible, there is hope for getting out of harmful thought patterns. Collaborating with your treatment team or a trusted support person can be incredibly helpful to help make this process easier.

At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, we know that eating disorder thoughts can make it hard to listen to your authentic voice. We recommend watching the Instagram Live Conversation about affirmations hosted by BALANCE Founder and CEO Melainie Rogers (she/her) and Assistant Director of Nutrition Services Sarah Mandel (she/her). Follow along to gain a deeper understanding of cognitive distortions.

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This post was written by BALANCE Blog Contributor, Korie Born (she/her).

Korie Born is an educator turned Intuitive Eating Counselor with passion for eating disorder treatment and recovery. She earned an undergraduate degree in French at Sonoma State University, then after several years teaching middle school French and English, pursued a Master’s Degree in Education specializing in the overlap between eating disorders and education. Korie has worked to ensure that students and her Intuitive Eating Counseling clients feel supported in making diet culture and disordered eating a thing of the past. As an educator, she honed her content creation skills to share about Intuitive Eating with students in different settings, and through curriculum development for multiple anti-diet and self-esteem boosting curricula for nonprofits in the field. Korie is thrilled to be a part of the BALANCE team to continue to put her content creation, passion, and belief in true healing into action.

Affirmations for Eating Disorder Recovery