What is it about?
Many patients with eating disorders lack motivation to recover. We interviewed people who had recovered from eating disorders. They told us that hearing the stories of other people who had recovered (i.e., recovery self-disclosures) was helpful and motivating. Some participants heard these recovery stories from their therapists and others heard them from peers. Recovery stories might help people believe that recovery is possible and better understand the recovery process.
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Why is it important?
Our findings suggest that stories of recovery could be helpful for patients with eating disorders. Future research could test this idea. If stories of recovery are found to be helpful, therapists and treatment centers could use stories of recovery to help patients.
Perspectives
The scientific process excites me most when we learn something new or unexpected. I think we learned something new from this study-- my colleagues and I didn't expect stories of recovery to be such an important factor. There isn't much research on this topic, especially targeted at patients with eating disorders. I hope this paper can raise a conversation about stories of recovery, as these could be an important tool to help motivate patients (though future research is necessary).
Akash Wasil
Harvard University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The motivating role of recovery self-disclosures from therapists and peers in eating disorder recovery: Perspectives of recovered women., Psychotherapy, March 2019, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/pst0000214.
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