Why Body Image Healing After an Eating Disorder Takes Time (and That’s Okay)

You recover from your eating disorder and suddenly feel amazing in a bikini, right? Not quite.

Body image healing after eating disorder recovery is a process—often a lengthy one. If you think about it in terms of how your eating disorder progressed, you might have started off with body image struggles, dabbled in some diet culture-y behaviors to feel better, and things progressed from there. In recovery, we have to work backwards from that. First we stabilize the behaviors, start to challenge that unhelpful diet culture mindset, and then we come to the body image piece. When you look at it from this angle, you can see that body image is often the last to go. So, if you are doing what you need to do in eating disorder recovery and wondering why body image is still hard, know that this is normal.

Body image healing after an eating disorder isn’t a light-switch moment—it’s more like learning to ride a bike...with no brakes…in a thunderstorm. Let’s talk about why.

Why Body Image Healing Is So Tricky (Spoiler: It’s Not Just About the Mirror)

Even in recovery, body image healing after an eating disorder is layered and complex. In our culture, it’s hard not to have body image issues without an eating disorder history. With one, it can feel almost impossible to heal your body image between internalized beliefs, cultural messages, and trauma responses that shape body image. Unfortunately, these factors don’t magically disappear when ED behaviors stop. It's kind of like deleting spam emails—you think you got rid of them, and then boom: 47 more from ‘HowtoGetYourDreamBody’. 

While body image healing isn’t actually impossible, it can be pretty tricky. By the looks of it, societal messaging in regards to bodies isn’t going away any time soon, so you the changes you have to focus on are internal. Truly healing your relationship with your body in a world that isn’t conducive to your goal requires self-exploration, persistence, and willingness to ruffle some feathers once in a while. Readiness to do the tough work and look beyond the mirror is a great place to start if you want to work towards body image healing.

The Nervous System’s Role in Body Image

Trauma and nervous system dysregulation can actually play a role in how you perceive your body. Experiencing trauma can trigger the flight, fight, or freeze responses. When the effects of trauma linger, it can lead to long-term nervous system dysregulation. This can result in feeling disconnected from your body, chronic pain and illness, shame towards your body, heightened sensory input, and distorted self perception. It’s easy for trauma to get tangled up in an eating disorder or body image issues, and talk therapy isn’t always enough to fix it. That’s why approaches like somatic therapy can be so impactful in body image work. I would go out on a limb to say that feeling safe in your body is a prerequisite to liking it, and working with a body-based, trauma-informed therapist can help you to do just that.

Myths About Body Image Healing in Eating Disorder Recovery (and What It’s Actually Like)

Something that people don’t always get is that body image healing is Hard. Work. There is no simple fix or miracle cure. Navigating body image issues often requires digging deep and working through the tough stuff. If positive affirmations alone fixed body image, I’d be out of a job. But, seriously – body image work is just way too complex to be that simple. When I think about common misconceptions about body image in eating disorder recovery, here are some of the ones that I often hear.

“If I change my mindset, my body image issues will go away.”

Not quite. I always say that there is a time and place for cognitive approaches (we love a good CBT thought record). But, I’ve found that a bottom-up approach (which I talk more about in my blog post “Somatic Healing for Eating Disorder Recovery: A Trauma-Informed, Body-Based Approach”) is often helpful in body image work. This means that we start with teaching you how to soothe your body before we try to change what you think about it. If your body doesn’t feel safe, it can be very difficult to work on changing your core beliefs.

“Being recovered means that I will love my body”

The purpose of this post really isn’t to scare you away from body image work, but I’m also a realist. The expectation for eating disorder recovery is not that your relationship with your body will turn into rainbows and sunshine, and everything will be perfect. The reality is that we still live in a world with rampant diet culture, and you’ll probably still have body image struggles. Healing body image after eating disorder recovery looks different for everyone. The hope is that it will (eventually) feel less intense, you’ll treat your body with kindness, and you might even find some things you appreciate about your body. You may not necessarily love your body through eating disorder recovery, but it’s possible that you could stop hating it.

“It doesn’t feel better. I must be doing it wrong”

There does come a time in therapy when we want to ask the question, “Is this beneficial, or should we try a different approach?” But, a few weeks (or even months) into body image work is not necessarily the time to be super concerned about why you don’t feel better. The truth is that it might feel worse when you first open the Pandora’s box of body hatred. That’s because there is usually so much tangled up with body image struggles –  past trauma, societal pressures, and self-esteem, to name a few. In order to start unraveling it all, you’ll have to do some unlearning and face the tough stuff. It’s normal if it hurts in the beginning, but it does get better.

Tips for Supporting Body Image Healing (That Aren’t “Just Love Yourself”)

If you are working on healing your body image after an eating disorder, chances are that you’re going to need some extra TLC. This is a vulnerable time for you and your relationship with your body, and it makes sense if things still feel hard. If you are struggling with supporting yourself with healing body image after an eating disorder, here are some tips to help you cope:

• Try somatic tools for grounding

• Set social media boundaries (don’t let yourself spiral over photos)

• Embrace clothing that fits your now-body and get rid of the stuff that doesn’t

• Lean into compassionate self-talk

• Wearing comfy clothes

• Move your body joyfully and focus on the things that feel good

• Educate yourself with eating disorder informed, body image told such as those found on NEDA’s website.

  
  

Additionally, working with a trauma-informed therapist can make a big difference in body image healing after an eating disorder. Feel free to reach out to me today if you would like to add one to your recovery support team.

A Compassionate Reminder

If your body image journey were a road trip, it’d have lots of bathroom stops, a weird detour, and definitely snacks. That’s because healing is non-linear, and it’s definitely not a perfect process. Loving every aspect of your body all of the time is unrealistic, and not having a perfect relationship with your body is unrealistic. It’s okay to give yourself some grace in eating disorder recovery. Body neutrality is a valid goal, and there is no timeline or “finish line” to body image work. It’s okay if body image healing takes time – You’re not doing it wrong.

If you feel that you could use some extra support in your body image journey or are looking for trauma-informed, somatic-based support in your ED recovery, use the button below to schedule your free 15-minute consultation.