Tips for managing the holidays
Make a plan. Avoiding food situations is pretty impossible this time of year, but it's also not mandatory that you participate. Talk with your treatment team about what is smart for you and make a plan for how to handle upcoming encounters.
Choose a buddy. Find someone who can help you through upcoming situations with support.
Wear something comfortable. How you look should not be something you stress out about.
Decide it's OK to change plans. Make a backup plan that says you can change everything. If plans don't work out this year, you have a whole year until the holidays return to work through the challenges you encounter now.
Don’t forget to connect with others.
Source: National Eating Disorders Association
Resources for information and support
The National Eating Disorders Association. Toll-free information and referral helpline: 1-800-931-2237. Email: info@NationalEatingDisorders.org.
Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. 781-932-6300.
Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders. 770-458-8711.
Katherine S. used to dread the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, when everyone, it seemed, was pushing a plate of food at her.
Pies. Cakes. Leftover turkey. Sweet potato casserole and dressing. Almost like magic, food would appear from someone’s kitchen.
For years, Katherine struggled with binge eating until she joined Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, which uses a 12-step program very similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. She didn’t want her full name used, to honor the group’s tradition of anonymity.
The 41-year-old Georgia woman, like many others, found that holidays presented special challenges. Food is a central theme from November through December, whether it’s at a work party, friendly get-together or family gathering.
Her effort to be more disciplined didn’t always sit well with others. She was told she wasn’t fun anymore, or asked why she had to be so rigid. Others nudged her to eat more.
Previously, she had been “completely obsessed by food to the point I thought about it all the time,” Katherine said. “I learned to cook and bake before I was tall enough to reach the counter top. I majored in French, I think, because of my love of the culture and the food. I had never heard of the term food addiction.”
With more days of food and drink-filled celebration ahead, others may find they need help, but many people don’t like to talk publicly about the issue because of the stigma associated with food issues and eating disorders.
“It’s definitely a stressful time, because the holidays are pretty much laden with food,” said Wanda Dennis, an Atlanta psychologist whose specialties include eating disorders. “There’s usually a lot of anxiety, because people expect them to eat.”
As a result, some people opt to avoid such gatherings altogether.
Eating disorders can be complex, serious and, at times, life-threatening conditions that can affect a person’s emotional and physical health, according to the National Eating Disorders Association.
In the U.S., 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from an eating disorder at some time in their lives, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder.
“You hear people with anorexia say things like, ‘My eating disorder has ruined my holiday. It makes me not want to be around people,’” said Linda P. Buchanan, founder and clinical co-director of the Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders. “I think one of the things that they need to tell themselves is that no one meal is going to change my body. I deserve to enjoy this holiday.”
She said she tells clients to avoid the triggers that might make them overeat or undereat, but not to stay home alone. That may only make someone sad or depressed, and “it will probably make you do what you didn’t want to do at the party.”
Buchanan offers the following advice:
Don’t starve before a party or gathering. Eat a good breakfast or lunch; don’t go hungry.
Utilize healthy eating principles. Choose things you like, then try to eat with awareness.
When you are finished, make a grounding statement like: I enjoyed that. I ate a normal meal like a normal person. I am satisfied, now I can move on from food to other events.
Holidays are much easier for Katherine now.
“After the holidays, I can feel good about my body and my behavior around food,” she said. “I am able to focus instead on the people I love.”
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