The Easter weekend is an opportunity to connect with friends and family, and celebrate the arrival of Spring as well as having a well-earned break from work or school. But if you are living with an eating disorder, Easter can also be stressful and anxiety-provoking. Many of you told us that you find the focus on food challenging, and dealing with changes to your usual routine is difficult.
We asked the team at Dump the Scales on their top tips on how to survive Easter:
Have a plan in place
Think about what you want to get out of Easter. You might want to spend some quality time with friends and family, get outside in the fresh air, work on a project or just enjoy some downtime. This will help bring some focus to the weekend for you.
Manage any triggering comments: Many of us are familiar with well-meaning family members commenting on our weight or plate! We know this is very tricky to navigate and comments like 'you look well' can stir up all kinds of difficult feelings. If you think a family member might say something triggering to you, try to avoid sitting next to them at dinner and prepare some responses in advance.
Prepare a list of distractions
Prepare a list of distractions in case meals get overwhelming, or you're experiencing an increased urge to binge or restrict. Some of the Dump the Scales team's favourite distractions include:
-Easter crafting (see some great craft ideas here)
-Playing a board game with family or friends
-Listen to your favourite song or podcast (check out Full of Beans recovery podcast here)
-Reading a book chapter or magazine
-Painting, drawing or journaling
Handling Easter foods
There is the small matter of Easter eggs, and other Easter treats to deal with. You will likely be offered chocolate, or a hot cross bun, or something similar. Consider what your ED wants, and what you yourself wants to do with these foods. What would the healthy, recovered you do?
If you mainly struggling with restrictive eating behaviours, you might want to challenge yourself to try a bit of Easter egg and slowly work on reducing your anxiety around chocolate. If you struggle with binge-eating, or purging behaviours, spend a bit of time planning how you would like to handle Easter foods in advance and make sure you have regular, nutritious meals and snacks planned throughout the day.
5. Just focus on surviving!
Remember Easter is only a few days-your weight won't magically change that much in a few days regardless of what you eat. If all else fails, just focus on getting through. There is no 'perfect' way, and no 'wrong' way to do Easter so focus on being compassionate to yourself and know that you will be back to your normal routine soon.
If you need urgent mental health support over the Easter period please contact the Samaritans or your local A&E department.