Anorexia and Bulimia Symptoms - Monitor Your Eating Disorder Thoughts

Many people living with Anorexia and Bulimia eating disorders tend to have a distorted perception of themselves. They are extremely critical of their reflection in the mirror as what they see is not reality...

Examples of distorted thinking include the following:

o All or nothing thinking - black and white thinking- seeing things in absolute terms such as good-bad, right-wrong- no flexibility in thinking

o Minimising the positives - insisting that any compliments or personal achievements are not really important

o Jumping to conclusions - Believing that certain outcomes will be negative without any definite evidence

o Blame - you blame yourself for something you were not responsible for

o Maximisation/minimisation - You over react and blow things out of proportion or you minimise certain important events.

o Over generalisation- for example - I gained 3 pounds last week, so I know no matter what I do I will gain 3 pounds every week. Or, last week I binged on chocolate bars so I can never ever eat them again...

How to monitor your eating disorder thoughts?

When you are feeling a negative emotion, it is helpful to look inward and examine what thoughts are going through your mind.

Step 1: Record your feelings and urges (guilty, frustrated, urge to restrict my eating)

Step 2: Identify the situation you are in/ the triggers (alone, at a party, with work mates)

Step 3: Record your exact thoughts at that time. For example were you thinking in extremes, overgeneralising, blaming, and jumping to conclusions?

HONESTY IS KEY TO THIS TASK IN ORDER TO HIGHLIGHT THE EXACT DISTORTION IN THOUGHTS!