I met with my sponsor yesterday before an 8pm meeting and we chatted quite extensively about black and white thinking, all or nothinc mentality, deprivation versus excess. The similarities between alcoholics and those with certain eating disorder tendencies is quite phenomenal and more and more apparent as I try to tackle both issues.
Recovery from alcoholism involves no spectrum, no holding onto habits, no intuitive consumption. The recovering alcoholic does not drink alcohol, plain and simple. All recovery strategies involve replacing a with b. The recovering anorexic/bulimic cannot simply remove their substance of choice as that's the strategy that got them a diagnosis in the first place!
I am certainly finding that abstaining from drinking is leaps and bounds easier than the eating disorder addiction my mind can't let go of. It's so much easier for me, as an addict, to remove completely; anything that must be constantly adjusted on a spectrum becomes damn near impossible. It is not a cookie for me - it is no cookies forever or all of them. Just lije drinking was never one beer, it was all of them to blacking out and not being able to walk or, well, never none.
I have to learn how to manage substances, including food on a spectrum and eliminate this black and white thinking if I truly want recovery. Ain't no way around it.
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