ED's 101

So today I was flipping through an LDS Living magazine and guess what I came across...?... an article on Eating Disorders. I love it when that happens because it means the word is getting out against Eating Disorders. Its such a GIANT problem that gets little attention. People need to know that there are more people struggling with the exact same thing they are struggling with and that some of us have overcome it and found LIFE again and that there is HOPE for full and complete recovery! I remember before I went to treatment. I thought I was literally crazy, I didn't know what was wrong with me and I couldn't understand why I was thinking and doing certain things. In my book I was NUTS. Then when I got to treatment I met a bunch of girls that were thinking and doing the same things I was. It wasn't me! It was the disease! If all these girls who I had come to love were struggling with the same things I was, then I couldn't be all that bad of a person. My big secret that I was absolutely crazy wasn't even true! I wasn't all that evil and once that heavy burden had been lifted off my shoulders I was free to heal. A LOT of people are struggling in secrecy thinking they are that evil crazy person, but if they only knew its the nature of the disease and a lot of people are in the same boat maybe we could all join together and take our lives back. Because we all know a group of people is a LOT stronger than a solo person. Unfortunately Eating Disorders are fueled by Isolation and secrecy. As soon as you realize your ED is one big fat lie (no pun intended:) ED suddenly loses a lot of power. Which is why ED tries to keep you believing that you are crazy and evil and that there is no one like you. But truth is YOU ARE NOT ALONE! This is why we need to get the word out! So we can stop hurting and start healing.

So when I see articles on ED pop up out of no where, like today, it makes me smile and I hope it helps someone realize they are not their ED. ED is a disease; a manipulative, lying, master mind that cons people into believing that they are the one person who can't have happiness and that they need him. He deceives them into believing they are not good enough and that he will make them happy. LIES...so many lies!

Truth is ED's attack the most amazing of people. Did you know... People who develop ED's are usually people pleasing, care taking, perfectionists. The people who don't like to make waves, are peace makers, sensitive, and caring. People with ED's usually have these similar characteristic traits, isn't that interesting? My theory is that Satan refers to ED's as one of his most powerful attacks. Eating Disorders are said to be one of the most difficult addictions to overcome because unlike drugs and alcohol you can't just stay away from it. You have to eat, duh, or that'd be an eating disorder. Food has to be in your life, no matter how many times I wish I could have just forgot about it for a day and stayed away from food, I had to eat. I couldn't just stay abstinent from food, I had to implement it into my life in a whole new way. That makes it really challenging. Imagine if you gave a drug addict their drug of choice and said, you have to have enough but you can't have too much. I know its not completely the same but it feels THAT hard. This is not to say that drugs and other addictions are not absolutely terrible and I hate them just as bad as I hate Eating Disorders because they destroy lives. But generally people are more aware of the negative effects of drugs than they are about the seriousness of eating disorders.

Here's a glimpse of the article I read today entitled: "Eating Disorders: Not Just About the Food"

"When I couldn't handle everything I was given to deal with in life, I turned to anorexia as a support. Because the more out of control things got, the more I had to find something I could control. And that something was food, calories, exercise, my weight. When I was overcome with self-hatred, I turned to purging as a way to try to empty myself of all of myself that disgusted me." - I love that, it explains it so well.

"Eating Disorders are a physical manifestation of an intangible problem."- This is why its unhelpful to re-feed someone but not deal with the deeper issues. It would leave the person feeling worse and on the road to relapse. On the other hand if you deal with the deeper emotional problems food will often begin fixing itself.

"Satan is so jealous of our bodies that he wants us to hate our bodies and to mistreat them, and he uses eating disorders as a way for that to happen" -TRUTH!

"When you have an eating disorder it changes everything, It changes your hormone levels, the biochemistry of the brain, the level of neurotransmitters in the nervous system. It's not just a phase, let's get serious about this illness, they can and do kill people." - DR. B! co-founder of CFC. - thinking of friends from treatment that have since then lost their lives, it really does kill people, people who never thought it would kill them.

"It becomes everything to them" Says Dr. Berrett, "It is their life. In an attempt to improve one's life to a way of coping with life and then to a full-blown addiction."

"It chases the spirit away because it becomes an obsession and it takes up your whole thought processes, you can't have the spirit with you, you can't even let him in. For me, when I was struggling really bad with my Eating Disorder it was a lot easier for me to make other bad decisions" - recovered anorexic

"You can reach the point at which your eating disorder fades- eventually to something you think about but don't act upon, and eventually to something you don't think about at all- until it ceases to exist."