TranscendBulimia.com

I have had many questions lately about dealing with physical pain in recovery.

If you currently have an eating disorder, you may have pain. In fact, you may be in a holding pattern with pain, where it has become the norm for you. So much so that you don’t really feel it.

Some of the pain I had before recovery from bulimia:

• Foggy thinking – I had a great memory and while I often felt full of energy, I felt like I had to expend extra energy working through a veil of fog during my day.
• Digestive pain – gas, bloating, constipation and often, crippling digestive pain.
• Body pain – The track of pain was in the “stomach meridian” in Chinese medicine (from my mouth, up to my head and down through my neck, to my shoulder and all the way down to my big toe). While the pain varied, it was interesting to see that it tracked this meridian. Even more interesting is that the spirit of this meridian is “purpose of life,” the orifice is the mouth and the chakras are the 2nd and 3rd (solar plexus, our power house).

I had the same idea I think we all have…in recovery, I’ll feel much better, right?

Wrong…at least for a little bit of time — the good news is, it all passes when you take care of your health — we just need to learn to be patient. For the first few days to a week, I felt a lot WORSE. Especially the body pain. And since I coupled my recovery with an eating plan that healed my digestion, including giving up caffeine, I had strong headaches for 4 days.

In the early stages of recovery, here are the physical symptoms I experienced:

• Digestive pain – this was often so uncomfortable that it threatened my recovery. In the very early days, it was so uncomfortable that I’d have occasional relapses just to ease the discomfort. Yes, I had digestive pain before recovery, but the type of pain was different…and it was familiar. This was a different type of pain and included nausea. The nausea made it difficult to take vitamins and eat healthy foods. Nothing has been written about how to deal with this pain in recovery, so I had a hard time wading through it at first.
• Body pain – the same pain occurred in my stomach meridian, but it was intensified. I felt terrible for days and had low-level pain for quite some time after this. My neck and knees in particular. When you purge often, you can get overuse injury, just like any repetitive motion that is not normal or comfortable for your body.
• Bloating – this lasted for about 2 weeks in the beginning, then years later, I had a bout of holding fluid, which was a different feeling from the original bloating and lasted several months. This was all normal and part of my endocrine system healing. It can take time and every person’s body is a little different.
• Delayed stomach emptying – it felt like it took hours for my food to digest. Often, it seemed like my food just sat there and I’d never be hungry for the next meal. When I did get hungry, it snuck up on me and BOOM, there it was. No warning. That’s why carrying healthy snacks is a good idea.
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) – this is related to digestive pain. I typically had a lot of pain in my intestines, so along with the nausea and delayed stomach emptying, I had confused signals about hunger. My intestines, especially my colon, often felt so full that I could not recognize hunger. When my stomach was hungry, it felt very confusing because my intestines felt so full. I never seemed to have an empty, light feeling, which could sometimes be distressing.
• Fatigue – I felt very tired for the first month. I was detoxing, especially since I was eating a very healthy diet. Sometimes I felt like I had no energy to do anything, but I actually had more physical energy than I thought. I highly recommend resting during this time, so your body can heal.

Some people have GERD or acid reflux. That’s pretty normal too and is a sign of a digestive system that needs healing.

Keep in mind that there are emotional aspects to this pain as well. With eating disorders, whether anorexia, bulimia or compulsive overeating, there is most likely a subconscious suppressed emotion that you don’t even know is there.

Your body creates symptoms in order to tell you that you have suppressed this emotion. Symptoms are the language of your body. Anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating…any addiction is your body telling you something is out of alignment.

Perhaps, like I was, you are playing a role (being someone you think you SHOULD be), a perfectionist who feels like she can’t just be real, a workaholic, in a career you don’t like, involved in friendships that don’t fulfill you. Whatever you are doing that is out of alignment with how and WHO you truly want to be, your body is letting you know that something is missing.

Your spirit is pure love and wants to express it’s true nature and utilize your true gifts. Most of us are stuck in things that don’t fulfill our hearts and souls. We are afraid to change. We are stuck. That’s the gift of bulimia, anorexia and compulsive overeating — or any addiction, illness or pain.

It’s there to wake us up. To tell us to pay attention. To lead us to what will truly fulfill our hearts.

Trouble is, we sometimes have to connect with painful emotions, fear, chaos and confusion in order to align our lives. We often have to make choices that are scary, make others wonder what’s wrong with us (we’re changing after all and they might not like it) and in the process, we may lose some friends, maybe even a significant other.

The path back to ourselves can be painful. But I have to say, it’s so WORTH IT.

Eventually, the fear subsides. Especially as you learn to trust your intuition and take steps toward aligning with your true desires.

Eventually, the pain also subsides. For me, it only shows up when I start to slip back into my old workaholic ways. When I load up with too much work or start doing things that are out of alignment with my vision or my true desires, the pain shows up like a gift. To remind me.

As you learn to listen to your body, say THANK YOU to the pain. Let it know that you understand something is out of alignment and that your body can go back to it’s job supporting your health. And LISTEN. If you ignore what you know you need to do (or what that little inkling you have is telling you), the pain may find it’s way back or get worse. This is the stuff of relapses.

If a relapse happens, say THANK YOU bulimia or THANK YOU anorexia or THANK you overeating. I now recognize I am out of alignment with my true purpose. I am ready to listen and make changes that support my greatest good.

Our body is our barometer for what’s happening in our lives.

How you react to pain will decide whether you stay stuck or whether you transcend. It’s kind of like war. Does the fighting and killing really accomplish anything? Healing happens with love, gratitude and acceptance. You have that power and you have the ability to heal pain and heal your life.

Tomorrow, I will post on what I do to stop pain naturally…including, “the BIG GUN” that instantly removes digestive pain from IBS, gas, bloating and constipation.

My favorite books for understanding the link between physical and emotional pain (and what to do about it):

You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay

The Power of Infinite Love & Gratitude, by Darren Weissman

The Mind Body Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain, by John E. Sarno, MD

People who looked at this item also looked at…

• About Me
• How to Deal with Physical & Emotional Pain in Eating Disorders Recovery – Part 2
• Recovery Coaching
• How This Life-Changing Book Can Help You Heal and Thrive
• Bulimia Recovery: Stopping the Cycle of Relapse

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