Self-Esteem and Eating Disorder Recovery
Your eating disorder voice can cloud your perception of your body and affect your self-esteem. It’s important to remember that seeking support and treatment is a significant step towards recovery but does not automatically restore your self-esteem. It’s a journey that takes time, patience, and consistent effort.
But what is self-esteem, and how do you know if you have low or healthy self-esteem? Understanding your self-esteem is a crucial step towards healing and recovery, as it forms the foundation of how you perceive yourself and interact with the world around you.
What Is Self-Esteem?
Oxford Lerner’s Dictionary defines self-esteem as “confidence in one’s worth or abilities.” Susan Radzilowski, MSW, LMSW, and ACSW, categorizes it into three levels: low, healthy, and excessive. Your personality traits, health, family, and history primarily determine your self-esteem. It can also change as you age and go through life experiences, like recovering from an eating disorder.
What Are Signs of Low Self-Esteem?
Low self-esteem usually starts during childhood due to genetics, discrimination, family dynamics, trauma, stress, comparison, physical illness, pain, and mental illness. Some feelings that many people struggling with low self-esteem experience are:
- Worthlessness
- Feeling inadequate
- Struggling with perfectionism
- Experiencing a fear of failure
- Difficulty setting boundaries
- Fearing judgment or rejection
These feelings may keep you from trying new things or having new experiences, like starting treatment for your eating disorder. Research links low self-esteem to an increased likelihood of specific mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
What Are Signs of a Healthy Self-Esteem?
Don’t be discouraged if your self-esteem is low. Through recovery and treatment for your eating disorder, you can develop healthy self-esteem, which can look like this:
- Knowing and celebrating your identity
- Showing up as your authentic self
- Being vulnerable with those you love
- Active assertively (not aggressively)
- Setting healthy boundaries
- Seeking feedback and asking for help from trusted individuals
- Accepting failure as a necessary part of life
- Believing in your worth
How to Improve Your Self-Esteem
Taking steps to boost your self-esteem can help you navigate the highs and lows of your eating disorder recovery and whatever else life might throw your way. There are many ways to improve your self-esteem, including:
- Prioritizing self-care to help honor your inherent worthiness. Try getting enough sleep, setting boundaries, and making time for the activities you enjoy.
- Practicing self-compassion by respecting yourself regardless of the outcome of a situation.
- Rejecting perfectionism and setting realistic goals with compassion for yourself.
- Resisting comparison and reminding yourself that you are on your journey.
- Staying present with a mindfulness practice or limiting time on social media
Self-Esteem in Recovery
Using these techniques to improve your self-esteem may be difficult when working toward eating disorder recovery. You might discover a close link between your self-esteem and your eating disorder. Sharing these thoughts with your treatment team, who can use different techniques to help you build your self-esteem, is essential. Regularly using a gratitude journal, identifying your values, and focusing on your strengths are also helpful tools in your recovery and self-esteem-boosting journey.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and other disordered eating and body image issues. In addition to our full-time Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), we offer nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support and outpatient groups to assist those seeking help for food concerns.
References
“Self-Esteem.” Oxford Languages, https://languages.oup.com/.
“What Is Self-Esteem, and How Can I Improve Mine?” Therapist.com, 15 Dec. 2022, https://therapist.com/self-development/what-is-self-esteem/.
This post was written by BALANCE Blog Contributor, Dawn Lundin (she/her).
Dawn Lundin, MS, RD is a registered dietitian and owner of Restore Ease Dietetics which is a virtual nutrition private practice that focuses on mental health + sports nutrition. She primarily with adolescents and young adults with eating disorders. She believes in meeting clients where they are at which provides a unique client-focused approach to recovery. She lives in Marquette, Michigan with her husband and three sons. As a family, they love to travel and spend time outdoors. She also enjoys mountain biking, running, cross-country skiing, being on or in the water, and knitting.
