Recovering from an eating disorder can be long and complex.

Treatment typically focuses on reducing the unhelpful behaviours and thoughts that characterise these disorders. These include extreme dieting, binge eating, purging, negative body image, and – in some (but not all) cases – having a very low body weight.

But when recovery focuses on a clinical checklist of symptoms, such as reaching a healthy weight, it may ignore other important aspects of getting better.

Eating disorders are not just physical. They are complex mental health conditions that severely disrupt people’s relationship with themselves, their bodies and other people. So the psychological aspects of recovery, and the way people feel about it, also plays an important role.

Our new research shows when people’s broader wellbeing improves – such as developing a sense of self-acceptance or hope – they are more likely to report a “personal” recovery from an eating disorder, even if they still have some clinical symptoms.

How is recovery measured?

There is no one definition of eating disorder recovery.

But most research has focused on clinical symptoms. This means an absence of diagnostic criteria (for example, no binge eating or purging) over a specific timeframe, such as a 12-month period, to meet the definition of recovery.

Emerging........

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