Oct 6, 2026 · 59 min
Paige Kelly reframes recovery as nervous-system work
I Fasted For Eight Years. I've Done My Time.
The conversation shows how eating-disorder recovery can involve trauma, body awareness, relationships, and individualized strategies rather than food alone.
- 1Nervous-system education and curiosity can reveal what compulsive behaviors are trying to regulate.
- 2Recovery may require changing relationships, routines, environments, and identity alongside eating patterns.
- 3Small acts of appreciation and realistic milestones can rebuild body trust, hope, and a future after trauma.
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Kelly explains how completing the Ironman and starting a new job helped prove that recovery was creating a durable future.
The brief
Paige Kelly describes anorexia as an adolescent escape shaped by ballet, limited coping tools, and treatment that did not teach nervous-system awareness.
The conversation treats food and fasting as possible regulation strategies, arguing that recovery must account for trauma history rather than follow universal health rules.
Kelly traces recovery into running and triathlon, while explaining how an abusive marriage revived eating-disorder thoughts as signals that something needed attention.
She links eating disorders, substance use, anxiety, depression, and PTSD through automatic thoughts and emotional regulation, without reducing them to a single cause.
Her practical framework is deliberately small: notice the body, question every “should,” use nature, set boundaries, and build a future through credible milestones.