Sick Clothes

How many of you have a pair of "skinny jeans" in your closet?
I am not talking about the currently popular style of jeans, but that pair of jeans that you can no longer fit into- yet you continue to keep in your closet so you can wear them again-once you have lost weight.
 
Keeping around such jeans can be extremely triggering and can be very harmful to your recovery.
 
Oftentimes, recovering from an eating disorder includes having to adjust to a new recovery body.  Many people recovering from an eating disorder struggle with getting rid of the clothes they fit into when they were in their eating disorder- their "sick clothes".
 
Keeping old sick clothes in your closet can be a constant reminder of what your body used to look like and can keep ED alive. Ready to give them up? There are a couple of different ways you can do it.  You can always give back to the community by donating the clothes to shelters, thrift stores, etc. My personal favorite way is to keep one particularly triggering piece of clothing and have a "goodbye ceremony".
 
Make the "goodbye ceremony" fun by writing on the clothing and/or ripping/shredding/cutting it.  Whatever you need to do to say goodbye once and for all!
 
Once you have room in your closet, ask a supportive friend or family member to help you go shopping for new clothes that fit your recovery body. If the sizes of the new clothes are too triggering, you can cut off the labels.

Remember, you are so much more than the size of your clothes and you deserve a life free from your eating disorder!

--Ashley Azin, MA, MS, LMFT