Volunteering – Just One of My Bulimia Tips

The main objective of my bulimia blog is to offer others help with their bulimia. Since I was in the grips of this eating disorder for 20 years, and have been in recovery since 2005, there are some valuable bulimia tips that I want to share with you.

Since it is my firm belief that belief in oneself and self love are essential for beating an eating disorder, you have to look for ways and means to feel better about yourself; feel more valuable to YOU.

Depression is often one of many bulimic symptoms. One of the things that can help in the process of overcoming bulimia, depression and reinforce your sense of self is doing volunteer work.

A number of women’s bulimia stories of success I’ve heard were about women who simply chose to feel better about themselves. One of my favorite ways of boosting my self esteem and filling my heart with love is by volunteering.  It’s an effective bulimia tip if you’re feeling down and out about life.  You’ll be amazed how great an afternoon of helping out at a food bank or an animal shelter can boost your joy factor.

Volunteering can help you feel better in a couple of ways:

• Helping others puts your suffering and misfortune in perspective. You know that old story about the man who complained about not having a pair of shoes until he met a man who had no feet.  Seeing others less fortunate than us and seeing their pain and suffering can go a long way to put our own problems in perspective. Not only that, but it can also take your mind off your own problems for a while and so may help with bulimia in multiple ways.
• The joy of giving and of altruism. Giving to others doesn’t have to cost you financially.  It can be something as simple as giving your time that can make a difference to someone else’. There is a simple joy – a satisfaction – that comes out of giving in a way that makes a difference to someone else.  There is also joy that comes from having done something without expectation of any reward, because the altruistic action is a reward in itself.   Giving just to feel good about giving.

And this is what makes volunteering one of my favorite bulimia tips.  It makes the person you have helped feel better and consequently makes you feel better about yourself.  Like the circle of life you help others and get help with bulimia. And the fact that you have somehow added to the sum of happiness in the world well that’s just a bonus!