Eating disorders kill. Eating disorders are a public health crisis. Considered the deadliest mental illness, an estimated 30 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives.
Content note: Potentially triggering language and descriptions of eating disordered behaviors
As a person who struggled with an eating disorder and a co-occurring substance abuse problem, I spent nearly a decade lying.
I lied about how much I was eating, I lied about how often I was eating, and I lied about what I was doing after I was eating.
I lied about how much I was drinking, I lied about how often I was drinking, and I lied about my ability to stop once I started drinking.
I started research about job descriptions, work environments, and eating disorders after one friend asked for my opinion about a job position she was interested in applying for. She wrote: “If you were an employer looking for A+ candidates, would you say, after looking at my resume, that I was a perfect fit?” I knew my friend didn’t usually use a superlative like “perfect,” which made me curious and I simply assumed that as an active job seeker, she must have picked it from job descriptions.
Happy Mean Girls Day! Is there anyone among us who hasn’t seen this teen comedy at least three times? Sure, the flick was chock-full of snark, but it also taught us important life lessons that had nothing to do with wearing pink on Wednesdays. Below, check out five life lessons we learned from Regina, Cady, and friends.
This week marks the annual Mental Illness Awareness Week. During this week, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and its supporters dedicate themselves to spreading awareness and understanding of mental illness across the country through support, education, and advocacy.
Eating disorders are the deadliest mental illness, so taking a week to highlight the importance of mental illness awareness is necessary and vital. In honor of this week, here are some reasons why talking about mental illness is so important:
“Dear Melody” is an advice column by Dr. Melody Moore, a clinical psychologist, yoga instructor, and the founder of the Embody Love Movement Foundation. Her foundation is a non-profit whose mission is to empower girls and women to celebrate their inner beauty, commit to kindness, and contribute to meaningful change in the world. Dr. Moore is a social entrepreneur who trains facilitators on how to teach programs to prevent negative body image and remind girls and women of their inherent worth.
I think about where I am in starting The Cashmere Foundation, an organization that brings spa experiences into hospitals, one year in. And honestly, I compare it so much to where I was one year in my recovery. It was 11 years ago when I was 18. I had just reached my goal weight and was getting ready to move to New York. I was this new person, the person I was meant to be, someone who would continue to evolve, but the foundation was there.
I came from a dysfunctional family. My mom was a prescription drug addict, an alcoholic, and sick all of the time. She was also a compulsive overeater. My father was a very violent man. When I was just a little five-year-old, I witnessed his violence in a really traumatic incident. After this event, I can consciously remember the start of my eating disorder when I was a child. Throughout my early life and into adulthood, I had issues with food.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and for anyone who has been impacted by an eating disorder, the awareness and prevention of suicide is necessary and essential. If you have been struggling with the overwhelmingly devastating thoughts that rob you of freedom and of presence in your life, you aren’t alone.
For me, recovery meant choosing to walk away. Recovery meant letting go of the things I wish I had had in the past: support, understanding, and nurturing.
