I always think of having an eating disorder kind of like being an alcoholic. You might be sober for 20 years, but you're still an alcoholic. I might eat "normally" for years, then find myself puking over the fence when I take the dogs out after dinner. So it's not that we can't return to normal function, but we always have to stay mindful. I know for me that being even slightly hypogycemic makes me extremely irrational. And the first place my head goes when it's being irrational is right back into ED behavior.