What if you’ve been working on your relationship with food and your body for years…and you’re still struggling? Does that mean you’re doing recovery wrong?
This is at the heart of today’s bonus episode of Full Plate, and I think it’s a conversation we desperately need more of.
(To hear the full conversation, become a paid subscriber right here.)
Eating disorder stories are often told from one of two places: from the absolute depths of the struggle, or from the other side, where everything gets wrapped up into a neat recovery story. But most healing happens somewhere in between.
Johanna Scoglio, author and mental health educator, joins me to talk about living with and healing from an eating disorder that has been part of her life for more than 25 years—and what changed when she stopped measuring recovery by whether she could make every thought, urge, or struggle disappear.
Johanna shares honestly about rigid definitions of recovery, weight-centered care, all-or-nothing approaches to food and exercise, and the feeling that struggling meant she was failing.
But we also get into something I think will resonate deeply with anyone who has been doing this work for a long time: the sheer exhaustion of always working on recovery, and figuring out how much of your life to devote to healing.
Listen for more on:
* Why eating disorders are so often about much more than food or body image
* The difference between being “high functioning” and actually being okay
* How perfectionism can follow us straight into recovery
* What Johanna wishes had been different about eating disorder treatment
* Weight stigma and the issues with using weight as a marker of illness or recovery
* Why an all-or-nothing approach to movement can create its own harm
* Harm reduction as an alternative to shame, compliance, and perfection
* Including exercise without an all-or-nothing approach
*The exhaustion that can come from working on recovery for years
* What Johanna believes is the real thing she's healing from (and it has nothing to do with food)
* Learning to trust yourself, your emotions, and your own inner wisdom
* What it means to create a meaningful life while you’re still “in the water”
🎧 To hear the full conversation, become a paid subscriber right here.
Paid subscriptions directly support Full Plate and make it possible for me to continue having long, nuanced, independent, sponsor-free conversations like this one.
If you’ve ever wondered, Why am I still struggling with this?, I really hope this one meets you where you are and offers a way forward.
Johanna Scoglio is an author, educator, and mental health advocate dedicated to reducing stigma and creating compassionate spaces for those navigating eating disorders. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, four bonus children, and their puppy, Copa. Her memoir is called: When the Water Still Holds Me: Letters Through the Tides of a Long-Term Eating Disorder.
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