What is quasi recovery?
Quasi recovery is possibly one of the more difficult parts of your eating disorder recovery journey, yet is not always spoken about. It is the part of recovery where you may have started to physically recover on the surface (this could include weight restoration and/or behaviours), yet you are not fully recovered mentally.
I like to think of it as a way you could function through life, but you are functioning whilst still being trapped by the eating disorder. At this stage, there is usually still a tremendous amount of fear surrounding weight gain and it is pretty normal to simply be ‘tolerating’ your body.
Perhaps you are no longer relapsing into the illness to a severe extent, but you are also not really experiencing the wonderful benefits of recovery, because you have not quite got there yet. You may be feeling stuck and trapped where you are and are still holding onto some of the eating disorder behaviours that make you feel safe and able to cope.
Why can this stage in eating disorder recovery be a lonely place?
Those around you may have started to comment that you seem “so much better” and it is often entirely possible at this point to fool the whole world into thinking you are absolutely fine. This is why it can often feel like a very lonely place to be, because the support you were receiving up until now may feel like it’s starting to disappear- as people perceive you to be fine.
Quasi recovery is not so much that you haven’t learnt how to cope or that you are failing. It is more so that you just haven’t reached a state of true recovery yet. That is something you are still working towards and it is important that the people closest to you understand this.
Learning about quasi recovery and sharing this knowledge with your support network can be a powerful moment in your journey. It will allow you to keep going. It will allow you to find the freedom that you have been working so hard to reach.
How common is quasi recovery?
In all my years working as an eating disorder specialist, I have never seen anyone side-step the quasi phase in their healing journey. And that’s because it is simply a part of the process. The purpose of talking about it separately is simply to raise awareness of this phase. An important and often overlooked piece of the puzzle.
Why is quasi recovery overlooked?
The reason many treatment centres overlook this stage of recovery is often because of how they are measuring recovery. Weight restoration or making progress ‘on paper’ does not necessarily indicate true eating disorder recovery. And it’s the reason so many go without treatment at this stage of recovery.
‘It just means there is simply more work to do.’
Remember, quasi recovery is pretty much inevitable for anyone recovering from an eating disorder. It is a part of the process and you are not failing because you are feeling stuck there. It just means there is more to overcome in eating disorder recovery.
Why is recovery coaching so powerful?
Recovery coaching is incredibly powerful for quasi recovery because it is a motivating, goal-oriented and supportive approach. Recovery coaching is forward-focused. It arms you with practical skills to move forward without fear and work through what’s keeping you stuck. Furthermore recovery coaching allows you to create a future that you feel motivated and empowered to reach.
If you are working through quasi recovery, remember:
You don’t have to do this alone.
You are not failing, you are still in recovery.
There is simply more to overcome in eating disorder recovery.
Quasi recovery is worthy of support.
Author: Sasha Paul, eating disorder specialist
