Rewarding Reflections

Today, I was honored to speak at a Family Day event at a local Eating Disorder Treatment Center. I wasn’t quite sure what to fully expect on my first speaking event. I was very excited and nervous at the same time.

During my session, I was able to share with mothers, fathers, siblings, and significant others my story. With a few tears and some deep breathing, I was able to communicate to the group my feelings and struggling through the illness and through recovery. Their eyes and nodding let me know they knew what I was going through, to some extent, and that they saw a piece of me in their loved one now.

It gave me great pleasure to demonstrate to these families that it is not all dark and grey for those battling through eating disorders. With persistence, support, love and trust recovery is possible and I’m proof. I felt hope in the room from the families trying to understand, trying to find ways to support their loved one.

I heard from a few of the parents that I reminded them of their daughter. And that alone gave me hope for their cases. The families were giving their time to educate themselves and find ways to work together in treatment with their loved one.

The family day presence and focus on treatment and finding recovery, made realize how far treatment centers have come over the last 15 years. It gave me hope for those suffering today. It showed me there are more powerful resources, studies and centers that are dedicated to helping recoveries happen.  And for myself, today was an opportunity to recognize how far I’ve come.

Today was so amazing in so many ways, truly rewarding for me to hear from those parents and loved ones. I was so happy to share and will continue to look for more ways to help this community in any way that I can.