Why Less Sick Isn’t the Same as Fully Recovered: The Eating Disorder Quasi-Recovery Limbo

People with eating disorders engage in a wide variety of habits that interfere with well-being and hinder true recovery. Identifying and stopping these behaviors is critical for long-term healing.

Some of these eating disorder behaviors are obvious—the "hallmarks" of the illness. But others are less recognized because they have become normalized by society. While these subtle habits might seem harmless, they are just as likely to sabotage your recovery if left unaddressed.

Overt vs. Sabotaging Behaviors

Most people recognize "Overt Behaviors" as signs of an eating disorder. Because these are used for clinical diagnosis and their destructive nature is easy to understand, it’s often clear that you need to stop them to recover.

Overt behaviors include:

• Restricting food intake

• Bingeing

• Purging (vomiting, laxatives, enemas or diuretics)

• Chewing and spitting out food
  

However, it is much harder to identify and let go of Recovery-Sabotaging Behaviors. Because millions of people without eating disorders engage in these daily, they don't feel inherently problematic. But for someone in recovery, they can become a slippery slope.

Common recovery-sabotaging behaviors include:

• Calorie and macro counting

• Frequent weighing

• Body checking (mirrors, pinching, or measuring)

• Compulsive or "compensatory" exercise

• Strict food rituals
  

Don’t Settle for “Less Sick”

It is normal to resist giving up these habits. Your Eating Disorder Self (ED Self) might try to convince you that you can keep these "small" behaviors and still be okay.

But the truth is: you cannot fully recover if you try to cling to parts of the illness. 

Imagine trying to heal a broken leg, but insisting on running a mile every morning. You might be "less injured" than when the bone first snapped, but as long as you keep putting weight on it before it's ready, the bone can never fully fuse back together. In recovery, "small" sabotaging behaviors are the weight that keeps the fracture open.

Even if your life has improved since stopping the overt behaviors, you shouldn't settle for less sick when you can be fully recovered.

My Experience with the ED Voice’s Attempts at Negotiation

When I started my own recovery, I found that my ED Self was willing to negotiate with my Healthy Self. It would give up control in some areas, as long as it still had some degree of control and could keep certain recovery-sabotaging behaviors.

On the outside, it looked like I was making progress—and that’s how I felt on the inside at first—but I was actually stuck in Quasi-Recovery.

For example, I felt free around food only as long as I stuck to a rigorous exercise routine and was able to compensate for meals I felt anxious about. I told myself that was okay and healthy, but in reality, I was only free as long as I could exercise to compensate for what I ate. If I had to skip a session, I became consumed by anxiety. I had lost the ability to exercise for joy; it had become a tool for control. It was a socially celebrated tool, so it was harder to see my exercise habits for what they were.

Breaking the Cycle

I was still body checking on top of my exercise and justifying it because "everyone else does it anyway." It took time for me to realize that these remnants of the disorder were still controlling my life.

To recover for good, I had to stop negotiating. I had to let go of the "small" behaviors to find a bigger freedom.

Are You Stuck in Quasi-Recovery?

If you feel like you are doing better but still feel trapped by food rules, exercise rituals, or the scale, you don't have to stay there. Full recovery is possible.

Let’s identify the behaviors keeping you stuck and build a roadmap to true freedom.

[Book Your Free Discovery Call]