Today ends NEDA week- or National Eating Disorder Awareness week- something that holds a very significant and important place in my heart. 

I love someone who has an eating disorder.  I love someone who is in recovery. And I have seen the toll eating disorders take on the mind ~body ~soul ~spirit.

I have been the support, and the caregiver of someone with an eating disorder. 

I also love many people who struggle with eating disorders that haven’t been in treatment or refuse to see the gravity of the disease in their lives. They are perpetually unhappy in their body, look for outside affirmation, and restrict food in the name of fitness and fasting. 

They may even read this, and be mad at me…and that’s ok. Because me and eating disorders will never get along. I am an enemy to restrictive eating. I am an enemy to body dysphoric disorder. In fact it hates me. I see through its lies and its constant jabs and call it like it is…

Abusive, cruel, and life stealing. 

 It is no way to live. It will kill you. 

I’ve had Enough! 

Eating disorders are the leading cause of death from a mental illness.

And until you have held someone who would rather die than live in the body they are housed in- so depleted of life and freedom, paralyzed by fear, and a voice telling that they  will never be good enough…that they will never be beautiful. That if they finish eating their dinner they are losing…you will never understand the prison they are trapped in.

They think they are losing. Losing the battle to be thinner. And they can’t change it on their own because the disease has changed the way their body works. They are nauseous when they eat. Their brain is confused by hunger cues and fullness, the disease has lied and crept into every part of their lives. And their brain isn’t fed, and so things don’t make sense. And they are freezing cold and confused…and believe lie upon lie, and don’t look like themselves. And they are losing…

Enough! 

And we are failing them! We praise the thin, we promote our weight loss in the wrong ways- by body shaming and restrictive thinking. And we buy the magazines that call a celebrity fat, and we judge people who’ve gained weight when we have no idea. We have NO idea about their lives. We are openly prejudiced against the obese. And we should be ashamed of the way we treat and expect perfection from our athletes and our kids…and body talk. The freaking life sucking body talk we do! In front of our children. In front of our children. In front of our babies. 

“No more carbs. Carbs make you fat.” 

“Ugh I’m so fat!” 

“Mommy’s just tired from working out.” When Mommy hasn’t eaten all day- is restricting because of some stupid superficial reason. And they hear. They hear US! And they learn…

Shame on us all! 

I have been to enough support groups and sessions to know now- they learned from us! 

So I have had enough! 

Your self worth is not what you weigh. 

Your self worth is not what you look like. 

Your self worth is who you are…

I love someone with an eating disorder. I love someone in recovery from an eating disorder. And she is the most beautiful person I know…and she has fought, and I have fought, and I will spend the rest of my life fighting for her life. For all our kids lives. 

Because enough is enough! 

We have to be the ones to fight back. We have to be the ones to take back our lives, our bodies, our souls, and stop killing spirits. Especially our own. 

I am beautiful, and not because of my weight. I am beautiful because I have loved greatly, and will fight for the real beauty in people. And I will not be silent.  

You are Enough. 



To my girl…I will never stop fighting for you.