Great question Amyra! I definitely noticed this was true for me. Dealing with uncomfortable feelings was the hardest thing for me when I first started recovering from my eating disorder. I always wanted to *do* something with my feelings–in other words, avoid just feeling them.

But it’s like the saying goes: the only way out is through. In coming face to face with the void, I learned a lot about what hurt me, why, who I wanted to be, and what I wanted to do in life. I also learned that two things caused most of my suffering: the belief that there was something wrong with me, and the fear that other people would see it and reject me.

In releasing these beliefs, I feel less of a need to run from my feelings, because they no longer stem from a deep fear of inferiority. And they no longer make me feel powerless. That’s not to say they don’t hurt; it’s just that I now realize I can work through them. Feeling them won’t break me because I no longer feel so broken.