116: David & Krista Dunham | Eating Disorder Recovery

David and Krista Dunham join me to discuss eating disorder recovery and their journey through Krista's eating disorder that is chronicled in their book, Table for Two: Biblical Counsel for Eating Disorders.

Questions Discussed with David & Krista:

1. (3:27) Krista, you wrote, "As a Christian, it frustrated me that knowing, loving, and following God hadn't completely protected me from succumbing to an eating disorder." Take us back to when you first began to struggle with addictive food behaviors.  Share a bit of that journey with us and the struggle that ensued for the next 10 years.
2. (6:50) David, what was your experience, as Krista's husband, in those early years of her eating disorder?
3. (9:31) As we discuss eating disorders, will you share how they parallel addictive habits?
4. (12:27) Krista, you write about the importance of the sufferers' readiness to change. How would you describe your process of readiness?
5. .....

Quotes from Eating Disorder Recovery Episode:

K: "[T]here was a point that I discovered it [eating disorder] had more of a hold on me than I had on it."

K: "I really thought that knowing God, knowing everything I'd learned growing up was going to protect me from something that terrible. I think I had been naive to think people who struggled, just didn't have the right kind of faith and it really opened my eyes to to something different and even open my eyes to the fact that I thought good morals were the same as being obedient to God."

D: "When she first divulged this problem, I immediately wanted to be helpful. I was concerned. I cared. But the longer it stretched on, the less confident I felt and the more frustrated I got."

D: "That seems to describe a lot of people's experience with eating disorders. What gives them pleasure also causes them to feel trapped and trapped, particularly in cycles of shame."

D: "I think as a helper, it's important...to be able to say to the sufferer, 'This isn't square one, you're not starting all the way over. You're just having a difficult road at the moment.' Try to keep the focus on moving forward versus feeling like I've started all the way back to the beginning."

K: "I think what really changed for me was just realizing that there's this slow, steady obedience to getting better and not figuring something out and moving on from it [quickly]."

D: "Peter talks about casting your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. He's able to be in control, but not just, He's in control, He also loves us. So it's better to put control in His hands than to try to hold on to it in our own."

SHOW NOTES cont.

Related Episodes:

• 114: Heather Creekmore | Body Image
• 111: Sharon Betters & Susan Hunt | Aging with Grace 

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