Research has shown that people who have recovered from eating disorders can be “indistinguishable” from people with no history of eating disorders (Bardone-Cone, 2010). So, we know that full healing is possible, but what is recovery? How do we know if we’re recovered?

I remember thinking I had recovered from my own eating disorders decades ago, but at the time, the field emphasized “in recovery.” To be honest, that seemed defeating. After all the work and years it took to gain freedom from eating disorders' thoughts and behaviors, the field’s messages conveyed that I could never be free of it. But I felt free of it!

In the early 2000s, I was drawn to Carolyn Costin’s teachings. She was one of the few leaders in the eating disorders field who advocated for "recovered," past tense. Her treatment facilities were known for their recovery philosophies and utilized many clinicians who openly identified as recovered. She defined what that was to her and her facilities:

Being recovered, to me, is when the person can accept his or her natural body size and shape and no longer has a self-destructive or unnatural relationship with food or exercise. When you are recovered, food and weight take a proper perspective in your life and what you weigh is not more important than who you are, in fact, actual numbers are of little or no importance at all. When recovered, you will not compromise your health or betray your soul to look a certain way, wear a certain size or reach a certain number on a scale (Carolyn Costin Institute, 2020).

A definition that has received attention in the

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