Eating Disorder = Solution to Your Existential Crisis?
Have you always asked why? Have you always been so relentlessly curious that it overwhelms your own mind? Have you always asked existential questions only to become mentally paralyzed by the fact that they will never have answers?
I feel you. In fact, I was recently explaining to my psychiatrist that my brain feels like a room filled with bouncing balls. You know what he replied? “Wow, it must be exhausting to think like that.”
Me: Yeah, no shit, Sherlock! 🕵️
In all seriousness though, being a neurodivergent soul in a human body is exhausting. Not only are you navigating the overwhelming stimulation of the external world, but you’re constantly being confronted with your own inner landscape that’s much too vast to be contained within a physical vessel (let alone a single lifetime).
It’s this disconnect that can cause neurodivergent people to feel trapped…
👉 Trapped in expectations
👉 Trapped in a body
👉 Trapped in the system
👉 Trapped in the pressure to perform
👉 Trapped in the prison of your own mind
And what’s a more convenient way to escape than through the rules of an eating disorder?
When I started learning about health and nutrition in fifth grade, everything clicked. Suddenly, I had a clear path forward. As long as I adhered to the rules in my black-and-white composition notebook, I would be on the fast-track to becoming “the perfect healthy eater.”
Whereas the existential questions I continued to ask had no answers, my eating disorder always did. Instead of me being overwhelmed by the abundance of choices around me, anorexia simplified my options.
The eating disorder was never about food or weight – it was about the comfort of having clear boundaries in a boundless world.
Black-and-white thinking serves the same purpose. When you’re spending SO much energy on surviving, there’s simply nothing left to consider the colorful in-between! ❌ 🌈
But aren’t you bored of living in black and white?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not telling you to abandon structure. Quite the opposite, in fact!
What set me free from the ED prison while embracing my autistic self was creating freedom routines – routines with built-in flexibility, routines that include space for spontaneity.
Because here’s the truth: The problem isn’t that you think in black and white. The problem is that your eating disorder hijacked this adaptive mechanism and turned it against you.
In the Autistically ED-Free Academy, you’ll learn how to channel your autistic traits into a life that aligns with your authentic self. You’ll learn how to use the very same traits that trapped you in ED prison as keys to break free. Here’s what Becky has to say:
“I am so grateful to have been a participant in Livia’s Autistically ED-Free Academy. My daughter has been in recovery for anorexia for the last four years and was recently diagnosed with autism. I can’t tell you how comforting it is to finally have someone understand and validate the struggles our daughter has been through. Livia has helped me to recognize that some of my daughter’s “ED behaviors” are actually autistic adaptations, and that not all ED recovery follows the same path or responds to the same treatments. The weekly meeting topics and the Q&A sessions were equally beneficial. I highly recommend the Autistically ED-Free Academy to anyone who is struggling in their recovery and wants to begin to trust themselves and their loved ones again.”
Are you ready to discover what your life of freedom looks like when you embrace your neurodivergent self?
🌈 Join the Autistically ED-Free Academy: https://www.livlabelfree.com/group
Your eating disorder gave you answers when nothing else could. Now it’s time to discover the answers that actually set you free.
Your rainbow-full life is waiting,
XO Liv
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