In the Beginning - Newly Diagnosed?

Let me first start off by saying that one of the hardest steps has already been done – seeking specialised professional help takes a massive amount of effort, regardless of whether you wanted the help or not. You now know that there is something a bit wrong in your thinking, that you are not alone, and that there is help available – you are not broken, you have support, and recovery can happen for you.

Walking through the doors of Princess Margaret Hospital’s Eating Disorder Service was such a strange feeling and experience – I was still in a phase of denial that I had a serious problem and thought that the initial assessment I was about to be given would we a complete waste of time. After all, I ate food – so didn’t that mean I didn’t have an eating disorder? This way of thinking really highlights the lack of true information is around about mental illness to the common public – the amount of detail and true facts that I know now is drastically different to what people who have never encountered mental illness think of. The initial assessment lasted over three hours which included a complete physical assessment by a nurse including a heart recording, bloods taken, countless numbers of questionnaires on all things eating, weight, shape, food, mood, and thoughts, and also an extensive 1-hour consult with a psychologist that explores all aspects of my life beginning at early childhood/primary school. Safe to say you are absolutely buggered after it all – mentally and physically.

It can be a lot to digest, you can get some pretty heavy and heart-breaking news – your body may be physically struggling, you may be told your disorder is quite severe, and you are confronted with issues of your past and present and the resulting impact this has had on your life to date. One thing that I found, after being told that I had anorexia nervosa, and was in a rather critical stage of my illness – was that there was little information available to me. I didn’t know what to read, where to go for advice (beyond my family and therapist), who to talk to, what to expect… my mind was filled with questions that remained unanswered until I found them out for myself the hard way.

There are things that I wish I knew, or had access to, when I first started recovery – I believe that this would have cut off a fair few months that I spent suffering further with my illness that I could have. SO, to save any those of you who are new to the recovery and mental illness family – I say an unfortunate welcome, it’s a club no one wants to be a part of but I am glad that you are hear and reading this. It shows that you have given the idea of recovery and thought and I hope you think it is possible for you, too. I have created 5 helpful tips and a few resources for you that will hopefully answer some of your questions that you may have.

Top 5 Tips:

1. Don’t know where to begin with your food intake? Try getting in 3 meals and 3 snack each day. If snacking is something new – start off with combing fruit or vege with something like hummus, peanut butter, dip, choc spread, yogurt… you get the idea. Mix something you can handle with something that packs a bit more of an energy boost for your bod

2. Put the breaks on your life if you can – recovery needs your full energy, attention and focus especially in the beginning stages. This may mean dropping some school subjects or university papers, taking a semester or some time off your studies, reducing your days or hours where you work, stopping any exercise regimes or sports you do (or at the very least heavily reducing these)

3. Your parents and/or partner are just as overwhelmed as you will be. An eating disorder effects not only the sufferer, but their wider family and friends. There will be some tension and high emotions coming your way as you begin to navigate what recovery looks like for you and what you need in order for your recovery to be successful. Be patient, be kind, be forgiving – the high of emotions can result in some things being said in the heat of the moment and not intended; we all do this sometimes, so try to keep things in perspective

4. Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed about what you are going through – there should be no guilt or shame involved with having an eating disorder. You will need people, other than your therapist/doctor and family to talk to – let some people in and try not to cut others off

5. Try to think of things in the shorter-term, as thinking about the “end goals” can be very overwhelming and off-putting at the start – as if you are staring up at Mt Cook and have just been told you need to climb it. By breaking the mountain down into smaller climbs, your motivation is more long-lasting, you get into a groove of things and things start to get easier.

Now, here’s a few different sources of information if you are feeling absolutely overwhelmed about what an eating disorder means for you and your life:

• Into videos and films?? Check out Jen Bretty and Rebecca Leung on YouTube – while they both do What I eat in a day videos, she incorporates some damn good advice into them. A movie I highly recommend is Embrace – an Australian documentary by Taryn Brumfitt

• Love a podcast? Check out both Tabitha Farrar’s and Dr Janean Anderson’s The Eating Disorder Podcast’s

• A bit keen on the old cellphone? If you haven’t already – delete MyFitnessPal or any food counting apps, uninstall those weight trackers, put a halt to counting your steps, and unfollow/unsubscribe/unlike any of those fitspo/thinspo or any negative accounts you can – believe me, we don’t need that shit in our lives. Some more positive people and pages to follow instead: @bodiposipanda, @voicesofhope, @forkingyum, @storyofkorey, @bodyimagemovement; and some better apps to have on your phone: My Affirmations (a positive affirmationapp that sends notifications of positive and motivating quotes), Forest (an app that rewards you for not touching your phone for x amount of time by allowing you to build a wee forest of trees if you successfully avoid using your phone), Podcast Player (for being able to listen to some chats and yarns instead of the radio)

• Love to read? You are in the perfect place! Take a look at some of my previous posts, and head over to my Instagram page, @rawingmeg, for more tips and advice! I also recommend the autobiography Always too much and never enough by Jasmin Singer

• Here seeking information for a loved one recently diagnosed, or is showing symptoms? Head over to Around the Dinner Table’s forum – a global community of parents/partners/friends of those with eating disorders (link: https://www.aroundthedinnertable.org/?forum=136439#gsc.tab=0)

There you have it! A quick run-through of information for those newly-diagnosed. Take a breath; have faith; and begin taking those baby steps – I am here with you every step of the way.

Your friend,

Rawing Meg

xx