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The cost of Recovery
Recovery can seem like a very expensive option, but is it really? I remember looking at the cost of a counselling session and thinking can I really afford to do this. But the real issue was not my ability to pay for the session; it was actually about me allowing myself to receive the help I so desperately needed. When I looked at my spending habits, I never actually bought things for me; it was always for my children or the house. Spending on myself felt like a selfish thing to do, although today I see it as a very nurturing thing to do. I deserve to have money spent on me just like the rest of the family. |  |
I soon began to realise that spending money on counselling was actually one of the best things I could ever do for myself. If I was going to free myself from the grips of my eating disorder, I had to have help because I had already proved that I could not do this alone. How can we ever put a price tag on freedom from the food obsession and binge eating disorder that not only controlled my life but also ruined it?
I once listened to a recovery friend of mine who had worked out how much she had spent on trying to solve her weight problem. She worked out the true costs of dieting by looking at what she had spent on diets, diet foods, diet books, diet magazine subscriptions, diet clubs, binge foods etc and she has spent well over £20,000. So when you put the cost of a counselling session in perspective it really is a small cost. For many people they not only become fixated with finding the perfect diet solution but they also begin to turn to compulsive spending, alcohol, drugs, material possessions as they desperately try to find a solution. Imagine the cost when you start working these things out.
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| When I moved out to live in the USA for 6 years I was so desperate to lose weight that I even arranged to have every single diet magazine that was in production air mailed to the USA! One of the first things in recovery I had to do was to stop renewing all these subscriptions, and it was quite a reminder when month after month they continued to arrive through the letter box. I didn’t just order one year, I always ordered the maximum length of subscription which was often 3 years! Obviously I didn’t find a solution to my problems through these quick fixes but through counselling and support groups. |
| So many people sum up their experience of counselling as being one of the best things they have ever done in their lives. I know people who have even taken bank loans to fund their counselling sessions. I certainly don’t regret one penny that has been spent on my recovery from binge eating disorder. I have a whole new life now and one that has seen me do so much that I never believed would be possible. |
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