The Eating Disorder Voice

Some call it the negative mind, some call it the voice, some call it Ed (short for Eating Disorder)...
According to Terence J.Sandbeck, PH.D. author of The Deadly Diet - Recovering from Anorexia and Bulimia:

"The Voice is the accumulation of all of the negative, destructive, worrisome thinking that you've ever been exposed to in your entire life. "

We all have The Voice, it is just human nature, but for some of us, it can become a destructive, painful part of our lives that controls us and leads us to the depths of anxiety, depression, addiction, eating disorders and other forms of self destructive behaviors.
During tonight's group, we discussed common messages that our Eating Disorder Voice tells us (you are not good enough, you are a failure, you must never show weakness, change is awful, working on my problems is scary, etc.).

Here are some ways in which these messages are flawed and untrue (McKay, Davis and Fanning)

1. Filtering: the voice takes negative details and magnifies them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation.

2. Polarized Thinking: the voice tells you that things are black and white. you are either perfect or you are a failure.

3. Overgeneralization: the voice insists on a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence.

4. Mind Reading: the voice tell you what people are feeling and why they act the way they do.

5. Catastrophizing: the voice convinces you that disaster is imminent. You think the worst will happen and you underestimate your ability to cope.

6. Personalization: the voice convinces you that everything others do or say is some kind of reaction to you.

7. Control Fallacies: since the voice controls your life, you see yourself as a helpless victim of your circumstances.

8. Fallacy of Fairness: the vice makes you feel resentful. Thinking the world should be fair, and everything should be perfect.

9. Blaming: the voice gets you to either hold other people responsible or blame yourself for all of the problems in your life.

10. Shoulds: the voice gives you a list of iron-clad rules on how you and other people should act.

11. Emotional Reasoning: the voice has convinced you that what you feel must be true. For example: I feel fat, and therefore I must be fat. I feel like a failure, therefore I am a failure.

12. Global Labeling: the voice generalizes one or two qualities into a negative global judgment. For example, my boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with me, so I am unlovable.

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See if you can practice recognizing the flaws above in the messages you receive from your Eating Disorder Voice.

Remember, recovery is possible!! You don't have to do recovery alone and you do not have to do life alone.

peace, hope and love,

Lily