Affirmations and Advice for Disordered Eating in Florida: How to avoid using food as a Coping Mechanism.

During the holidays and other stressful times of the year, it’s easy to turn toward food and unhelpful eating behaviors. Affirmations can really help. When I first started using affirmation years ago, I felt TOTALLY cheesy saying positive messages about myself out loud. Over time, the cheesiness faded and I began believing these statements. Affirmations became something on which I relied to steer me away from disordered eating. Whether I was living in California or visiting Florida or Colorado, I would keep saying affirmations until they became a reality.

It may feel weird to make this statement. It’s actually a powerful dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) tool called mindful labeling. With mindful labeling, you say out loud the activity in which you’re engaging.

#1. “I Want to Engage in Disordered Eating”

For example, right now, “I’m typing out my blog post,” “I want to take a drink of water,” and “I’m looking at the words on the screen.” Get it? It’s like you narrate what you are doing in real time. The benefit is that it grounds you in the present moment and detaches you a little from the intense emotion you’re feeling. Then, according to DBT, you can move into wise mind, which is when you are centered and able to show your self compassion and do some problem-solving to change the situation.

#2. “I’m radically accepting the situation.”

When you’re in so much pain because of the eating disorder, it may feel impossible to accept any part of the situation. At the same time, radical acceptance is an effective perspective to take when things . . . well, when things really suck. One example is when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in 2020. I was working with everyone virtually via telehealth. Teens and college students were separated from their friends. Adults were working from home. The situation was terrible.

Yes, that time was really scary and awful. We had no control over COVID. Radically accepting that it sucked (big time!) validated our feelings at the present moment. You can take that lesson and apply it to any challenging situation. Because that’s all you have to focus on when it comes to radical acceptance—the present moment.

#3. “I’m doing the opposite action.”

Opposite action is a behavioral coping skill. That means we do the opposite when we feel like we want to engage in eating disorder behaviors, such as binge eating, purging, and body checking. Opposite action is especially helpful when paired with mindful labeling (see #1). You first mindfully label what you’re thinking or feeling (e.g., “I want to binge”), and then you say, “I’m doing the opposite action.” You then do the exact opposite of the eating disorder behavior, such as picking up knitting, taking a bath, playing with your pet, doing a puzzle, or calling a friend for support.

#4. “I deserve to care for myself instead.”

That individual, in turn, under functions, which means that they don’t take care of their responsibilities, and they expect others to take care of their emotions. Getting out of the over-functioning/under-functioning pattern is an important part of recovery. It’s difficult to engage fully in eating disorder recovery when you feel preoccupied with someone else’s responsibilities and feelings. Saying, “I deserve to care for myself instead,” not only reminds you that you are a priority, it also gets you into the eating disorder recovery mindset of caring for yourself FIRST.

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*The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is virtual binge eating education and coaching support. The goal of this program is to help people stop any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment programs and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.