A Simple Metaphor for Eating Disorder Recovery

An eating disorder is like a weed. If you water it and give it what it wants, it will grow and begin to overtake your garden and when the weeds take over, there is not much room left for anything else to grow.

Recovery is a process of weeding your garden. It won’t happen in a day, or overnight. It’s a process that takes time. You have to be persistent because if you neglect your weeding, the weeds grow back and begin to overtake again.

Some weeds will be harder to pull out than others and that’s OK. As long as you keep going and put in all your effort, you’ll get there. Sometimes you may not get the whole root and a particular weed will pop up from time to time. That is just one that needs a bit more work and time to eradicate. You won’t be able to weed the whole garden yourself because you will exhaust yourself and the weeds will catch up to you.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It will be overwhelming to step back and see the amount of weeds in your garden; you’ll want to cry, put it off and try to ignore it but no matter how hard it gets, you can’t take a break or give up because they will grow back more viciously. A garden bed with weeds doesn’t allow for the growth of anything beautiful. They will smother any speck of life that was once there. You can’t develop yourself as a person if you’re smothered by your disorder. If you commit yourself to weeding your garden and eradicating the weeds for good, you’ll be able to design a garden you love and something you enjoy.

Your eating disorder takes away any speck of life in you and changes you into a completely different person. Once you eradicate the weeds, you can blossom into whatever you desire.