But if I recover, my eating disorder will have been a waste!

When it comes to having a conversation about eating disorders and wasted time, most of the content revolves around committing to recovery after realizing that the eating disorder was a “waste of time”... but what about the other way around?

Something that comes up sooo much during coaching is this idea that all of the time and effort put into engaging with the eating disorder will have been a “waste” when one commits to recovery.

This perspective is a perfect illustration of the sunk cost fallacy: the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.

Also referred to as sunk cost bias, this type of thinking is seen in all kinds of human behavior. For example, say you bought a ticket to a movie. 30 minutes in, you think, “THIS SUCKS!” But because you’ve already spent the money on a non-refundable ticket, you force yourself to stick it through.

As with all bias, sunk cost bias distorts our perception of value. By believing we’ve already invested so many resources into a project or endeavor, we convince ourselves we can’t back out. I mean, we’ve all heard the saying, “Quitters never win and winners never quit!”

But quitters DO win and winners DO quit. Winning is all about quitting the RIGHT thing. The same goes for an eating disorder. You won’t ever be able to WIN your life back if you don’t QUIT your eating disorder. Sure, you can see all that time as “wasted,” but you could also see all that time as a learning experience.

You could view all that time engaging with your eating disorder as something never get back, or you could view it as time that taught you exactly how you don’t want to live. You could see it as a gift.

No matter what you do, you’re never going to get the time back that you already spent engaging with your eating disorder. You can keep allowing it to steal your life, or you can finally call it quits so it doesn’t take more than it already has.

Are you ready to QUIT your eating disorder and WIN at life? Schedule a consultation call for 1-1 coaching here!