Recovery Isn't Measured in Months but in Transformations

When Time Becomes Your Ally, Not Your Judge

Introduction: The Tyranny of Numbers

"How long will this take?"

It's probably one of the first questions that crosses your mind when you start considering recovery. And that's completely normal. In our productivity-obsessed world, we want to know how long before the suffering stops, before we regain a peaceful relationship with food, before we can finally breathe.

This question seems simple. Yet answering it with a number—"3 months," "1 year," "5 years"—would be lying to you. Worse still, it would turn your unique journey into a race against time you couldn't possibly win.

Imagine someone asking you: "How long does it take to become yourself?" The question seems absurd, doesn't it? Yet that's exactly what we're asking when we try to quantify eating disorder recovery. We're trying to measure with a clock what should be weighed with the heart.

If you're here, perhaps it's because:

• Someone told you that after X months of therapy, you "should" be better

• You've read testimonials of "quick" recovery and feel like you're falling behind

• You feel guilty because "it's been years already" and you're still not "recovered"

• You're afraid it will never end

• You're exhausted from this invisible race

Let's take a moment to look at this question of time differently. Not to give you a reassuring but false answer, but to offer you something far more precious: permission to heal at your own pace, with compassion for yourself.

What Science Really Tells Us: Beyond Averages

Let's start with what we actually know. Not to discourage you, but to free you from the myth of express recovery that creates so much unnecessary guilt.

The Numbers Exist, But They're Not Your Story

The most recent research shows that approximately 46% of people with eating disorders recover after an average of 3 to 5 years of follow-up. At first glance, that's fairly encouraging. But let's look closer at what these numbers hide.

In a remarkable study that followed people for 22 years (!), researchers discovered something fascinating: recovery continues to progress even after 10 years. Yes, you read that right. People whom some might have considered "chronic cases" continued to improve after a decade. Recovery doesn't stop at an arbitrary deadline.

Even more striking: when researchers interviewed nearly 300 recovered individuals, they discovered that recovery time varied from... 1 year to 35 years. Yes, from ONE year to THIRTY-FIVE years. That's a gap so immense it almost makes the idea of a "normal duration" of recovery absurd.

Why this enormous variability? Because your eating disorder isn't just an eating disorder. It's an intelligent response to unique circumstances—your particular genetics, your personal history, your social context, your available resources, the traumas you've experienced, the support (or lack thereof) you've received.

Two people with the "same" diagnosis on paper can have radically different trajectories. One might recover in 18 months, another will take 8 years. And guess what? Both are normal. Both are valid. Both deserve to be honored.

When Numbers Become Prisons

The problem isn't that we have these statistics. The problem is what we do with them.

When you're told "most people recover in 3-5 years," your brain often hears: "If I'm not better in 5 years, I'm a failure." When you read there's a 20-52% risk of relapse, you might think: "I'm bound to fail."

These numbers, taken out of context, become weapons against yourself. They create invisible pressure that makes recovery even harder. Because here's a secret that statistics can't capture: pressure to heal quickly is itself one of the major obstacles to healing.

It's like trying to fall asleep while frantically repeating: "I must sleep, I must sleep now!" The more you try to force it, the more it escapes you. Recovery requires gentleness, patience, a sense of safety. It can't be commanded. It's cultivated.

What Really Predicts Recovery (Spoiler: It's Not Time)

Here's something fascinating: when researchers analyzed what best predicts recovery, they did NOT find it was treatment duration. No. What best predicts recovery are qualitative factors:

Early changes during treatment: If you start observing even small changes in the first months—a slight improvement in mood, slightly fewer food preoccupations, a few meals that are a bit less anxiety-provoking—that's a much better indicator than the calendar.

The quality of the therapeutic alliance: How understood, safe, and respected you feel by the people accompanying you. This human connection matters more than the number of sessions.

Your motivation to change: Not forced motivation or motivation based on shame, but motivation that comes from within, from the desire to reclaim your life.

Your capacity to develop new strategies: Gradually learning to cope with difficult situations in ways other than through food, to reconnect with body sensations, to speak to yourself with more compassion.

See the pattern? These are all elements of QUALITY, not quantity. What matters is how you move through the process, not how fast you move through it.

The Zigzag Curve: Normalizing What Scares Us

Relapses Are Not Failures

Let's talk about something terrifying: relapses. Statistics say between 20 and 52% of people experience relapses. That's a lot. And it's scary.

But here's what numbers alone don't tell you: relapses are a NORMAL, EXPECTED, and even USEFUL part of the recovery process.

Think about learning to walk. Did you walk on the first try? No. You fell. Again and again. Nobody considered those falls "walking failures." They were necessary steps in learning. Each fall taught you something about balance, about the strength of your legs, about how to catch yourself.

Eating disorder recovery works exactly the same way.

A relapse isn't returning to square one. It's a learning moment in disguise. It shows you:

• Which triggers are still sensitive for you

• Which situations still challenge you

• Which skills you still need to develop

• What additional support might help you

As the National Eating Disorders Collaboration in Australia beautifully states: "Relapses and setbacks are a normal part of recovery. It is NOT a sign of weakness, failure, or inability to recover."

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Research shows that typical recovery trajectory is never a straight upward line. It's more like a zigzag line, with lots of ups and downs. Sometimes you'll move forward quickly. Sometimes you'll feel like you're stagnating. Sometimes you'll temporarily move backward.

All of this is normal. All of this is part of the process.

In a fascinating qualitative study, recovered individuals described their journey exactly this way: "two steps forward, one step back." They explicitly rejected "Western conceptualizations of time delineation" that insist on linear progressions. Life isn't linear. Neither is recovery.

Imagine recovery as a mountain hike. You don't always go up. Sometimes you need to descend to go around an obstacle. Sometimes you need to rest. Sometimes weather forces you to temporarily turn back. But each step, even those that seem to go in the "wrong" direction, is part of the journey leading you to the summit.

Temporal Pressure: An Obstacle Disguised as Help

Here's something disturbing that recent research has revealed: pressure to heal quickly can itself become an obstacle to healing.

A Canadian study documented how time-limited treatment programs create what they call a "double bind." Patients are told to "improve fast enough or leave." Clinicians sometimes even use discharge threats as leverage: "You must do this or improve fast enough or you'll have to leave."

This system transforms recovery into a race against time. And when you're racing against the clock, you're not safe. Your nervous system detects this. And when your nervous system doesn't feel safe, it activates defense mechanisms—exactly the mechanisms that maintain the eating disorder.

It's a vicious circle: pressure to heal fast → stress → activation of habitual coping strategies (restriction, bingeing) → feeling of failure → more pressure → more stress...

Breaking this circle requires doing something counterintuitive in our performance culture: slow down. Give yourself the time you need. Trust the process.

Healing vs Being Healed: A Crucial Distinction

When Absence of Symptoms Isn't Enough

Here's an important question: what does "healing" really mean to you?

If asked whether you want to stop bingeing, stop restricting, stop compulsively weighing yourself, you'd probably say yes. But is that really all you're looking for?

Researchers have discovered something fascinating: there's a HUGE difference between "symptom remission" and "full recovery."

Symptom remission is when problematic behaviors stop. You're no longer bingeing. You're eating three meals a day. Your weight is medically stable. On paper, it looks like recovery.

Full recovery is different. It's when:

• You can eat with other people without paralyzing anxiety

• Your mind is no longer constantly occupied by thoughts about food or your body

• You experience a full range of emotions, not just anxiety around meals

• You have a life that doesn't revolve around eating

• You feel like yourself, not like someone constantly "managing" a disorder

It's the difference between "not doing something anymore" and "being free to do it if you wanted but not wanting to." It's the difference between forced discipline and inner freedom.

Research shows that partially recovered people still resemble people with active disorders on psychological measures. They're still struggling. They're constantly monitoring themselves. Their relapse rate is four times higher than fully recovered individuals.

Full recovery isn't just the absence of symptoms. It's a profound inner transformation.

What Truly Recovered People Say

When we ask truly recovered people what defines recovery for them, their answers are revealing.

They don't first talk about food. They talk about:

• Self-acceptance: "I finally accepted myself as I am"

• Positive relationships: "I regained authentic connections with others"

• Personal growth: "I learned to truly know myself"

• Resilience: "I now know I can get through difficulties"

• Autonomy: "I make my own choices, based on my needs"

• Meaning in life: "I found purpose, direction again"

Carolyn Costin, pioneering therapist herself recovered from anorexia, beautifully defines recovery: "Being recovered is when a person can accept their natural body size and shape and no longer has a self-destructive relationship with food or exercise. Weight no longer defines who you are."

Jenni Schaefer, author of "Life Without Ed," talks about recovery as a "divorce" from the eating disorder. It's not that the disorder disappeared without a trace. It's that you've built a life so full, so rich, so authentically yours that the disorder no longer has room.

These testimonials reveal something profound: recovery is qualitative, not quantitative. It's not measured in pounds, calories, or months. It's felt in the quality of your presence to yourself and the world.

The Expatriate Factor: When Distance Adds Complexity

Far From Home, Close to Yourself

Living abroad while navigating eating disorder recovery adds unique layers of challenge that people back home often don't understand. You're not just dealing with your relationship to food—you're also managing:

Cultural food conflicts: The French emphasis on multi-course meals, cheese, wine, and "pleasure without guilt" can trigger enormous anxiety if you're used to more restrictive food cultures. Or conversely, coming from food-centered cultures to more individualistic eating patterns can feel isolating.

Loss of familiar support systems: Your therapist from back home, your support group, your family members who understood—they're all far away. Time zones make regular contact difficult. Video calls can't replace physical presence when you're in crisis.

Healthcare navigation in a foreign language: Even with good French, explaining the nuances of your eating disorder, understanding treatment approaches, navigating the French healthcare system—it's exhausting when you're already struggling.

Identity disruption: Who are you in this new country? Without your familiar roles, routines, and relationships, the eating disorder can feel like the only stable thing about you. Or the opportunity to "reinvent yourself" can paradoxically intensify perfectionist pressures.

Isolation and loneliness: When you're lonely in a foreign country, food can become your only reliable companion. Or the absence of social eating occasions can enable restriction without anyone noticing.

The Myth of Geographic Escape

Some people move abroad hoping distance from their problems will help recovery. "I'll leave my eating disorder behind." But as the saying goes: "Wherever you go, there you are."

Your eating disorder isn't located in a place. It's a set of coping mechanisms you carry with you. Geographic change can offer fresh perspectives and opportunities, but it can also intensify stress and trigger behaviors.

The question isn't whether being abroad helps or hinders recovery—it's whether you have adequate support wherever you are.

Finding Help in Paris

If you're an expat in Paris struggling with an eating disorder, know that specialized help exists in English. The French healthcare system, while complex, offers high-quality care. Organizations like SOS Anor, FFAB, and specialized centers include English-speaking professionals.

Working with a bilingual dietitian who understands both the clinical aspects of eating disorders AND the specific challenges of expat life can make an enormous difference. Someone who gets that homesickness can trigger binges, that cultural adjustment stress affects eating patterns, that navigating "apéro" culture when you're in recovery requires specific strategies.

You don't have to choose between recovery and your international life. You can build recovery that works for you, here, now, with all the complexity that entails.

Factors That Truly Matter

Therapeutic Alliance: More Powerful Than Time

Imagine two people. The first follows a 6-month program with a team they hate, where they don't feel understood, where they're judged. The second works with someone they feel truly safe with for 2 years.

Who do you think will have better outcomes?

Research is clear: the second person. The quality of the therapeutic relationship predicts outcomes better than treatment duration.

Why? Because recovery requires vulnerability. You must be able to show your most fragile parts, your deepest shames, your most paralyzing fears. You can only do that if you feel truly safe.

This safety can't be commanded. It's built. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. But when it's there, everything becomes possible.

This is why finding the right people to accompany you matters infinitely more than following the "right" program in the "right" timeframe.

Motivation: But Not What You Think

We often hear: "You really have to want to recover." But what does "really wanting" mean?

If it's wanting based on:

• Shame about your body → doesn't work long-term

• Pressure from others → doesn't work long-term

• Exhaustion from struggling → helps at first but isn't enough

What works is motivation that comes from a deep desire to reclaim your life. Not to become someone else. Not to fit an ideal. But to become yourself again, with all the complexity and magnificence that entails.

This kind of motivation doesn't always come all at once. It can emerge gradually. Sometimes it appears only after you've started the process. And that's perfectly normal.

You don't need to be 100% motivated to start. Sometimes action precedes motivation rather than the reverse.

Your Capacity to Learn New Things

Your eating disorder was, at some point, the best strategy you had to cope with something unbearable.

Maybe restriction gave you a sense of control when everything else was falling apart. Maybe bingeing offered comfort when no one else was there. Maybe obsession with food occupied your mind to avoid thinking about even more painful things.

These strategies worked. Otherwise, you wouldn't have used them.

The problem is they also created new problems. And now, they no longer serve you as much as they cost you.

Recovery involves gradually learning new ways to cope with these difficult situations. Ways that don't create as much collateral damage.

This learning takes time. Not because you're slow, but because learning new brain circuits, new habits, new automatic responses requires repetition. Lots of repetition.

Each time you choose a new strategy, even clumsily, you strengthen these new circuits. Over time, it becomes easier. But it requires patience and self-compassion during this learning phase.

Your Body Isn't a Clock

Lived Time vs Clock Time

There are two types of time. Objective time—that of watches, calendars, statistics. And lived time—that of your subjective experience.

Have you ever noticed how some hours fly by while others stretch endlessly? How some periods of your life seem to have lasted forever though they only took a few months on the calendar, while entire years have slipped by unnoticed?

This difference between objective time and lived time is even more marked when you're experiencing an eating disorder.

When you're in severe restriction, each minute before the next meal can feel like an eternity. When you're in a bingeing phase, weeks can pass in a kind of fog. Your experience of time itself is disrupted.

Research in phenomenology (the study of lived experience) shows that people with eating disorders often report "temporal bodily discontinuity." One day, you feel your body is a certain way. The next day, it seems completely different. This discontinuity creates profound anxiety.

Recovery involves, among other things, regaining a certain temporal continuity. Being able to inhabit your body in time in a more stable, predictable, familiar way.

But this temporal reappropriation doesn't follow the calendar. It happens at its own organic pace, sometimes in leaps, sometimes gradually.

When Your History Demands More Time

Some histories are heavier than others. That's not a judgment, it's a fact.

If your eating disorder began in response to:

• Complex childhood trauma

• Years of abuse or neglect

• Profound unprocessed losses

• A highly disturbed family environment

• Repeated experiences of discrimination or marginalization

Then your recovery might require more time. Not because you're "worse" or more "dysfunctional," but simply because there are more layers to untangle, more wounds to heal, more patterns to transform.

It's like some people need to heal from a simple fracture, and others from a complicated fracture with multiple broken bones. Both heal. But one naturally requires more time and more care than the other.

Honoring your own pace is also honoring your history.

The Body Remembers, Even When the Mind Forgets

Your body carries the memory of everything you've been through. Trauma research shows these memories are stored not only in your brain but in your muscles, your organs, your nervous system.

When you've lived through periods of severe restriction, your body learned to function in survival mode. Even after you start eating normally again, it takes time for your metabolism to recalibrate, for your hormones to rebalance, for your body to truly "believe" the famine is over.

Similarly, if you've lived for years with cycles of bingeing and compensations, your digestive system, your gut flora, your hunger and satiety signals—all of this has been disrupted. Rebuilding these systems requires patience.

It's not your fault it takes time. It's just biology doing its reconstruction work.

Free Yourself from the Race

Accept What You Don't Control

The Stoics of Antiquity had simple but profound wisdom: "Some things depend on us, others don't. Wisdom consists of concentrating our efforts on what depends on us, and accepting with serenity what doesn't."

Applied to your recovery, this means:

You don't control:

• Your genetics and natural metabolism

• The traumas you've experienced

• Your childhood family environment

• The toxic messages you've been exposed to

• The availability (or lack) of quality care near you

• Waiting times to see specialists

• Your biological sensitivity to stress

• How long "it will take"

You can influence:

• Your engagement in the process (when you have the energy)

• How you talk to yourself

• Your capacity to ask for help

• Small daily choices that align with your values

• Your curiosity about your own reactions

• Your compassion toward yourself

• Your patience with the process

Look at this list. 95% of what influences your recovery isn't under your direct control. So why judge yourself so harshly for how long it takes?

Blaming yourself for something you don't control is like being mad at yourself because it's raining. It's exhausting and it doesn't change the weather.

Transform "How Long" into "How Do I Feel"

Instead of constantly asking yourself "How much longer?", try asking:

• "Do I feel a bit safer than I did three months ago?"

• "Have certain meals become a bit less anxiety-provoking?"

• "Can I sometimes speak to myself with a bit more gentleness?"

• "Do I have moments, even brief, when I'm not thinking about food?"

• "Am I gradually developing new ways to manage my emotions?"

These questions focus your attention on the quality of your experience, not the quantity of elapsed time.

This is a profound perspective shift. Instead of running toward an invisible finish line, you start noticing the landscape gradually changing around you.

Micro-Transformations: Celebrating What Counts

The Invisible Victories

Recovery is composed of thousands of small moments that no one else sees:

• You ate breakfast even though the critical voice was there

• You said no to an outing without justifying yourself

• You ate in front of someone without panicking

• You cried instead of restricting

• You asked for help instead of carrying everything alone

• You noticed a self-critical thought without automatically believing it

• You accepted a compliment without distorting it

• You made a decision based on your needs, not on fear

Each of these moments is a victory. Each strengthens new brain circuits. Each brings you closer to freedom.

But none of these moments appears in statistics. None is measured in weeks or months. They're qualitative transformations, invisible from the outside, but profoundly real for you.

The Bamboo Metaphor

Do you know how Chinese bamboo grows?

After planting the seed, you water and fertilize it for years. During the first year: nothing. The second year: still nothing. The third, fourth year: no visible shoots.

Then, the fifth year, the bamboo emerges from the ground and grows 25 meters in six weeks.

Did the bamboo grow in six weeks? No. It spent five years developing massive roots that could support such spectacular growth.

Your recovery often works the same way. For months, maybe years, you do invisible work. You're building roots: new neural connections, new ways of thinking, new coping strategies, new relationships, new understanding of yourself.

This root work isn't spectacular. Nobody sees it. Sometimes even you feel like nothing is changing.

Then one day, something unlocks. And suddenly, you realize you've eaten three meals without thinking about it, that you went a whole day without weighing yourself, that you saw your reflection without automatically criticizing yourself.

It's not that recovery suddenly arrived. It's that all those invisible roots finally bore fruit.

You're Not Behind

There Is No Race

You're not behind. You can't be behind for something that has no deadline.

You're not "behind" on a schedule no one has the right to set for you. You're not "behind" compared to others—their journeys aren't your journey.

Each person who heals does so according to their own inner calendar. And this calendar can't be negotiated, forced, or accelerated by pure will.

Some plants bloom in spring. Others in autumn. Some take years before their first flowering. None is "behind." They simply follow their natural rhythm.

Perfection Doesn't Exist (And It's Not the Goal)

There's no such thing as "perfect recovery." There's no point where you'll never think about food again, never experience a moment of anxiety, always have a serene relationship with your body.

"Recovery" isn't a static state of perfection. It's a capacity to live fully even with imperfections, doubts, difficult moments.

It's the difference between "never falling again" and "knowing how to get back up when you fall."

Many recovered people would tell you they still sometimes have food-related thoughts. The difference is they no longer automatically believe them. They can observe them, let them pass, and make choices aligned with their values rather than their fears.

That's freedom. Not the absence of difficult thoughts, but the capacity to choose how to respond to them.

How to Move Forward at Your Own Pace

Listen to Your Inner Tempo

Your body and psyche have their own temporal wisdom. Sometimes you'll be ready for certain steps. Sometimes you'll need to consolidate before going further.

Learning to listen to this inner rhythm requires slowing down enough to hear what your nervous system is telling you:

• "I feel ready to try this" vs "This is too much right now"

• "I need a break" vs "I'm running away from fear"

• "This strategy works for me" vs "I'm doing this to please others"

This listening is cultivated with practice. At first, signals may be confusing. Over time, you'll learn to distinguish your authentic inner voice from internalized critical voices.

Micro-Habits: The Power of Small Steps

Instead of setting ambitious goals ("I'll recover in 6 months!"), try micro-habits.

A micro-habit is a change so small it barely triggers resistance:

• Taking three conscious breaths before a meal

• Noticing a self-critical thought without judging it

• Sending a message to a trusted person when it's hard

• Putting down your fork between bites

• Looking in the mirror for 10 seconds while seeking something neutral to observe

These actions seem ridiculously small. But that's precisely their power. They bypass your resistance. They gradually create new neural circuits. Over time, they accumulate and transform your experience.

Recovery isn't a marathon you win by running faster than others. It's a succession of small steps, each taken when you're ready.

Surround Yourself with Compassion

You can't heal in an environment that constantly judges you—and that includes your own inner voice.

Self-compassion isn't indulgence or weakness. It's recognizing that you're doing your best in difficult circumstances, with the resources you have.

When you relapse, instead of telling yourself "I'm worthless, I'll never make it," try: "This was really difficult. I did what I could in that moment. What do I need now?"

This simple reframing changes everything. It transforms failure into learning. It opens possibilities rather than closing them.

Research shows that self-compassion is one of the most powerful factors in lasting recovery. Not because it makes you "soft," but because it creates a sense of inner safety—exactly what your nervous system needs to exit survival mode.

Conclusion: The Journey Is The Destination

Eating disorder recovery isn't measured in months but in moments. In thousands of small courageous choices. In tears shed. In laughter rediscovered. In human connections recreated. In discoveries about yourself. In inner transformations no one else will ever see but that change everything.

You are not your eating disorder. You are someone going through something difficult, with all the dignity and courage that requires.

Some people heal in one year. Others in ten. Others continue their journey after twenty years. And each of these people deserves to be honored for their unique path, without judgment, without comparison.

The only question that truly matters isn't "How long will this take?" but rather "How can I be compassionately present to what I'm going through now?"

Because ultimately, recovery isn't a destination you reach so you can finally start living. Recovery IS life, lived now, with all its imperfections, its ups and downs, its advances and setbacks.

And you're already living it. Every time you choose to ask for help. Every time you speak to yourself with a bit more gentleness. Every time you honor your needs even when it's uncomfortable. Every time you continue, even when it's hard.

You're already healing. Perhaps not according to the calendar you'd hoped for. Perhaps not in the way you'd imagined. But you're healing. At your pace. In your way. And that's exactly how it should be.

Keep moving forward, one step at a time. You're stronger than you think. You deserve all the patience, all the compassion, all the time it takes.

Living and eating are two sides of the same coin.

📚 Further Reading

Discover how to overcome binge eating with a compassionate approach. Understand the mechanisms of anorexia and bulimia. Learn to navigate PCOS and binge eating.

🌱 Accompanying You at Your Own Rhythm

As a dietitian specialized in eating disorders in Paris, I offer support that respects your unique temporality. No imposed chronology. No judgment about how long it takes. Just a safe space to move forward at your pace, with all the patience and compassion you deserve.

English-speaking consultations available:

• Paris 6th (Tuesday, Wednesday)

• Paris 20th (Monday)

• Le Raincy (on request)

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Book an appointment: 📞 +33 6 22 41 55 21
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📖 Sources and References

Scientific Studies Cited

On recovery durations and rates:

• Solmi, M., et al. (2024). "Outcomes in people with eating disorders: a transdiagnostic and disorder-specific systematic review, meta-analysis and multivariable meta-regression analysis." Lancet Psychiatry

• Eddy, K.T., et al. (2017). "Recovery From Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa at 22-Year Follow-Up." Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

On non-linearity of recovery:

• Kenny, T.E., & Lewis, S.P. (2023). "More than an outcome: a person-centered, ecological framework for eating disorder recovery." Journal of Eating Disorders

• Eating Disorders Victoria. (2024). "ED Recovery and Relapse." EDV Resources

On predictive factors:

• Vall, E., & Wade, T.D. (2015). "Predictors of treatment outcome in individuals with eating disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis." International Journal of Eating Disorders

• Graves, T.A., et al. (2017). "A meta-analysis of the relation between therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome in eating disorders." International Journal of Eating Disorders

On remission vs recovery distinction:

• Bardone-Cone, A.M., et al. (2010). "Defining recovery from an eating disorder: Conceptualization, validation, and examination of psychosocial functioning and psychiatric comorbidity." Behaviour Research and Therapy

• De Vos, J.A., et al. (2017). "Identifying fundamental criteria for eating disorder recovery: a systematic review and qualitative meta-analysis." Journal of Eating Disorders

On phenomenological approaches:

• Stanghellini, G., & Mancini, M. (2019). "Abnormal time experiences in persons with feeding and eating disorder." Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

• Svenaeus, F. (2011). "Illness as unhomelike being-in-the-world: Heidegger and the phenomenology of medicine." Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy

Complementary Resources

French Associations:

• FFAB (French Federation for Anorexia and Bulimia): www.ffab.fr

• SOS Anor: www.sosanor.org

• Anorexie et Boulimie.fr: www.anorexie-et-boulimie.fr

International Resources:

• National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA): www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

• Beat Eating Disorders (UK): www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk

• Eating Disorders Victoria: www.eatingdisorders.org.au

Recommended Books:

• Jenni Schaefer. Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder

• Carolyn Costin. 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder

• Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch. Intuitive Eating (4th Edition)

• Kristin Neff. Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself

• Bessel van der Kolk. The Body Keeps the Score

This article is based on a synthesis of recent scientific research and my clinical experience. It does not replace the advice of qualified health professionals. If you're suffering from an eating disorder, please consult a specialized multidisciplinary team.