From Michele: This story is from someone whom I know personally. He’s someone that went through inpatient with me, and let’s just say, ten years later and we still talk today. With that being said, if you had met him in the street now, I bet you wouldn’t even imagine what he had dealt with back then. So long and behold, here’s his story of dealing with an eating disorder.
My eating disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and body dysmorphia started around age 17, which stemmed from dealing with verbal and physical abuse from my father. My father used to come home late after a stressful day at work and would displace his anger out on our family.
I felt like the eating disorder was a way for me to control or cope with the abuse.
However things just got worse from there, from dealing with severe depression, and seeing my brother continuously having seizures from drug overdoses, made me mentally and physically crash.
After many years of relapsing and ending up in the hospital for my disorders, I eventually learned how to control and release my stress in a healthy way; which was by lifting weights and trying to build my body back up, so that I would never feel weak mentally or physically again. I went back to college and continued my pre-medical career, and began pushing myself mentally to succeed.
After graduating with top honors; I realized that I finally felt strong mentally and physically, and I never allowed myself to feel vulnerable again.
~Anonymous
