Feelings

WD Recovery Recovery and Wellness stresses feelings for several reasons. First, your behavior in the past may have been so opposed to your value system that considerable feelings of remorse and self-loathing may have manifested. We often accumulate a pool of negative feelings and try to protect ourselves by hiding these feelings with a variety of masks or defenses that prevent their discovery. This can begin with mild disapproval, then growing remorse, and ultimately a deep self-loathing. Statements such as: "I'm no good!" or "The world would be better off without me” reflect these negative feelings and attitudes. Admitting feelings is important in taking the First Step of the program where you begin to look at the destruction the eating disorder has caused.

Being in touch with the hostile feelings we have toward ourselves and the sense of helplessness and hopelessness that accompany them make the First Step a moving description instead of simply an abstract theory. We feel the powerlessness and the unmanageability. One of the important functions of the group is to help us identify the defenses that prevent this discovery.