It’s been an exciting week here at the BED Post blog! I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of a new book, Eating Disorders Don’t Discriminate, at YouTube’s London headquarters, and to meet some amazing people who have inspired me over the years.
Going in, I had no idea what to expect. I haven’t been to an event this upscale in decades. People I have been a fan of for ages were going to be there. Plus, long time readers of this blog will know I have a slightly chequered past with some members of the eating disorder community due to my my views on weight bias. I was understandably a little (who am I kidding? very) nervous.
So imagine my joy on entering a room filled with a truly diverse range of people! A wide range of people, both those with lived experience and professionals. Imagine my joy at hearing Dr Chuks explaining how he’d listed eating disorders in order of prevalence, meaning that Binge Eating Disorder wasn’t just a footnote at the end. Imagine the hope that this inspired in me, that one day the discussion around eating disorders will include every person with every eating disorder. That each and every one will feel validated and heard!
And hope is sorely needed. With so much talk around the exponential rise in eating disorders. With trusts across the country discussing the horrifying prospect of palliative care. With decreasing funding for treatment, and continued lack of funding into research. If you just looked to the mainstream media for information, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no hope at all for people diagnosed with eating disorders.
Yet on Wednesday evening, I saw so many reasons to hope. I met strong, resilient, and caring people who have not only recovered from an eating disorder themselves, but then gone on to help countless others. I met people trying to make the world a better place through education, by raising awareness, supporting people through recovery, shaping policy, trialling new treatments, and undertaking research.
I was reminded that people recover from their eating disorders every single day. Quietly, with no fuss or fanfare. They go on to live fulfilling, happy lives. They never hit the headlines. Let’s face it, most of them wouldn’t want to anyway. Recovery is the reward.
The thing is, hope doesn’t make good headlines. It doesn’t sell newspapers. We appear to be living in increasingly oppositional times. A world of economic recession, polarised politics, the erosion of human rights, war, genocide, plague. A world coming to terms with the collective trauma of a global pandemic. It’s overwhelming, heart-breaking, and can leave people feeling powerless. How can we hold on to hope with all the suffering around us?
But it’s at those darkest times that we need hope the most. Because hope can give us the strength we need to fight, to keep going. On a larger scale, for those of us with the privilege to do so, hope is contributing to resistance, marches, and boycotts.
On an individual scale, hope can make the difference between living and merely existing. It can certainly make a difference in eating disorder recovery, during times of relapse, and on those difficult days when negative thoughts and urges get so loud you want to scream.
When I was in treatment, I couldn’t find any lived experience stories out there. Not ones I could relate to. Not ones of recovery from Binge Eating Disorder. I had no concept of what recovery would look like. I couldn’t imagine who I would be without an eating disorder; after 30 years it was such an integral part of me. Some days, blind hope was all I had to get me through the difficult times as I tried to untangle myself from my illness. But now, increasingly, if you take the time to look, there are so many stories of hope, of breakthroughs, of recovery, and of life beyond recovery. And their importance cannot be underestimated.
And if you’re struggling to find them, I’d like to suggest a few resources written by some of the people I was incredibly lucky to meet in person this week, and whose words and work inspired this post:
Cara’s Corner – an eating disorder recovery and mental health blog (caras-corner.com) by Cara Lisette. Although Cara’s experience is of anorexia, much of her writing is relevant to all eating disorders.
Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe. This book was my personal introduction to body positivity and had a genuine impact on my recovery journey.
Eating Disorders: The Basics by Elizabeth McNaught, Janet Treasure and Jess Griffiths. The book as a whole is an introduction to eating disorders and treatment, but includes contributions from multiple people with lived experience. In particular, the final chapter, Letters of Hope.
And of course, the book that got all those amazing people in one (very warm) room in central London:
Eating Disorders Don’t Discriminate: Stories of Illness, Hope and Recovery from Diverse Voices by Dr Chukwuemeka Nwuba, Bailey Spinn, et al.
Disclaimer: the book links used are Amazon affiliate links. Buying via these links will not cost you anything, but will provide me with a much-needed source of income. If you prefer not to use them, or to buy from other booksellers, of course that’s absolutely fine.
I provided a voluntary contribution to Eating Disorders: The Basics. I will not profit from sales of the book beyond use of the affiliate link.