Recovery from eating disorders is not easy but talking is the first step

Gemma Good is writing about another important topic in this week's Good Life column...

Sunday March 3 marked the end of eating disorder awareness week 2024. Fortunately for some, this is the only week you might think of people with eating disorders. For others, it is an ongoing hourly battle each day.

An eating disorder is when a person has an unhealthy attitude towards food, which can involve eating too much, too little and becoming obsessed with your weight and the shape of your body. Eating disorders occur in different forms for everybody, but it can be a mixture of each of the above. Now look, we all might read that and say we have an eating disorder.

There are very few who can honestly say they don’t care what they look like, however it’s when it becomes obsessive, when it consumes your daily thoughts and affects how you go about your day-to-day life, that's when it starts to become a problem.

The most common types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating disorder or other specified feeding or eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa is when the person will either starve themselves and/or over exercise in order to keep their weight as low as possible. Bulimia occurs where one eats a large amount of food over a short period of time and then rids it from their body by making themselves vomit, taking laxatives, overexercising or fasting.

Binge eating disorder is when a person eats excessively until they feel uncomfortably full, an act, which is often followed by guilt.

Each are serious mental health conditions, which should be addressed as soon as possible. The longer you leave it, the harder recovery will be.

Some of the signs and symptoms include spending a lot of time worrying about weight and shape, avoiding social occasions where food will

be involved, not eating enough food, over exercising, mood swings, making yourself sick after you eat and having extremely strict habits and routines when it comes to food.

In July 2023, the Health Research Board (HRB) reported that the number of child and adolescent admissions for eating disorders more than doubled in the previous five years, from 33 in 2018 to 80 in 2022.

I always air caution when looking at figures regarding admissions; eating disorders are by their nature a very secretive condition. A lot of people do not want to seek help and can keep them hidden by avoiding social occasions, which involve food. It is extremely difficult for a person with an eating disorder to present to a GP on their own accord for treatment.

In a lot of cases, certainly in my case, a person with an eating disorder is in complete denial about what is going on in their life. The disorder not only becomes a security blanket but a way of life, letting that go can seem impossible.

Eating disorders affect all ages and all genders. Mine did start in my teenage years but that’s not to say they don’t develop in adulthood. For me, I was a very active child and teenager. Football, horse riding and badminton were my passions, but I just loved being outdoors in

general. For as long as I can remember, I begged my family members to go walking with me. I always loved exercise, so that side of the disorder was hard to notice. However the eating side was obvious to everyone but me.

To this day, my friends and family will be able to tell you more on this than I will, because I thought what I was doing was completely normal. I remember skipping takeaways, fearing that they would lead to too many calories.

I completely cut out food groups from my diet out of genuine fear of eating them. I would only eat certain foods and brought a lunch box everywhere, and sometimes I didn't eat at all. All of this while running kilometres on end once or twice a day.

If you notice I am not being specific, that’s on purpose. I remember in the peak of my eating disorder reading about somebody else's story, then went and did exactly that.

My therapists later told me that you can rarely single out one reason why an eating disorder develops. It is an amalgamation of things. Each of us are probably sick of hearing social media blamed for every negative aspect of society, but it was a massive factor in developing my eating disorder. Comparing myself to others, false information and dangerous diet tips readily available.

To those struggling with an eating disorder or helping somebody through it, all I can recommend is patience and talking. Recovery is not at all easy but telling people how you are feeling and what you are going through makes so much difference.

To those talking, try to be honest. To those listening, reserve any judgement. I remember I often despaired that people just do not understand but as soon as you open yourself and let other people in to help, that’s when recovery is possible.

* Gemma Good is from Killeshandra and a fourth year journalism student in University of Limerick