Being honest with yourself and where you're at in your eating disorder recovery process can be challenging. At times I find I am trying to convince myself that I am doing better than I actually am. What we need to do is be honest with ourselves each day, checking in, seeing where we are at and what we need. Doing this will create self-awareness that will aid in keeping slips at bay.

Since being in eating disorder recovery and feeling well enough to start dating again, I have found that the dating scene can be difficult to navigate. Finding someone who understands what you are going/have gone through may seem like an impossible task. Here are some tips on getting back out there once you feel ready to date again in eating disorder recovery.

We need to learn how to deal with the urge to binge eat -- even if we haven't binged in years. When the urge to binge arrives, we may feel like our only choice is to give in. Here's the good news, we have a choice. We can choose not to act on binging behaviors. Here are some tips to help deal with the urge to binge eat head on.

The benefits of dance movement therapy (DMT) during my eating disorder recovery can't be ignored. I have been a dancer all my life and, honestly, think dance is what saved this life of mine (Alternative Approaches to Mental Health Treatment). Shortly into my eating disorder recovery journey, I began working with a dance movement therapist. Having this experience made me realize how important movement, in particular, dance movement therapy, is for eating disorder recovery.

Some people don't understand this, but binge eating disorder combined with depression can make food your only friend.When binge eating ran my life, I also experienced major depression. I don't know which came first, the binge eating disorder or depression, but co-occurrence of depression is common among those with eating disorders (Depression and Eating Disorders: When Sadness Never Fades).

Something I always stress to people is that eating disorder recovery is not always a linear process and slips in eating disorder recovery happen. This is unfortunate, but something we need to be aware of. Throughout my recovery journey, I fell back into old disordered eating behaviors countless times before long-term abstinence from binging was able to occur. Here's how to deal with slips in eating disorder recovery.

There are many components to binge eating disorder recovery. In spite of this, often times, individuals with eating disorders are told to "just eat" or to "just stop eating," depending on which eating disorder they are suffering from (How To Talk To Someone About Their Eating Disorder). Recovery is much more complex than only fixing our behaviors with food. Eating disorders are both a mental and physical disease which require many different treatment components for binge eating disorder recovery.

There is a common misconception that an individual with binge eating disorder has a certain body type (What Does Binge Eating Disorder Look Like?). When it comes to binge eating disorder, as well as other eating disorders, there is not one way a person's body will look. You cannot tell just by looking at someone whether or not they struggle with an eating disorder of any type. Body type and binge eating disorder are not necessarily linked.

Secrecy in binge eating disorder is huge. I was once told that eating disorders were all about secrets and lies. As I ponder that thought, I cannot think of anything more accurate. When consumed by binge eating disorder, I did everything in secret, never letting anyone into the reality of my life. I snuck food, lied about what I was eating, and denied any comments about my behavior. I wish I would have known then that the secrecy of my binge eating disorder was only digging me deeper into my dark hole.

Holidays in binge eating recovery can make the season even more anxiety-triggering. This time of year is especially food-filled and it can be tempting to dig in full force. It is important to remember what you are working towards and keep on your path toward binge eating recovery even during the holidays.