Your suggestions sound great.
For me, I was obsessed with perfection because of the strict, Christian upbringing I had. I never felt good enough in my father's eyes so I worked myself to the bone, achieving every goal in sight and trying to achieve physical perfection as well. I stopped recognizing that I was tired, hungry or had any physical signs of needing to slow down. I walked around with pneumonia for 2 weeks because I was too busy achieving goals to slow down.
I had in my mind I had to be perfect in everything and finally I would get the approval from my father that I needed. Unfortunately, this attitude transferred to the men I chose to date. When the relationship would end, I thought that I wasn't good enough for them only to find out later that they were totally intimidated by me...my achievements and success.
The anorexia is only a symptom of the problem. The problem is control and not feeling good enough. The pressures of a college female are immense...the studying, not wanting to disappoint parents, and especially the pressures from other females in college to be perfect, just makes a girl go into a tailspin of being DRIVEN.
Although I didn't get counseling at the time, that is really what I needed. It took me until age 37 to really find out everything behind my "drive for perfection" and be "okay with who I am...flaws and all"....
THANKS TONS FOR YOUR AFFIRMATION. You bring tears to my eyes with your kind words.
I felt so, thought so and have counseled so. But there's nothing like 'the horse's mouth' . . . very so to speak!!!
MAY GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU AND YOUR CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS THIS CHRISTmas AND THE NEW YEAR . . . with God's best intimacy, provision, safety, fulfillment, joy.