A qualitative study of the subjective experience of being anorexic to recovery

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe from the patients’ perspective the experience of suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN) to achieving recovery. Four young women between 18 to 24 years old were recruited based on specific criteria and, subsequently interviewed following a semi-structured interview schedule. The data generated from the analysis of the participants’ narration were both contextualized and co-constructed between the participants and researcher. Feelings, thoughts and behaviors, as well as relationships, activities, and maturational processes were identified and analyzed throughout Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), to generate a typology of themes and subthemes for each interviewee. The following super ordinate themes emerged from the data analysis: living with AN, dealing with AN, and living without AN. Overall, most of the young women referred to their journey, from AN to recovery, as an extremely slow, painful and meaningful experience. All four women succeeded through therapy, to discover and gain strength and a better understanding of themselves and others.