If you could send a message, to spread awareness of Eating Disorders and the challenges individuals face, what would it be?

About 70% of sufferers tend to not seek treatment due to stigma, misconceptions, lack of education, diagnosis and lack of access to the appropriate healthcare facilities. @windflowers

For me, it would be that Eating Disorder is much more than not eating - usually, people underestimate other things that we face. Food is being discussed on daily basis, food is something we are seeing in many jobs, in many shops, food jokes are very popular - and for someone with ED, they can be pretty triggering as well.

So, I would say, be aware of people's emotions, even when you talk about something that seems very basic to you, as you don't know how it's affect them

That it can affect anyone and that it is can be hard to battle even after recovery. I would say that recovery doesn't mean that the problems are entirely gone and it's not some magic cure. It is a long, hard and painful uphill battle that you fight for yourself against yourself and it can have lasting consequences. I would say that you may not always know someone has an eating disorder and that there are many types of eating disorders and they are all dangerous and that the people who fight them are amazingly strong and just because you don't understand that it is there doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

From my anorexic/bulumic days:

it is not about attention.

it is not about weight or what we look like ( only in the beginning)

the more weight we lose - the fatter we feel.

i dont see me the way you see me - i am always the largest person in the room - you say it is riddicolous - it is my REALITY

i dont regognize myself

i scare myself

i cant ask for help bc i am not " thin enough"

every time you comment about what i ate or did not eat - i critizice and judge myself more

i cant hear what you are saying - it automatically twists in my brain on the side of the ED

i didnt blow you off and stay home bc im a bad friend/family memeber - i am hiding my ugly shameful body image

i dont remeber why i started doing this but i know everything will be okay if i just continue

it has nothing to do with food and weight - food and weight are safer to talk about and thnk about

if i obsess over food and weight and diets - i can keep my mind from thinking the painful out of control things

From my binge eating days:

its not about food - i dont even want the food

each time you comment on what i am eating - i am ashamed

eating is the sole coping skill i have that i feel actually works in the moment

yes, eating DOES fill many roles: comfort, friendship, self care, filling boredom, stuffing anger.....i am aware, i am also aware that it makes it all worse but i cant stop

i am too ashmed of my weight and eating behaviors to ask for help

i feel i am too large to get help " i can ask for help when i am thin"

this is a way of pushing life off until later - that ellusive day that never comes

food does not let me down like the rest of the world does

i HATE eating like this

my life is shrouded in shame

yes, i am super aware of when you look in disgust at my fat body and judge me

you dont have to tell me what to eat or to go on a diet - i am hyper aware of this already

talking to me like all i need to do is diet is shaming - it is an emotional ilness and mental health is not fixed by going on a diet

Its not about food but the main issue is always something else. ED is a symptom of a much bigger underlying issue.