Honouring Differences in Recovery: Methodological Explorations in Creative Eating Disorder Recovery Research

Abstract

What would it look like to honour differences in eating disorder recovery? Recoveries from eating disorders and eating distress are enacted in relation to discursive, material, and affective flows that open and constrain different possibilities for differently embodied people. Yet, the pull toward establishing consensus on “what recovery is” continues to dominate the landscape of both qualitative and quantitative eating disorder recovery work. While researchers from a variety of perspectives, disciplines, and methodological traditions have sought to establish consensus on what recovery “is”, a singular definition remains elusive. Indeed, when researchers continue to adopt the same methodologies—which largely emphasize establishing patterns of sameness—the opportunity to dig into contradictions and tensions that enliven recoveries is missed. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences conducting creative, collaborative, generative research to re-write, re-design, re-draw, and otherwise re-imagine recoveries. The knowledge generated in our research is co-constructed with people with living experience of disordered/distressed eating/eating disorders who spoke back to mainstream recovery discourses (e.g., the idea that recovery is about perfection, that recovery is linear, that one is either recovered or not, that the word “recovered” encapsulates the experience, etc.). We engaged with 12 participants: four in an online group workshop and eight in individual online sessions. Participants held a variety of experiences and backgrounds from Canada, the United States, and Aotearoa New Zealand. We explored their journeys into this conversation with us, the meaning of recovery, and their thoughts on what makes recovery im/possible. Participants were offered several options for creative engagement and took up the idea of “creativity” in ways as different as the stories they shared. Participants created collages, short stories, poems, drawings, and told stories about their experiences. Here, we discuss methodological insights gained from asking participants to lead the creative process. We also explore how this project potentially enables different ways of thinking about and doing eating disorder recovery. Delving into the differences in both method and content opens up opportunities to take seriously the different relational, material, and affective constellations of participants’ living experiences of eating distress/disorder “recovery”.

Discordant conceptualisations of eating disorder recovery and their influence on the construct of terminality

“…For decades, researchers have been working to establish a consensus definition of ‘recovery’ from an ED [ 28 – 30 ], but such a definition remains elusive. Increasingly, questions are emerging about the potential outcomes of a universalised definition of ED recovery when applied to a phenomenon that shows up differently depending on each individual’s identities and experiences [ 31 ]. People with lived and living experiences may differ in their perspectives about what recovery ‘is’ [ 32 ] compared to those treating them [ 33 , 34 ].…”

“…Greater consensus on the definitions of recovery, its assessment, and outcome measures may help determine a standard for the data that services and studies collect [ 39 – 41 ]. On the other hand, it is possible that by focusing on sameness rather than difference, the individual nuances of experienced recovery may be drawn into a singular ‘way’ of ‘being recovered’ that may be inaccessible to some [ 26 , 31 , 42 ]. Importantly, inaccessible standards of recovery may disincentivise engaging in treatment or initiating behavioural change by further entrenching feelings of hopelessness and futility in some individuals with EDs.…”

Introduction to the Special Issue “Rethinking Artful Politics: Bodies of Difference Remaking Body Worlds”

“…Art making becomes a series of refusals to remain contained within the given lines through unpredictable expressive acts that seek to proliferate possibilities for care and repair. Artful recoveries move away from universalizing and standardized responses for recovery from mental health distresses that systemically pressure persons labelled with them in healthcare structures (LaMarre et al 2023). A Fitness Community of Practice (CoP) comprised of gender diverse disabled, queer, fat, thicc, and racialized persons is thickened, cripped, and made queer when these bodies come together to co-create, celebrate, and welcome rest in a fitness world replete with micro-activist affordances (Bessey et al 2023).…”