By Francesca Rose Annenberg
After a challenging two years, things are getting back to normal despite Covid lingering in a less severe manner. However, many of us are struggling to come to terms with what has happened.
A 2022 study mentioned that the Covid-19 pandemic has created a global context that has led to increased eating disorder risks and symptoms, decreased factors that protect against eating disorders, and exacerbated barriers to care.
For many people, the disruptions to daily routines and constraints to outdoor activities increased weight and shape concerns, whilst being homebound negatively impacted eating, exercise, and sleeping patterns, all of which contributed to eating disorder symptoms. Furthermore, the social restrictions deprived many individuals of the social support and adaptive and protective coping strategies.
The increase in eating disorder-specific or anxiety-provoking social media and the reliance on video conferencing has negatively impacted body image and other eating disorder symptoms.
Despite many parts of the world starting to open again, why are eating disorders still so prevalent?
This is because the aftermath of Covid is still living within our bodies. When the body is still locked in the stress of the experience, the eating disorder strategies that came in to protect an individual during that time continue playing out because the body has not fully registered that it is safe.
This is where support and help can come in — creating safe, intentional places with the care of a loving presence. Unlike during the pandemic’s signature of social isolation, the antidote to an eating disorder is social connection and developing trust in those connections.
Over time, trust with one’s own body emerges once again, as well as greater emotional resilience, and connection with the wider world.
By restoring safety and trust with our own bodies and with the world, we can collectively and individually recover, heal, and transform.
Do You Need an Eating Disorder Recovery Coach
for Your Loved One?
Navigating over 14 years of her own personal eating disorder recovery, Francesca Rose Annenberg weaves eating disorder recovery frameworks, trauma-informed integrative somatic coaching modalities, and her life experience into a compassionate approach to food and body recovery.
She is a certified coach, supporting individuals in creating a healthy relationship to food, their bodies, and towards life that is embedded in embodied self-acceptance and trust. She offers 1:1 coaching online and in-person, as well as monthly online eating disorder recovery support groups.
Do You Need an Eating Disorder Recovery Coach for Your Loved One?
Navigating over 14 years of her own personal eating disorder recovery, Francesca Rose Annenberg weaves eating disorder recovery frameworks, trauma-informed integrative somatic coaching modalities, and her life experience into a compassionate approach to food and body recovery.
She is a certified coach, supporting individuals in creating a healthy relationship to food, their bodies, and towards life that is embedded in embodied self-acceptance and trust. She offers 1:1 coaching online and in-person, as well as monthly online eating disorder recovery support groups.
To get in touch email hello@francescaeatsroses.com or call +27833476042 www.francescaeatsroses.com
• Published in the August 2022 Digital Edition – Click here to read it.
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