Eating Disorder Awareness Week

I've been deliberating whether or not to make this post for a while now and as today marks the beginning of Eating Disorder Awareness Week I thought this would be the perfect time to do so.

For about a year and a half now I have been struggling with anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is an eating disorder which involves restricting your food intake in order to lose weight and can also include over exercising, binge eating, purging and laxative abuse. There are two types sub-types of anorexia nervosa: restrictive and binge eating/purging. For almost a year now I have been seeking help in recovering from the restrictive sub-type and have made some good progress over these past few months.

I'm not making this post to share my story with you, but if that's something you would be interested in hearing about then feel free to let me know and I may write a separate post on it. Instead I am making this post in order to raise awareness of this mental illness. There is still a huge amount of stigma and stereotypes associated with eating disorders and I want to help in challenging these and inform you of the harsh reality of what it is like living with this illness.

The first thing I want to emphasise is that having an eating disorder is not a choice. There are still people out there that believe it is. It isn't. Many people believe that being anorexic is simple about losing weight and wanting to be "skinny." The truth is that the weight loss is actually only a side effect of the disorder. There are even some individuals that are anorexic but are actually of a healthy weight and BMI. Anorexia is first and foremost a mental illness. It is often an individual's way of coping with a traumatic experience. It gives them a sense of control in a life where they may feel they have no control at all. There are a number of different factors that can influence the development of an eating disorder including both biological and social factors and it can be different for everyone.

The first initial symptom of an eating disorder is weight loss. The individual will purposely restrict their food intake and may cut out complete food groups from their diet such as carbohydrates. Due to this restriction their body will go into starvation mode. I'm not going to go into the details of starvation but you can click HERE if you would like to read more about it and what it actually means. One of the side effects of starvation is an obsession with food. I am not emphasising in the slightest when I say that you think of food 24/7. You can find yourself preparing food for others, looking at pictures of food or recipes and even buying and hoarding food. I find it ironic that the thing we fear the most is the thing we obsess over.

Another thing I want to pull to your attention is the glamorisation or romanticising of eating disorders. It disgusts me when people do this. There is nothing glamours about a skeletal figure, hair loss, making yourself throw up or being fed through a tube. Eating disorders are not something to promote and speak positively of. If I could ban every pro-ana site then I would. An eating disorder will take over your life in ways you never thought possible. It takes away your energy, your interests, your personality and all the little things that make you you. It effects your relationships with family, friends and partners. Living with an eating disorder isn't living at all. It is simply existing.

For being the mental illness with the highest morality rate there really isn't enough awareness raised about it. I hope that this post has given you a little more insight into the reality of the disorder and that you too can help get rid of the stigma and stereotypes that continue to surround it.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask or if you'd like to read up a bit more on eating disorders you can visit the Beat website HERE.

Until next time,
Elijah xo

Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr