My completed Relapse prevention plan

Relapse Prevention Plan

Remember; Relapse is never planned, but prevention of a relapse can be. 

Begin by making a list of the behaviors and strategies that have been useful to you in your recovery so far. Some things you might include in this list are: eating regular meals, planning meals and snacks, regular food shopping, keeping a food log, self-care activities, etc. It will be important to keep using these strategies for the near future and to return to them at the first signs of trouble.

My List of Recovery Behaviors and Strategies

1. Eating 6 meals everyday 

2. Follow my meal plan religiously

3. Taking packed lunch with me when I go anywhere

4. write down my thoughts and feelings on my blog

5. Monitor my weight gain and increase my inake when neccessary

6. Sticking to approximate meal times

7. Not to worry about what anyone else is eating

8. Avoiding all unneccessary exercise

9. Remember that through recovering I am helping myself as well as those who read my blog

10. To believe in recovery and in myself

2. Next make a list of high risk situations which may increase the risk for slips and relapses. Below are some things you may want to include on your list:

• Stress and/or a busy schedule which makes planning meals difficult
• Becoming overwhelmed by feelings and emotions
• Loss of a family member, friend, etc.
• Marital, social or family problems
• Change in schedule (such as going on summer break) or a move (going away to school, etc.)
• Weight gain
• Dieting or any form or food restriction
• Missing a meal or snack
• Juice cleanses and detox efforts
• Being under the influence of a diet guru or overly health conscious person
• Having friends or family who diet
• Following any form or restrictive eating plan
• Being in unfamiliar food environments and/or having unrestricted access to food (at a buffet, holiday, or potluck for example)
• Getting weighed at the doctor
• Shopping for clothes
• Pregnancy
• Dating
• Others commenting on your weight
• Health problems

You may use suggestions from the list above or create your own list of high risk situations that you feel may increase your risk for a slip or relapse

When my mum makes me angry
Feeling stressed
Feeling anxious
When old clothes get too tight
When people comment on my weight gain
Hearing people talk about their diets/weight loss
Feeling insecure and self conscious
When I eat something wih an unknowwn number of calories in it
Someone close to me dying
Having an argument with someone I care about very much

3. Become familiar with some of the early warning signs of a relapse.

Choose at least 5 of those warning signs that are relevant to you, and for each, write down at least one strategy that would help you cope with that warning sign and get you back on track:

 (You may list more than one way to cope for each situation.)

If I start skipping any meals: I will need to  remind myself how important it is for me to keep eating regularly and that skipping meals will only make my Anorexia stronger or allow my anorexia to take over my mind again.

If I start obsessively exercising: If I do not have the time or energy to exercise I should not feel guilty or restrict what I eat. I need to exercise because I enjoy it, not because I feel like I have too. If I feel as though I need to exercise for the wrond reasons, this means I should not be exercising at all.

If I am too frightened to eat a particular food: The only way to overcome these types of fears is by facing them. If I am too scared to eat a particular food this means that my anorexia is still present (a part of my mind) and I therefore need to fight it n order to try and get rid of it once and for all.

If I start freaking out after a meal: Remind myself that it is only food and that it cannot hurt me. It is very important to remember that compensating is never the answer as through compensating you are giving into your anorexia and giving it strength. If I feel guilty after a meal, I just need to remember that this feeling will soon pass and perhaps try and distract myself from these thoughts.

If I start weighing food or counting calories after I recover: Even if I feel tempted to do this I know that I should not allow myself to do it as once I start doing these things again, I can see it getting out of hand very fast. I will get rid of my scale, my calorie counting apps and books so that I smply cannot count calories or weigh food.

If I feel as though being thinner will make me happy: I will remiind myself of how unhappy Iwas when I was underweight and that being thin does not equal happpiness or beauty. No matter what size I am I can be beautiful and happy, I just need to believe in myself and develop a sence of self respect.

If I find myself looking in the mirror and hating what I see: Simple, I will get rid of the mirror. Ionly need a little mirror so that Ican see my face in and if a mirror is going to make me have negative thoughts about my body then I refuse to have a mirror. 

In times of crisis, it can be difficult to remember healthy ways of coping. Many people in crisis do resort to familiar ways of coping. Making a plan ahead of time can be helpful. Make a list of 10 things you can do instead of reverting to eating disordered behaviors as a way to cope. After the list is completed, keep it in a place where it can be accessed when needed. (i.e. refrigerator, cupboard, etc.)

1. Email one of the girls who I have met through my blog

2. Take Tess for a walk

3. Call my sister Amy

4. Visit my dad and give him a hug

5. Just remember to breathe and it will pass

6. Remember not to give into my anorexia, no matter what 

7. Read other peoples recovery blogs

8. Try and fix the actual problem, instead of avoiding it

9. Go for a shower

10. Do something else to distract myself

11. If I need to, have a good cry

It is also important to reach out during times of crisis, when you are feeling scared, alone, out of control, etc. Talking about your feelings can help to relieve some of the anxiety that you may be having and can help to prevent a slip or relapse. Reaching out also helps to remind you that you are not alone. Below write down names of people you can reach out to. You may find it difficult to reach out, but the more you do it, the easier it will become. The person that you call will be glad that you did, will welcome the call, and be there for you the best way that they can.

                    NAME                                             

Dad

Nan

Amy

Readers

Anna ( the other Tasmanian blogger)

Lyn, my boss

The relationship between my Anorexia and Anxiety

At the moment it is only 2:12 am but I am unable to sleep because it is so terribly windy. When its windy, the little unit I live in rattles and shakes and it really is quite hard to sleep so I thought I may as well make good use of my time and write a post.
Yesterday I was having a conversation with one of my work colleagues about how different mental illnesses can go hand in hand with one another. In this conversation I found myself explaining the relationship between my two mental illnesses, anorexia and anxiety better then I have ever been able to explain it before so I thought I would share it with you too.

I see my anxiety as my primary mental illness and my anorexia as a secondary mental illness. This is because while I havent always had anorexia, I have always had anxiety. I  honestly think that my anorexia is just a a coping mechanism I developed for dealing with my underlying anxiety. To me, controlling my weight, food intake and exercise were all ways of making myself feel as though I was in control and 'safe'. Of course I can see now that my anorexia has only made my anxiety worse but at the time my anorexia was developing, it made me feel better.

I was incredibely self conscious and hated what I saw when I looked in the mirror. I started blaming the way I looked for everything bad in my life. I started to believe that if I could become beautiful, my life would be better. While I believe I will be recovered from anorexia one day, I know that my anxiety will always be with me. There will be hard times in my life when I feel anxious or panicked about what is happening around me but I need to find new ways to deal with my anxiety rather than by falling back into my anorexia.

I need to always remember that controlling my food, weight and exercise has not solved any of my problems in the past and that it wont fix anything in the future either. While turning to these types of behaviours will only ever make me feel more awful then I already do, there are other coping mechanisms I can use when my anxiety gets bad that aren't destructive to me. I find that simply talking myself through stressful situations and distracting myself helps me a lot.

At the moment my main coping mechanism is to just tell myself to breathe and that what I am feeling will soon pass. One thing that seems to help me a little is to get outside in the fresh air and take Tess for a walk. other times I put on a television series to try and distract me from my thoughts or I call my litle sister for a chat.
While distracting myself with these things can help me while I am at home, I cant do this at work. There is obviously a lot of responsibility involved in working in a bank as you are always dealing with large amounts of peoples money and this makes me incredibely anxious.

I second guess myself with nearly every transaction I make and am always terrified that I have miscouted money or made some kind of mistake. I try to tell myself that I am just being paranoid but I honestly cant help feeling this way. It isn't until I 'balance' at the end of the night (when all of the money I should have at my terminal in accounted for) that I am able to relax. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to deal with this anxiety I experience at work?