Topic Tuesday: Recovery

“Why YOUR Recovery Matters” (By: Peggy Miller)

In a world that has been turned upside down by a pandemic, it can be easy to feel helpless and unable to make a difference. In a world that is fighting and crying out for equal rights and treatment for all, regardless of race, it can be easy to feel that your personal fight is not important enough.

Maybe your eating disorder has seemed like an easy way to have control in this time when we feel like we have little control and choice. Maybe it has seemed like something that can help you fight for others better. Maybe it has felt like fighting for your recovery isn’t as important as other work that can be done right now, and you think you should take a break.

These “maybes” are a lie from your eating disorder. Eating disorders do not provide control, hope, or justice. They take away your voice and your life – the tools you have been given to be a light in this world.

Recovery is what gives you the ability to bring hope and make a difference in a pandemic. Recovery is what gives you a voice to fight for those who have been oppressed, including yourself if you have personally experienced the oppression and discrimination of a broken system. Recovery is a choice you can make, each and every day, in a time when we do not get to choose so many things.

Your recovery could not be more important in this time. As cliché as it seems, the phrase “put your own mask on first” comes to mind as I write this post. We cannot truly love and serve others when an eating disorder is in control. The suffering from an eating disorder is not somehow deserved because of the suffering that others are experiencing.

So, for whoever needs to hear this today, your recovery matters. Your life and your voice matters to the world, and you can keep fighting to take it back from your eating disorder, even in a world that is uncertain and broken.

About the Author

Peggy Miller is currently a graduate student in Lipscomb University’s Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She is thankful for all those who have supported and encouraged her in her own recovery journey, and she is passionate about spending her life holding hope for her own clients and walking with them on the beautiful and messy journey of healing. In her free time, Peggy enjoys spending time with her dog, family, and friends. She loves good coffee, hiking, ice cream, and hugs.