{"author":"Jenni Schaefer","author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer","total_quotes":22,"quotes":[{"text":"During the worst stages of my eating disorder, I was all-or-none with food—either bingeing or not eating. Much of my experience was, in fact, that if I ate anything, I would eat everything. I began to understand that this happened because I was starving myself. In starvation mode, my body literally thought I was facing a famine. It didn’t know that I was living near a grocery store and several fast-food restaurants. Thinking I was facing a real food shortage, its primal instinct was to binge on large amounts of food, conserving fat in preparation for the hard times ahead.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["eating-disorder","recovery"],"id":22026,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Anxiety becomes high energy when taken to the light. For me, it worked like this: I used to live in a constant state of anxiety, worrying about the past and the future. Now I do my best to focus my attention on the present moment. So the mental energy I used to waste on worrying is channeled into the present, making me better able to focus intently and enthusiastically on a task (whether work or play). In a similar way, perfection becomes tenacity, and compulsivity becomes drive. Traits that once brought us down can lift us up when taken to the light.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["anxiety","eating-disorder","recovery"],"id":47342,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Being thin created intense anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that weight for life, and I couldn’t.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["anxiety","eating-disorder","perfectionism","thinness","unrealistic"],"id":55224,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Real hope combined with real action has always pulled me through difficult times. Real hope combined with doing nothing has never pulled me through.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["eating-disorder","recovery"],"id":65048,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Anita Johnston, Ph.D., author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, taught me to look in the mirror with curiosity rather than fear. So I may look at my reflection and think, ‘That’s interesting. I wonder why my body seems bigger today than it did yesterday. Maybe it’s water weight. Maybe it’s my outfit. Or maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me.’ I know it’s not possible for me to gain a noticeable amount of weight overnight, so I will go no further than that. I move on with my day without skipping a beat—and definitely without missing a meal.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["body-image","eating-disorder","recovery","self-perception"],"id":77853,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"To stay in recovery, you must be responsible for finding your own motivation. Remember, motivation may not be easy to come by at first. It will probably be a very small, timid part inside of you. When you find it, let that part be in charge. Let the minority rule and lead you to a life you never dreamed was possible.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["eating-disorder","motivation","recovery"],"id":93805,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Ironically, this physically weak feeling signifies that I’m actually getting stronger. I know from my past that I will ultimately feel strong if I just sit with the feeling and experience it.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["eating-disorder","feelings","recovery"],"id":98622,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Sometimes I felt lonely because I pushed people away for so long that I honestly didn’t have many close connections left. I was physically isolated and disconnected from the world. Sometimes I felt lonely in a crowded room. This kind of loneliness pierced my soul and ached to the core. I not only felt disconnected from the world, but I also felt like no one ever loved me. Intellectually, I knew that people did, but I still felt that way.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["connection","loneliness","people"],"id":114538,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"Clinicians have told me that our emotional is arrested at the age that an eating disorder takes control of our lives. After we recover, we pick up emotionally where we left off at that age.","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["arrested-development","eating-disorder","recovery"],"id":118750,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"},{"text":"I left myself out of humanity by focusing on differences. This isolation only strengthened Ed” (17).","author":"Jenni Schaefer","tags":["differences","eating-disorder","recovery"],"id":138424,"author_id":"Jenni+Schaefer"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":22,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}