Anorexia and A FREE Self Soothing Mechanism

Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by SHM Staff in CLIPS FROM SHM DISCUSSION FORUMS, Eating Disorders

In the community forums, Joanne gave her thoughts and advice to one forum member with anorexia and who is finding it hard to give up her coping mechanism. She wrote:

BCD,

You are saying a lot of important and courageous things here and I want to commend you for speaking up. It's not easy to lay all this out on the line in an open forum, but your are doing it. In the process, you are letting us know what's really going on and letting us send some ideas back your way.

I'm glad to see you are doing a lot of reading and weekly therapy. The self-soothing is one of the trickiest things for a lot of people. So let me give hyou a little trick that I find useful as well as unique because it makes people anxious to even talk about it….

In my OA work, I heard of a lot of things that people tried, but one of the most potent things was sucking on a baby bottle filled with something warm to drink. The suggestion was to widen the nipple opening with a hot needle because the openings to baby bottles you'll find in a store are made for infants. They don't let a lot of liquid out at a time and it can frustrate an adult.

So widening that opening and filling the bottle with something you enjoy is a very regressive but very effective way of nurturing yourself when you feel the need. Doing that with soft music, soft lighting or candles and filling your head with positive affirmations is one way to alter your feeling of neediness or emptiness or whatever you feel inside.

Actually, I probably shouldn't assume any of those feelings, but rather, ask you. What are you feeling inside when you know you need to be self-soothed?

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