3 Reasons You Should Try Group Therapy for Eating Disorder Recovery
Have you ever considered doing group therapy? Group therapy can seem like an intimidating experience, but most people are surprised to realize that group therapy can be a highly effective strategy in their eating disorder recovery journey. Below are three reasons why you should consider trying group therapy for eating disorder recovery.
(1) Hearing feedback from a peer can be more impactful than hearing it from your therapist.
While getting feedback and recommendations from your therapist can be very helpful, sometimes getting that same advice from a peer - someone who has the same challenges and fears you do - feels a lot more convincing. Being in a group with other people who are each at a different point in their eating disorder treatment means that you get perspectives from different stages of recovery.
Are you considering going to a higher level of care treatment program? In a group, you can talk to someone who has already been and hear their first-hand experience of the treatment. Are you struggling with a particular aspect of your body image? Chances are high that someone else in your group has experienced the same thing, and may have even found a strategy that helped them get through it.
Each person who goes through eating disorder recovery has a mountain of experience and advice to share with others. And sometimes the advice you get from a peer means a lot more than the recommendation you get from a provider.
(2) Connecting with people who understand you reminds you that you’re not alone.
Eating disorders are an isolating, lonely problem to have. Most people in recovery will tell you that their relationships with friends and relatives suffered, or even ended, because of their eating disorder. What makes this problem even worse is the fact that the vast majority of people do not understand how eating disorders work at all.
Everyone in recovery has experienced a friend, coworker, or relative accidentally say something triggering. Your coworkers talk about the diets they are doing, your parents keep telling you that “you look beautiful” to them and to “stop worrying,” and your friends just smile and nod awkwardly when you’re too honest about your eating disorder thoughts.
Do you know who won’t do any of that? Your eating disorder group members. They have experienced all the same things you have, so they know what is and is not helpful to say. And when you share those unfiltered eating disorder thoughts? They have them too. So they won’t need you to explain what they mean or how they feel. Instead, you get to connect with and be supported by women who truly understand what you’re going through.
(3) Being the person who makes a difference in someone else’s recovery feels amazing.
Yes, in group therapy you get a ton of support and encouragement from other group members. But you also get to support and encourage them. Your encouragement can be what motivates someone else to keep pursuing recovery. Sharing your personal experience could inspire someone else to take a bigger step in their recovery journey than they thought they could accomplish. You could make a significant difference in someone else’s life just by participating in a group and sharing your story.