My guest today is Jayne Mattingly – a therapist and eating disorders recovery coach, and the founder of Recovery Love and Care.
I’ve wanted to have a conversation about how eating disorders fit into the landscape of addiction and recovery for a long time, partly because of my personal history with anorexia. It was only while writing Sober Curious that I became fully aware that this is absolutely a part of my addiction story. But I had shied away from talking about it publicly as, a) I feel a lot of shame about having been anorexic, and b) I know what a controversial and potentially triggering subject this can be.
Then I started to do some more research, and I discovered that 50% of individuals with eating disorders also abuse alcohol or other drugs, a rate five times higher than the general population. Which I think is significant enough that we can’t not talk about it. In the episode we discuss:
-What makes eating disorders and addictions very similar - and very different
-How all eating disorders develop as ways to dissociate and manage difficult feelings
-Why we live in a “hostile recovery environment” when it comes to both eating disorders and alcohol abuse
-Why people with eating disorders often present as very “high functioning” - and how this can hinder intervention
-Why there is such a huge overlap between substance abuse and eating disorders
-The racist, ableist roots of diet culture and fat phobia
-The link between eating disorders and ADHD medication - and how this can be safely managed
-The prevalence of orthorexia - an addiction to healthy / clean eating
-Why our relationship to food often mirrors our relationships with people
-What attachment theory can tell us about disordered eating
-Why self-acceptance—not self-love—is the key to healing body image issues
Learn more about Jayne Mattingly and her work HERE, support her And initiative HERE, and follow her on Instagram @recoveryloveandcare
And big thanks to Grüvi for partnering on this episode. Order at Getgruvi.com and use the code “Sobercurious10” to get 10% off your first online order
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