September 05th, 2012

Article submitted by R.S.

My eating disorder used to thrive on my phone. I had an eating disorder “folder” filled with apps that let me obsessively track calories, look at triggering stuff on Tumblr, etc. It wasn’t healthy at ALL.

And I read an article placing a lot of blame on technology because of this, yet, despite my experience, I’m going to have to actually disagree. Why?

Because now I have a “recovery” folder, and I really think it has the potential to be just as helpful as the old folder was triggering. And because of this, I really think that it depends on the emotional state of the person. Yeah, technology can exacerbate the issue, but that isn’t going to happen if a person simply just doesn’t have an eating disorder! And technology can be incredibly helpful as well.

The app that pushed me to write this article is called “Recovery Record.” I could go on and on about how amazing this app is, but that would probably be really boring, so I won’t. I honestly don’t think it could be triggering to any person in any way, and it is just so supportive and encouraging.

Some things I LOVE about it (soooo not a complete list):

• Today it told me to “challenge yourself on the good days, and play it safe on the bad day”. Great sentiment by the way, and it really made me realize that I’m not a “failure” for not, say, eating a Big Mac when I’m having a crappy day!
• It lets you connect with your treatment team
• you write down your food (oh, you can also input your meal plan), but you ALSO write your mood, etc. You can even use an exchange program!
• it gives you songs and puzzle pieces and cute pictures!
• It has a list of coping strategies
• It’s great for all kinds of eating disorders
• It isn’t triggering whatsoever
• It helps you recognize/identify your behavior
• It gives ACTUALLY GOOD NOT CHEESY goals and challenges, so it turns my energy into something else.
• Much better than recording what I ate on a piece of paper
• It’s just so fun and positive!So whether you have an e.d. or not, whether you need to lose/gain/maintain, whatever, this is the most well thought out and positive app–I can’t believe it’s free!