Strong Enough...

Eating disorders are estimated to affect approximately 9% of the Australian population. (National Eating Disorders Collaboration) 

To put it a bit more bluntly, 9% of 23.510 million is approximately 212319 people, that is how many is estimated to have an eating disorder in Australia. 

Now lets put this up against say breast cancer, as eating disorders are more prevalent in females.It is estimated that in 2015, 15,600 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer (bcna.org.au)

I was one of those 212319 people, I had an eating disorder for 30 years, and as I have posted before, am in recovery and only looking forward to a better and healthier life for myself and my family. My concern now is how can I make a difference with my experiences and hope to hell many other girls and boys don't have to see that anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders is an option to go to for their body image, or coping from life's stressors.  I have read recently that there is treatment for those diagnosed with eating disorders in private and public hospitals, but my question is how effective is the treatment? I understand the necessity for nasogastric tube feeding, I understand the need for medicating patients with anti-depressants, I wonder how many girls and boys are in treatment and not getting to the bottom of "why".

This is my goal. I was lucky I guess with my eating disorder, as I had had it for such a long time and only really came to terms with it a few years ago, I was old enough to know that as much as ED had a hold on me, I needed to get healthy and the need to know why I was letting ED hold me so tightly. I had a way of releasing my frustrations when they arose. I would get a piece of paper, and put a word in the middle (Hayley) and put a box around it, then I would have lines with other boxed that had descriptive words in them that would be how I was feeling at the time, or what was making me angry, frustrated and more. I would take these diagrams to my dietitian and psychologist and we would discuss them. It was good, as I was able to put these emotions on paper and allow myself to feel them.

Feeling emotions was something that didn't set comfortably with me, as I was ridiculed for it as a child by my mother. So in time and taking the effort and being supported I was able to understand and remember I was only human and was allowed to feel these emotions and voice them if I wanted to in the right circumstances.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I would love the opportunity to help prevent the high number of statistics of eating disorders, and they start young, and also be a mentor and support for those who are going through recovery. I was someone who didn't have a support group of others going through the same thing. My support system was my GP, Psychologist, Dietitian, Family (Husband and Kids), also my Boss and work colleague. I know there is a 20 week out patient course that can be done here in Perth, but what is after that, do people in recovery have someone they can continue to have contact with? or is it then on your own?

So I step forward with this goal, dream and hope to be able to help others to see an eating disorder is not the way, and there are healthy options to reach a healthier body image, or understand why you feel the need to take that risk of needing to control your eating so much. I look forward to learning myself from others.

Have a great week...

Hayley xx