Freed Beyond

Freed Beyond Freed Beyond provides an eating disorder service for those affected and impacted by eating disorders.

Preparation underway for our next Freed Course beginning on Thursday. Initially, we will take time for each participant ...
29/04/2025

Preparation underway for our next Freed Course beginning on Thursday.

Initially, we will take time for each participant to reflect on where they or their loved ones are currently on the journey to full recovery. It is always a highlight at the end of the course to reflect back and see the progress made!

If you or your loved one is suffering from eating distress there is still time to join us - just reach out via our website: www.freedbeyond.org

We still have a few spaces left and we don't want you to miss out. Please reach out via info@freedbeyond.org if you are ...
29/04/2025

We still have a few spaces left and we don't want you to miss out. Please reach out via info@freedbeyond.org if you are struggling to recover or are supporting someone on their journey to recovery (registration will close on Thursday morning)

24/04/2025
There are spaces available on our next Freed Foundational Course which will be run via Zoom for those experiencing eatin...
19/04/2025

There are spaces available on our next Freed Foundational Course which will be run via Zoom for those experiencing eating disorders or supporting someone who is.

(The course is run for people 18+ but we can accept individuals from the age of 16 if they have a carer join the course along with them).

The programme is designed to educate and resource participants and is led by both counselling professionals and those who have lived experience of the journey themselves.

If you would like to register your interest you can do so via our website (link in our bio).

We are pleased to announce the dates for our next Freed Foundational Course which will be run via Zoom for those experie...
07/04/2025

We are pleased to announce the dates for our next Freed Foundational Course which will be run via Zoom for those experiencing eating disorders or supporting someone who is.

(The course is run for people 18+ but we can accept individuals from the age of 16 if they have a carer join the course along with them).

The programme is designed to educate and resource participants and is led by both counselling professionals and those who have lived experience of the journey themselves.

If you would like to register your interest you can do so via our website (link in our bio).

Places are limited so if you are interested in participating please get in touch.

Comfort Zone - Cosy Cabin or Gilded Cage?For those experiencing an eating disorder, their behaviours have provided what ...
28/02/2025

Comfort Zone - Cosy Cabin or Gilded Cage?

For those experiencing an eating disorder, their behaviours have provided what feels like a safe and secure place away from the dangers that they perceive are out there. It helps to shield them from emotions and experiences that are too difficult to face and can provide immediate relief from the discomfort experienced when any potential threat comes on their radar. It allows the sufferer to remain firmly within the safety of the boundaries they set which becomes their comfort zone.

This can sound idyllic – a safe space where one can curl up away from the harshness of reality but all may not be as it seems. For what started out as a cosy cabin in which to retreat to safety can become a gilded cage that traps you and removes you from living your life. It can inhibit learning, deny the experiencing of new things, it will rob you of finding your purpose or of chasing your dreams and ultimately results in missing out on living your life in all its fullness.

Recovery involves focusing on what you want to move towards that gently allows you to move beyond your comfort zone, one small step at a time. This builds the courage to face your fears moving gently towards growth with the result of building your confidence, tolerance, resilience and enables a strengthening of all your relationships.

A coping mechanismFor the person with an eating disorder, controlling or abusing food and their body is their way of rel...
27/02/2025

A coping mechanism

For the person with an eating disorder, controlling or abusing food and their body is their way of relieving distress and achieving some degree of control and/or coping in their life. Their world feels like an unsafe and unmanageable place, and for many complex reasons, an eating disorder provides them with a sense of safety and support.

The metaphor of the ED as a crutch can be very helpful in grasping a fuller understanding of how EDs can be a coping mechanism to keep them safe and gives something to lean on. We need crutches if a bone in our leg is fractured or broken and they serve a purpose, to help keep us safe and stable as we continue to move about while the bone heals. If we were to suddenly whip the crutches away from someone who is in the healing process, then the inevitable will happen … they will fall over. They serve a purpose, just as the ED serves a purpose but for a limited time. Once trapped within the eating disorder, people often feel they need to maintain it in order to survive. They don’t know how they could cope without it.

The impact of the overuse of the crutches is that if the person becomes dependant on them, they will never learn to walk without them and will live a restricted life. What helped them, now starts to hinder them and have consequences. The same is true of the ED - what once helped the individual manage their lives, is now keeping them stuck and is stopping them experience the fullness of life and freedom.

However, if the crutches are gradually taken away and the person, as they heal, manages for short periods each day without the crutches, the time will come when they can walk without them completely. It is therefore important that family and friends (and the sufferer!) have realistic expectations of the pace of progress that recovery takes. Don’t try to whip away the crutches too soon and instead gradually encourage your loved one to learn to walk without them.

NumbingFor someone experiencing an eating disorder it can be incredibly overwhelming to feel their emotions. Due to high...
26/02/2025

Numbing

For someone experiencing an eating disorder it can be incredibly overwhelming to feel their emotions. Due to high levels of sensitivity, sufferers can feel negative emotions really intensely and deeply and are compelled to make them stop at any cost. One of the aspects that can feel like a benefit to a sufferer is the numbing that the ED can provide for emotional experiences. This can feel like a huge relief from the overwhelming emotions but as with all “benefits” of an ED, they are short lived and have major consequences.

Did you know that if you numb from the difficult emotions, you are actually numbing to all of them? Emotions are not a pick-a-mix situation that you can choose all the good ones and leave out the ones you don’t like. When you numb your emotions through ED behaviours you block the ability to feel moments of joy & happiness, experiences of laughter and fun, feelings of love & peace all in an attempt to create a barrier to the difficult emotions such as sadness, anger and fear.

This numbing prevents you from living, experiencing and participating in the fullness and joy that life can hold. One of the aspects of recovery from an ED is learning what your emotions are and how you can work with them so that once what was terrifying becomes part of how you experience life, enabling you to connect with your loved ones and the world around you and allowing warmth to return to a heart that had become frozen.

Hiding from life/identityStruggling with an eating disorder often feels like living behind a mask. The eating disorder c...
25/02/2025

Hiding from life/identity

Struggling with an eating disorder often feels like living behind a mask. The eating disorder can very subtly become a part of our identity and it can be hard to see your true self. This can lead to a distorted view of self and isolation from your true self but also from friends and family. Living or existing in this way takes a huge toll on the sufferer, the carers and the community around you. Many people are hurting through suffering themselves or through watching a loved one suffer with eating distress.

At Freed Beyond we know and can testify to the absolute truth that recovery, which is lasting and full, is achievable for those living or existing in life with an eating disorder. It is possible to build an identity that does not involve the eating disorder. This can be difficult to comprehend and it does require a first step. Following on from this there is a commitment from yourself with support from others to step out from behind the mask and to live life free and to thrive.

To those who haven’t personally experienced an ED it will sound strange to say that it has benefits. However, understand...
24/02/2025

To those who haven’t personally experienced an ED it will sound strange to say that it has benefits. However, understanding the benefits of an ED will help family, other carers and even the sufferer to accept that there is purpose to the ED and that learning to live without it takes time and can be scary. It’s like taking off a warm cosy blanket on a cold day which can feel unbearable. Follow our posts throughout this week for Eating Disorder Awareness Week and learn about some of the reasons why it feels beneficial for an ED to be in place for the sufferer but also on the flip side, where each benefit has serious consequences.

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