Thoughts cause eating disorders

Thoughts cause eating disorders...

"Peace is not achieved by controlling nations,
but by mastering our thoughts."

John Harricharan

For most people with EDs, our minds were shaped in a way that makes us hold to negative thoughts about ourselves. This negative thoughts may come from:

fatness
bullying
parents divorce
emotional negligence
distant/absent parents
strong parental criticism
emotional or physical abuse
urge to satisfy parents' high expectations

(Sometimes we don't even know what exactly happened because we seem to have had a pretty normal life)

These experiences are translated and recorded in our unconscious mind in the shape of negative conclusions about oneself:

"There is something wrong with me"
"I am isolated from the rest of the world"
"I can't let others see how I really am"
"It seems to be that I am not good enough no matter what I do"
"I need to be perfect" (to be loved, for my mom to leave me alone, etc)
"I'm so stupid/ugly/clumsy/useless/incapable"
"I feel separated from the rest of the world"
"I don't deserve as much as others"

For each person the thought might be different, but the thought is always negative and it produces sadness, fear or anger.

Which are the thoughts about life, people and yourself that keep you sick?...Most of these thoughts are not conscious. You can reveal your negative thoughts by observing your actions.

For example, if you are constantly anticipating other persons' reactions to the things you do or say that means that in your mind there is a thought that states: "Others' opinion of me is more important than my own"

Or maybe you are afraid of relating to other people. That could hide a thought such as: "I am not pretty/good/funny enough. There is no way someone like this may want to have something to do with me"

Besides overeating or starving, maybe you are stuck in a job or marriage you don't like. Maybe you procrastinate, deny yourself the things you want, don't take a shower regularly, forget the things that are important to you, throw garbage in your own room, cut yourself, keep the people you love and that love you away...

Ask yourself: What does this action say about me? What do I think that makes me act this way? Why do I do this to myself?

That way you can start unveiling all the negative thoughts that make you sick. Remember to write this down in your journal.

It is because of these thoughts and consequent feelings that we got an eating disorder...

The recovery approach I propose in this site, begins with working with your mind. This implies changing the negative ideas in your mind that make you sick, for healthier ones.

This section of the site, is about knowing how your mind works.

By knowing how our mind works, it gets easier to work with thoughts that create the ED to transform them into thoughts that create a healthy life.

At this point we can decide to either complain about how our mind was shaped by those early experiences...or decide to re-shape it to our convenience.

Knowing about how your mind works, will help you to re-shape your mind the way you want it to be. Here there is a sequence of short articles that may help you to do so.

• Thoughts, feelings and behavior.
• The basic thought underlying every eating disorder.
• Thoughts control emotions.
• We give meaning to things.
• I control my mind
• Reality is created by our perceptions
• Habits. Conscious/unconscious mind. "I can't stop eating/starving and I don't know why".
• Mind controllers hierarchy. Why can't I change some of my thoughts?
• Being willing to believe that red is purple

If you want to get a deeper understanding of your mind, I strongly recommend you to read about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Perception Theory, Gestalt, Semiotics or Psychoanalysis. Here I provide what I learned from that, applied to eating disorders as I understand it.

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