ED and corona

[keentohelp]

Anyone else trying to recover from an eating disorder whilst all of this unfolds? I'm really, really struggling. I'm trying to only go to the shops every 10 days and people have panic bought most of my 'safe foods'. Fresh veg obviously doesn't last very long so the food we end up having to eat gives me the urge to purge it.

Plus the surplus of food in the house after going shopping is hard to be around (urge to binge) and I'm finding the lack of exercise really hard to deal with. I'm seeing a therapist fortunately (over the phone now) but it doesn't seem to be helping as I've either faster or purged every evening since lockdown started, and now I'm struggling with the thought of eating breakfast or lunch today. Just not sure how to cope with it all. Anyone else?

Just to add a bit more info- I had started CBT with a precious therapist a few months ago when 9 months pregnant. After having my baby the CBT started to help, but that was mostly through finding ways of filling my time during the day by going out to baby classes and staying out of the house. Just before this all kicked off my precious therapist left and I was given a new one- I met her in person once before lockdown started. She's not doing CBT at all and so I'm finding the change in therapy type quite jarring, and I obviously can't do any of the things that were actually helping me before as I can't leave the house. After my weight plummeting in late pregnancy and in the initial weeks post partum it had finally started to stabilise- in the last couple of weeks it's started to fall quickly again. Feeling really lost.

*previous not precious!

So sorry to hear you're in this position, keentohelp. I have disordered eating (ex-anorexic, now struggle with a BED). I understand your battle with all the food in the house, and the exercise thing.

Not sure if it will help, but this is what I'm doing. I am trying to stick to the same routine I would have in work (I'm now WFH). So I get up, go out for my daily exercise walk just as the sun is coming up, around 6:30, when I would normally be at the gym. I listen to a podcast and generally walk for between 40 mins and an hour. It's a lovely time of day, and especially nice as it's been so bright and sunny.

Get home and do some yoga three times a week - which I normally do in a studio, alternating between yoga and gym each day. I find it puts me in a good mind set, and there are SO many free videos on YouTube. I've also been doing a shorter stretch / flexibility session of around 20 mins at lunch time, when I would normally take a walk if I was at the office.

If you're not into yoga, there are plenty of other exercise videos online - maybe now is the time to start something new, if you have the space?

The food front is a lot more difficult. Do you have a freezer? Frozen fruit and veg is great, especially for making into soups or smoothies. The bags of mixed veg are alright cooked and eaten with a nice gravy! Frozen petite pois are yummy, too. You could also try tinned sweetcorn to add volume to say, tuna / chicken mayo. I find adding "volume" to my meals can help - so make porridge with lots of water so it's a big bowl, have fruit as a "starter".

Do you have anything you can do to take your mind off food? Reading / sewing / doing a puzzle / cleaning / anything else?