Sophie’s comment “I think I can express my feelings far better than my brothers and have always done so”, was very cute. I smiled at her and said yes she does NOW express herself better. But for quite a long time she didn’t use her voice and disappeared down the rabbit hole of anorexia.
Sophie smiled and said yeah. No ostrich approach, no denial, no ‘don’t talk about that’. She just accepted, acknowledge and smiled. I think we can safely say that this is very good progress. Soph has done this a few times in the last couple of weeks – just quietly acknowledged her past and been ok about it.
Her voice is also being heard. Bit dry and squeaky, sometimes too loud and strong, sometimes too weak and indecisive but she is practicing voicing her feelings and explaining why she gets upset etc. She is using words better, and putting them into a sentence that means something for both her and the listener. Has has voiced her deeper feelings to her father over christmas and talked to me about some of her other intense behaviours. It is a slow movement forward and a very very good one.
Her counselor noticed the difference in her and the ability to speak for herself about herself when we had the group therapy sessions. Her counselor is very proud of the progress made and the maturity she is acquiring.
Two things are shown, just how long the therapy is needed for after the initial anorexia illness and that by sticking with the therapy maturity, strength, life can be regained. At times it looked liked Sophie would never learn the lessons and tools given to her, but she has and is now learning to use them herself for her own benefit.
Yes it is a long journey, some longer than others. It is also different in the amount of strength, health and life that each person will achieve, but any level of recovery is better than living with the ED.
