Is 'In-Patient' the ONLY Solution for Eating Disorder Recovery? (A Personal Story)

We asked the question recently, about whether you can actually recover from an eating disorder WITHOUT going into a residential unit, or indeed, whether you feel a hospitalisation would have aided your recovery journey.
Here's what one of our followers - Meg - had to say:

I just wanted to throw my two cents in regarding the recent Instagram post & conversation.

I actually would agree that inpatient would have been best for me in terms of medically getting to a safer/healthier place quicker, but I'm so unbelievably grateful that it wasn't pushed.

Agreeing to intense outpatient meant I could stay at home with my baby, and as she was the only reason I agreed to start recovery/refeeding in the first place, I think being away from her would've had disastrous effects, and I'm lucky that my team knew and respected that.

I do believe that if I hadn't agreed to refeed at home (or if I did but didn't make progress, as I know my physical health was in the gutter) then it would have been pushed, but I did, and have since thrown myself into recovery for not only my little one but also now for me, too.

It took about five months for me to switch to wanting to recover fully and not just reluctantly doing it for my baby, and about that amount of time to restore to a "just about healthy" weight (still working on restoring to my body's happy weight/something above the bare minimum) and I think that restoring quicker in hospital would've led to my mental state becoming a lot worse, so while I think the process has been slower doing it with outpatient support, it was more ideal for my family.

It kept me tethered to my why.

However, it also meant that I've been in control of my own exercise, and it's taken about that same five months to embrace rest and acknowledge that I was really overdoing it (and again, would have restored quicker and began to rewire sooner and more effectively if forced to rest) but I also know that recovering at my pace has been necessary as I'm too stubborn to listen to anything and always have to learn the hard way.

It feels strange to say that I think inpatient is best, but I'm glad that wasn't my path.

Please let us know how your story and perspective compares to that of Meg. You can email us on hello@wednesdayschild.co.uk