For Spouses and Partners: Supporting Your Person in Eating Disorder Recovery
While working with individuals in eating disorder recovery, I often encounter the gap in available resources for spouses and partners. My hope is that the resources below will provide education and knowledge about things that you can do to support your loved one in this process.
What your partner might want you to know (in the words of real patients):
“ I wish that my husband understood that this is not my choice and that “getting better” is not just as easy as choosing to eat more. I wish that he understood how lonely I am, how much I want to crawl out of my body and in to one that is skinny and perfect. I wish he understood that I don’t want him to fix me or problem solve this, I just want him to say “I am in this with you” and put his arm around me”
“I wish that he knew that the comments he makes about my body, even the compliments and the one’s he thinks are going to feel really good, pretty much always land as fuel for my eating disorder”
Books that I recommend reading if your spouse is struggling with an eating disorder (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, disordered eating, etc.)
Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith [even if you are not a parent!]
