Weekly Update #8: Let's Get Real
Weekly Update #8: Let’s Get Real
Brace yourselves, this isn’t going to be my typical weekly update. Because this is not a typical week (what is a typical week, anyway?).
Today marks the start of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
Monday, February 26th, 2018 is the start to a week completely dedicated to raising eating disorder awareness, spreading hope, building strength, standing together, and reaching for recovery.
This week holds an incredible amount of significance, hope, and potential. This week holds an incredible amount of stories, openness, and connectedness. And this week holds an incredible amount of potential for struggle turning into strength, pain turning into progress, and relapse turning into recovery.
This week is not just for those struggling with an eating disorder, not just for families and friends dealing with a loved one who is struggling with an eating disorder, not just for treatment centers and medical facilities dedicating their time, energy, and patience to treating patients with eating disorders. This week is for everyone. Absolutely everyone. Because absolutely everyone has the capability to make a difference. No matter how big or small that difference may be. You can make a difference. And if we all work together, we can make this week the start of something new. The start of a world without eating disorders.
And this week does not just last one week. This week is a start and has no finish. Because the momentum, the strength, hope, courage, determination, awareness, change, and recovery that begin this week has the power to grow, blossom, and transform the world. A world where we are able to talk about eating disorders without the fear of judgement, betrayal, or exclusion. A world where mental illness no longer holds a stigma and fighting the battle of an eating disorder or any mental illness is seen as an act of courage, not as an act of weakness or abnormality. A world where eating disorders are understood, leading to advanced treatment support and techniques to prevent the lives of countless individuals from being torn apart and even stripped away by the deadly mental illness. A world where we stand up, stand together, and create a change in our society to stop the increasing prevalence of eating disorders starting at younger and younger ages. A world where we promote recovery. And support each and every individual as they journey towards recovery. One hundred percent, beautiful, free recovery.
This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. And I plan to make the absolute most of it. Are you willing to join me?
The dedication of this week to eating disorders is an international effort, and within the United States, there is one organization in particular that plays a major role in the success of this week and the success of eating disorder support and outreach year-round. This organization is the National Eating Disorder Association, and I am a huge supporter of their vision, work, and resources, dedicated fully to the ultimate goal: a world without eating disorders. I have participated in several NEDA walks over the years, my most recent walk being this past Fall, and I have continually been impressed with the amount of dedication and willpower that NEDA dedicates to the fight against eating disorders. I strongly encourage you to check out their website at https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org and explore the various resources that are available, from 24 hour helplines to screening tools to countless resources for learning about eating disorders. We must use our resources if we wish to see a change. And NEDA is the best place to start.
This year’s awareness week holds a special theme. A theme that can be summed up in three words: Let’s Get Real. When I first saw these three words whiel preparing for this upcoming week, popping out at me in white, bold letters on the NEDA website, I felt as if they were speaking right to me. With my whole initiative this year to start a blog in which I am completely real about my struggle with an eating disorder and my everything-but-linear journey towards recovery, I couldn’t have been happier to see that my efforts to be real and speak up fit right in with the designated goal of the year’s NEDAwareness week. Being real is being vulnerable. Being real is being strong. And being real has the potential to change the world.
So let’s get real. No more waiting around on the world to change. Let’s get real in making a difference, making a change for a world free of eating disorders.There are so many ways that we can get real. And getting real may mean something different to everyone. But everyone’s real is real. And everyone’s real is supported, valued, and admired. This is my invitation to you to join me in the Let’s Get Real Campaign, starting today, and together, we will start our transformation to a world without eating disorders. Let’s get real in our fight for freedom.
Real starts today. Whether you are struggling with an eating disorder, supporting a loved one who is struggling, or interested in joining the fight against eating disorders, everyone has the capability to be real and fight this fight for freedom. And here are ways you can stand up, hold on tight, and jump into real with me.
Spread the word that this week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Tell a friend, a family member, a co-worker, a teacher, a stranger, and/or anyone that crosses your path.
Ask questions. Seek answers. Knowledge and understanding are the keys to developing a world free from stigmas surrounding mental illness. As always, I am more than willing to answer any questions regarding my own personal struggle and eating disorders in general to bring as much clarity to the disease as possible.
Check out the NEDA website and explore the variety of resources available. Learn, listen to others real stories, and join the fight for freedom.
Seek out a support system if you are struggling. Whether this be opening up to family or friends or contacting treatment programs, I encourage you to take the step towards help that will bring real recovery.
Talk about it. The topic of eating disorders should not be kept silent. Silence and avoidance are how stigmas form. Do not be afraid to engage in conversations about eating disorders. Open communication is critical to erasing stigmas and changing our world’s view of eating disorders.
Pick up a book on eating disorders, a memoir, a guide to recovery, a informational book, and use it as a tool to improve your own recovery, your understanding of eating disorders, and/or your ability to help others who are struggling.
Check in on someone you may be concerned about. Do so in an open, caring, non-critical and gentle approach. Do not blame, criticize, or interrogate, rather offer your support and concern, and most importantly, LISTEN.
Spread positivity and strength. Positive affirmations, positive quotes, words of encouragement, sticky notes with uplifting messages, random acts of kindness. The more we spread self-compassion and strength within our society, the more we fight the degrading messages of the eating disorder.
Embrace body positivity. Engage in positive self talk, especially in regards to your body. Support others struggling with body image issues, helping them counter the negative self talk they battle. Support retail that promotes body positivity, real bodies, and healthiness over photoshop, thinness, and size zero. Use the word beautiful as much as possible. Spread your beauty because you are beautiful.
Turn off the television, silence the radio, close out of the internet, get off social media whenever you hear or see messages and advertisements for dieting, weight loss, extreme thinness, beach bodies, etc. the list unfortunately being endless. Take away your support from a society that values thinness. This is the first step to change.
For those struggling with an eating disorder, be real about your eating disorder. Share your story. To whatever capacity that may be. As little or as much as you want to share. To whoever you are most comfortable sharing with. You are strong and courageous, and by spreading your story, you have the capability of inspiring so many others and helping others struggling with the same disease.
Start your real recovery. Use this week as the foundation for your journey to recovery. What better week to start than a week dedicated fully to eating disorder recovery. Real recovery is possible. Let’s get real and stand together to fight our own eating disorders to fight for a world free from eating disorders.
I encourage you to join me this week in getting real in the fight against eating disorders, in whatever capacity you are capable of. Whether that be picking one of my suggestions above to work on, choosing to engage in as many suggestions as you can, or coming up with your own ways to make this week as pro-recovery as possible. Every action counts. YOUR action counts. We all have the capability to make this the best week possible. A week of real action for real change.
In addition to working on each of the suggestions mentioned above, I will be trying my absolute hardest to post an update each day to how the awareness week is going and what initiatives I am working on each day to make the most of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. I will continue to be as real as possible with my own recovery and my actions to promote the ultimate goal of universal recovery. I will make the most of this week. Whatever that may take.
Let’s get real. This is the week. This is our week to stand up, stand strong, and work together. This is the week to get real and make the change. To make the change for a world free from silence, stereotypes, and stigmas and, ultimately, a world free from eating disorders.
