Reality / Recovery Reprise

Sometimes recovery is too hard.

There have been so many days where I wake up and I don't want to eat. Not because I'm not hungry, but because I wish I wasn't hungry. There are days where I am so anxious I don't think I can physically move. There are days that I feel like I need something to cope with the overwhelming feelings that are being shot at me for no apparent reason.

I have days where I don't want to recover. I have days where I am absolutely convinced that the life of sadness, binge eating and self-harm are the ways forward. I am convinced sometimes that I will always be the girl I was when I was younger, hurting my body in one way shape or form because I wanted to be anything but what I was.

I still do. I still want to be someone else. I still want a body and a mind that I feel happy living in. I will catch a look at my scars often when in public places and hate myself for doing that to my body, especially knowing that other people can see it too.

I'm getting there. I know I am on a road to recovery. I have bad days, so many bad days, but I rarely relapse anymore, regardless of how much I feel the need to sometimes. Some days the trickle of water on an empty stomach is a better feeling than eating, but I now make sure I eat anyway regardless of how much I may not want to.

Recovery is hard.

I know that saying that is almost the equivalent of me saying oxygen is important for breathing. But when I was younger, I used to believe that one day, when I wanted to, I could just stop. I could just stop being sad. I could stop harming myself. I could stop forcing myself to go hungry. But I couldn't stop. I wanted to heal and I wanted to heal overnight. Instead, it's been countless years and I am still in the process of healing.

And I don't think I will ever fully heal. I think there will always be a part of me that I could never completely fix. There will always be a part of me that every now and then will emerge and I will want to relapse. But I won't. I'll want to, but I won't. Thats what recovery is to me. I'm not expecting recovery to stop the intrusive thoughts and I'm expecting days where I cannot deal with them. As I continue to get better, I continue to learn that recovery to me is about not being free of the pain, but learning to push through it. It's still something I am struggling to cope with. But I'll get there.

Sometimes recovery is hard. Mainly because true recovery is something I may never to truly be able to achieve. But with each day, I do better. And that for me, is enough.