I just peeled an orange and ate it. Bright orange, citrus smell, juicy, pulling the sections apart and popping one at a time in my mouth and savoring the fleeting fresh flavor. It was a thoroughly enjoyable moment. It isn’t that simple for everyone.
Life is often defined by measurements. Our age, income, hours we spend working/sleeping/watching TV - the list could go on and on. These external measurements become the way we define success. And in sport, being defined by a specific measurement becomes even more evident. In the end, it seems that measurements define an entire career.
My name is Kally Fayhee and from the age of 12, my life was been defined by one thing - swimming. Now, as a 23 year old, I’m learning to define my life by something other than the measurements we use every day to define success.
The Marginalized Voices Project is a collaboration between the National Eating Disorders Association and feminist activist and editor of Everyday Feminism, Melissa A. Fabello. Together, we put out a call for stories that focus on underrepresented experiences and communities in order to create a platform for people to share what it means to suffer (and recover) from an eating disorder.
NEDA has long been involved in supporting patients with a range of eating disorders. However, one area that has received less attention in the past is Binge Eating Disorder (B.E.D.). B.E.D. affects an estimated 2.8 million US adults, based on a national survey, and is more prevalent than anorexia and bulimia combined. [1,2] *
In honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, NEDA will be joining with eating disorder organizations around the world to raise awareness and funds through the ‘Sock It to Eating Disorders’ campaign. Inspired by an international support network with Joan Riederer, the idea emerged among her many friends in honor of Joan’s daughter Erin who lost her life to anorexia.
“Being a research subject may sound scary, or evoke images of being treated like a human guinea pig, but it’s nothing like that at all.” (Marty)
While delegates to the 2010 International Conference on Eating Disorders in Salzburg were engrossed in discussing the conference theme of “Moving Forward Through Transdisciplinary Solutions”, news came of a young woman’s death from the effects of Anorexia Nervosa.
The death of this young woman, Erin Riederer, has given rise to a symbol of hope in the fight against eating disorders.
The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures
sent from a distant party—but they say nothing
and if we do not use the gifts they bring
they carry them as silently away.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
After a busy holiday season of cooking, eating and football at my in-laws, I spent ten minutes writing about my victories/successes of the past year. I felt ecstatic to pause and look at my accomplishments, a topic that certainly never came up during the holiday. The write was a way of reclaiming a me deeper than the one laughing with family at the dinner table. I like the me who joins in the laughter and I love the family and their good spirits, but I also need to keep in touch with that truer and more complex me.