Your eating disorder isn’t my eating disorder

I receive many comments reminding me that my eating disorder experiences aren’t the experiences of others. And believe me – I understand.

Therein lies the problem for therapists, family and friends, and eating disordered patients themselves, too.

I’ve always been amazed at the variety of stories and “styles” of eating disorders. For instance, one person with bulimia may binge and purge once a day while another bulimic binges and purges many times in a 24 hour period. Those two people suffering from bulimia are going to require different. very personalized techniques to help them become healthy.

For me, anorexia was a lifestyle, but I was never in-patient nor was I properly diagnosed. I didn’t get so skinny that I needed to be fed intravenously… some people never even realized that I was “too thin” (I’m fairly petite and my stature is small to begin with, so that helped me hide.) However, I don’t feel those items make me any “less” of an anorexic. Yet to some, I realize that my case seems quite “mild”.  (I assure you — it wasn’t.  The mental effects of an eating disorder are much more difficult to see than the physical effects.)

My point to this post? It’s only to say that I know we all have different eating disorders, even if they fall under similar “labels”. Regardless, I still believe that we can band together and tackle our issues so we have a brighter tomorrow.