[Jane102]

I don't suffer from an eating disorder however I get very depressed and suicidal. These feelings led me to have to be in a psychiatric ward.

When I first went in, there was a girl called Julie. Julie is 17. She was the most stunning girl I had ever seen, she was in there for anorexia. I admit I felt intimidated by her looks but she was so friendly to me and we soon clicked and became a very close friend of mine.

Soon Julie got discharged and another girl called Ellen came in. Ellen brought life to such a sad place, she is the funniest girl I know. Everyone loved her. Her ED was very severe. We always ate together, Ellen would constantly be crying at the table and trying to run out of the room so they had to lock the doors. Ellen is only 12 but has been dealing with her ED since she was 9.

Next came Lauren. Lauren I got on best with. We had so much common interests and became fast friends.

I guess my point is, well you're beautiful. Inside and out. It honestly scares me to think that those 3 people I mentioned couldn't see how amazing they were. If you decide to skip dinner to lose 'just one more pound', please hunny, you're beautiful, inside and out. I must admit before I was in hospital, I took the medias view of EDs being kind of glamourous. But now, my opinion had changed so much. They are so difficult and complicated, so many factors can contribute to it, not just what the media points out of body image, for some people it's simply that food makes you feel sick. EDs are a hard road to recovery and I'd just like to say I respect you so much, I watched one person recover to a point where she could be safely discharged and the other two work on their EDs. But, my god, it is not easy. It's like a battle against yourself. A battle to do something that other people just take for granted.

So please, keep going, you can do it and YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL, INSIDE AND OUT.

I really hope I improved your day.

[utterlyconfused]

Ohh my god. You don't even know how much I needed to hear these words. Thank you so much.

[Jane102]

Originally Posted by utterlyconfused

Ohh my god. You don't even know how much I needed to hear these words. Thank you so much.

It makes me so happy to hear that. You're more than welcome

[Fuzzybear]

[eskielover]

They are so difficult and complicated, so many factors can contribute to it, not just what the media points out of body image, for some people it's simply that food makes you feel sick.

And for many there are serious trauma's that they went through some time before the ED ever started......then stressors continue to trigger throughout one's life.

It's so difficult because for each person who has an ED....there in reality are different reasons & causes for it......that angered me more than anything when I was in treatment for anorexia was that they tried to fit everyone into the same box.......where at that time.....loss of engineering career, a bad marriage of 25 years (I didn't realize was part of the cause at the time), stress, depression & Prozac started it along with a major desire to die & thinking that it would be easier on my family if it was the ED that ended my life than any other option......all that went into not being able to eat without feeling sick.

Childhood abuse is a major cause for all ED's.......but if they don't treat the cause, they can never cure the symptom, it just turnes into some other coping mechanism that is just as unhealthy.