What is Normal - Paperblog

As the mother of two high functioning asperger children, I found the diagnosis of ‘normal’ for children so narrow and so unforgiving. Many mothers have found this across the board in many areas. The diagnosis of what is normal shrinks and it appears that most of us sit on the outside of ‘normal’.

Eating disorders is another area that normal gets confused. It is actually easier to say what IS NOT normal. The reason for this is that many industries tell us that it is normal to be thin, normal to exist on so many calories, normal to diet, normal to be underweight. The eating disorder itself distorts true normal anyway. Denial or rewriting normal is what the eating disorder will do – it skews your whole perception of normal.

I thought that instead of listing what is normal behavior I would make a clear list of what is not normal. Stop the denial, stop the perverting of truth so you can start to hopefully see just how the eating disorder is controlling you.

IT.IS.NOT.NORMAL -

to exist on 1200 or less calories a day
to have a food/weight diary that is minute in detail that you are obsessed about filling in (a recovery food diary is different to this)
to have rules about food
to have strict routines, utensils or plates to eat food
to want to isolate yourself when it is meal time
to weight yourself every day (or more)
to feel guilty if you don’t exercise to the extreme each day
to feel guilty (or worse) if you ate food
to have a list of good and bad foods
to have fears of certain foods
to feel fat, worthless, ugly, useless, stupid if you eat
to have a very real fear of weight gain
to feel depressed or worthless to the point of wanting to disappear
to think the only way to happiness is to be thin
to think that your thighs shouldn’t touch
to think your ribs (hips or collarbones) should clearly show through your skin
to restrict liquids (this is so dangerous – seriously)
to suddenly be vegetarian, lactose/gluten intolerant, vegan when there is no diagnosis or life commitment
to be cold all the time
to be in pain, weak, tired, dizzy or have heart palpitations
to think recovery means you are eating a tiny amount of food not starving completely
to be addicted or obsessed with any kind of behavior that consumes you all the time
to be intensely black and white (or rigid) in your thinking and approach to all areas of life (including food)

Got more…. Send them to me. I know the list can be added to.