One year ago, my life revolved around food & exercise. This was my eating disorder.
As a psychology major, I have learned in my classes the probabilities for relapse. Nonetheless, today in lecture, a guest speaker explained her role in eating disorder treatment facilities & the notion of “self-concept” came up.
Perhaps you know and/ or are a person who has battled an illness. Perhaps you know the discipline it takes to heal from something like an eating disorder or other logistics.
Regardless, I was shocked when I realized that for the first time in about 5 years, I haven’t gone for a 10-mile run within the past week, I don’t know what I weigh or what my BMI is.
But, my self-concept no longer is solely these numerical “achievements”. I admit that at least three times a week, I hear the body shaming & see what I interpret as disordered eating patterns.
It feels so good to think of myself as someone who writes, a future doctor, a diligent student, a lifelong learner, a future wife, a friend, a volunteer, & someone that is not reliant on a particular diet or exercise routine for my own person.
While this is a brief account of my narrative, I share this, because, there are ways out of the disordered life. AN, MIA, ED, whatever it’s named, you should know that you are 1 in 7.5 Billion in this world & that is more rare than 1 in a million.