Materialism and Eating Disorder Recovery: Prioritizing Your Health

Contributor: Crystal Karges, MS, RDN, IBCLC, Special Projects Coordinator at Eating Disorder Hope/Addiction Hope

Eating disorder recovery often evolves and changes throughout its course. There is much debate about when or if someone can fully recover from an eating disorder, but there is no doubt that recovery is something that is a lifelong commitment.

Many individuals who are in long-term recovery from an eating disorder can see how their efforts have paid off through the years, enabling them to maintain recovery throughout various challenges.

Focusing on Basic Steps Remains Important Throughout Recovery

Life is full of obstacles and challenges, and many different factors can essentially compete with or distract from eating disorder recovery. When in recovery from an eating disorder, whether anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, decisions have to be made that support health, wellness, and ultimate, the recovery journey itself.

As a person becomes stronger in their recovery, it can be easy to neglect basic steps, behaviors, or habits that help maintain recovery in the long term. Becoming comfortable and/or complacent can sometimes become the most dangerous place in recovery.

In a culture that often hyper-focuses on materialism and “getting”, it is easy to see how priorities in life can easily become misplaced, whether in eating disorder recovery or not. Some individuals devote their entire lives to finding ways to succeed in life, in which success is often measured in materialism and wealth.

While there is nothing wrong with having goals of building and establishing wealth, it is important to understand what is the value of success and what you might be sacrificing in order to reach these goals.

Continue to Focus on Your Priorities for Recovery

If you have been in recovery, consider asking and reflecting on the questions of what priorities you currently have in your own life. Are your actions and goals helping support your recovery in the long term, or do they push your health and wellness to the back burner? Have you sacrificed your health, wellness, and/or recovery in effort to obtain other things in life that may be of lesser value?

If so, you may want to reevaluate what your recovery means to you and ways that you can proactively stay committed to the key foundation of a life well-lived.

Community Discussion – Share your thoughts here!

How can materialism or the strife towards achieving wealth or status interfere with eating disorder recovery? What are ways to keep recovery a priority in a culture that values these things?

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Crystal is a Masters-level Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) with a specialty focus in eating disorders, maternal/child health and wellness, and intuitive eating. Combining clinical experience with a love of social media and writing, Crystal serves as the Special Projects Coordinator for Eating Disorder Hope/Addiction Hope, where her passion to help others find recovery and healing is integrated into each part of her work.

As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, Crystal has dedicated her career to helping others establish a healthy relationship with food and body through her work with EDH/AH and nutrition private practice.

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The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.

We at Eating Disorder Hope understand that eating disorders result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.

Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on January 17, 2016
Published on EatingDisorderHope.com