Dating in Recovery: On Vulnerability, Diet Culture in Relationships, and Finding Someone Who Can Handle the Hard Stuff (Bonus Episode)

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Abbie answers a listener question about one of the most complicated intersections: dating (relationships) and diet culture — especially when you're carrying a history of body shame, disordered eating, and the ongoing, nonlinear work of recovery.

Elizabeth, a listener in her early 30s, writes in about the men she keeps encountering on the apps — the gym-obsessed ones, the salad-only ones — and asks a question that cuts to the heart of it: is this my gut, or is this fear?

What you'll hear:

*Why "too sensitive" isn't a useful frame — and what to ask instead

*Safety and self-worth as the foundation of dating in recovery

*Learning to trust your intuition when diet culture has distorted it

*When to share your mental health history (and when you don't have to)

*The difference between a trigger and something to work through

*Revisiting your dating app parameters — and the biases built into them

*Abbie's own experience navigating ED recovery while dating

Then Jeb, Abbie's husband, joins for an unplanned conversation about what it was actually like when they met — both carrying things they weren't sure how to share.