Intense pain often pushed me to make changes. The pain of the eating disorder pushed me into recovering from eating-disordered behaviors, and then the emotional turmoil I experienced without those behaviors (not knowing how to cope with perfectionism, feelings, and life in general) took me even further, so that I ultimately found serenity.

Recovery is about making room for the real me to exist.

I would not encourage you to go through the sweat, blood, and tears of the recovery process only to reach some kind of mediocre state where you were just 'managing' the illness. It is possible to live without Ed.

Real hope combined with real action has always pulled me through difficult times.

Ironically, this physically weak feeling signifies that I'm actually getting stronger. I know from my past that I will ultimately feel strong if I just sit with the feeling and experience it.

Replace perfectionism with persistence. After all, in recovery and life, it's persistence that really pays off. Forget about perfection.

Being thin created intense anxiety that I wouldn't be able to maintain that weight for life, and I couldn't.