Our RIGHTS as Humans

  Many people with eating disorders struggle with low self-worth.  Often, people express that they don't feel like they "deserve" help.  It is important to remember that we are ALL worthy simply because we are human. 

I have the right to...

1. Experience all of my emotions including joy, fear, sadness, confusion, hope, pride, happiness, shame, guilt, loneliness, excitement, and so on.
2. Give and receive unconditional love.
3. Decide what I like and do not like.   
4. Develop and grow at my own pace. 
5. Give others the responsibility for their own beliefs, decisions, feelings and thoughts.
   
6. Nurture, love and value myself. 
7. Express my feelings to others if and when I choose to.
8. Say "yes," "no," "I can't," "I don't want to," and "I don't know."
9. Choose my own friends and acquaintances.
10. Make my own mistakes.
11. Choose how to tell others how their actions are affecting me.
12. Earn and maintain self-respect and pride.
13. Ask for help and accept it. 
14. Seek situations, environments and relationships that I feel are healthy and nurturing for me.
15. Be spontaneous, play and have fun.
16. Enjoy my achievements without guilt.
17. Act to fulfill my own wants and needs rather than demand them from others.
18. Take time to rest, reflect and relax.
19. Choose whom I will trust and with what.
20. Choose my own goals for my life and pursue them.
21. Take the time I need to make important decisions.
22. Care for my body with respect.
23. Choose my own limits and express them to others.
24. Distinguish between who others say I am and who I really am.
25. Be heard and understood.   
26. Tell others what I expect from them.
27. Choose how to fulfill my spiritual needs.
28. Replace unhealthy beliefs with healthy ones.
29. Listen to and honor my "inner voice" with respect.
30. Have my physical, emotional and spiritual boundaries respected by others.
31. Decide if, when, and how to forgive myself and others.
32. Work respectfully to change situations that I feel are unjust or harmful to me.
33. Create and live by my own value system.
34. Change my mind.
35. Determine and honor my own priorities.
36. Terminate relationships with people who put me down.
37. Be angry with others, including those I love.
38. Be uniquely me.  
39. Make myself my first priority.
40. Grieve over actual or threatened losses.
41. Celebrate my sexuality.
42. Love my body.
43. Be taken seriously.
44. Ask for more information when I do not understand.
45. Protect myself in a responsible manner.
46. Exercise my creative abilities.  
47. Explore my passions. 
48. Accomodate others without losing my own identity.