Eating disorders

Hope with Eating Disorders book review

~ Vickyw

A PR company sent me Hope with Eating Disorders book to review as this is a subject that many of you may have experienced.

Lynn Crilly gives an insight from a personal perspective on what it’s like to be a mother with a daughter suffering from an eating disorder. 

In its second edition, the self-help book is available online at Amazon and other book stores for £15.99.

Hope with Eating disorders isn’t a book for sufferers, its a book written by a mother who wants to get her message across on how to help family members overcome eating disorders.

Lynn openly shares the struggles and pain she and her family went through when her daughter Samantha was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa and OCD in her early teens. 

During her daughter’s recovery, Lynn sets up her own counselling business to help educate other parents, carers, siblings and friends about mental illness and treatments and how to support their loved ones. 

The book is divided into 12 chapters explaining what eating disorders are and breaking down in simple terms treatments and their impact on loved ones.

Would I purchase Hope with Eating Disorders?

The book is helpful if you have loved ones suffering from an eating disorder. The way Lynn writes this is engaging and easy to read. This is a raw, heartbreaking story with a positive outcome that makes this book worth reading. 

The author does not hold back, and Lynn is proof of someone who is positive, and by sticking to methods, she believes in giving family and friends and even eating disorder sufferers hope in their recovery.

I would purchase this book as it gives insight from another person’s point of view instead of the sufferer. I’ve suffered many issues over the years, but this book makes me see things from another perspective.

Let us know your thoughts about the book? Would you purchase the book? Why or why not?

I made myself sick, and they laughed at me

~ Vickyw

Trick Scales

Never did I imaging making myself sick until I did this every day and people laughed at me.

I was 13 or 14 years old when I first watched the movie “When Friendship Kills” like the girls in the film who made themselves sick I too was body-conscious having been called fat from an early age.

The girls in the film ate usually and made themselves sick and successfully lost a lot of weight.

I wanted to be like them. Slim and almost perfect, only they were too thin, and one of the girls in the film ended up dead due to a lack of food and alcohol.

I never saw this, and sometimes I still don’t see this.

I tried starving myself and ended up almost passing out.

It made me feel weak and a failure because I couldn’t handle going without a few calories.

When I went to school, I started starving myself and making myself sick.

This became regular until people began to notice. You wouldn’t believe the reaction I received; I told them I wasn’t feeling well, and this would continue every day.

A teacher questions me, and of course, I was good at blagging, so I told them it wasn’t happening and that I was okay.

People who I thought were my friends started laughing and making sick noises until I broke down and confessed.

My friends even came to my house once and watched me throw away my dinner and were almost in tears. I just told them that I wasn’t hungry, and I was full up.

The only thing that made me stop was when I threw up blood, and I got scared. I was all alone starving myself and making myself sick, with no one to talk to because people thought it was funny.

Today, I still hate my body and the way I look, and maybe the bad things that have happened to me are funny and all my fault.

My perception of the perfect body is still those girls who are too thin in other people’s eyes.

I no longer make myself sick, but occasionally starve myself and restrict myself to a certain number of calories per day.

Maybe I will never fully recover, but I will always hear them making sick noises and laughing at me.

It’s taken me years to write this post about making myself sick.

One of the reasons why I have finally gained the courage to write about this, let alone hit publish is because of a friend who has encouraged me to be myself.

Please note that this is a real-life story and that names and places have been changed to protect identities.

Sock It To Eating Disorders Day March 2017

~ Vickyw

Eating Disorders Day

Today is Sock It To Eating Disorders Day which means that it’s time to get out your silliest socks and post your #SockItSelfies on your social network channels to raise awareness of eating disorders.

Why not join thousands of others across the UK by wearing silly socks and taking selfies with your family, friends, and work colleagues.

How to make a Sock It donation?

You can also make donations to “Beat” (Beating Eating Disorders) by making a cheque payable to Make cheques payable to ‘Beat’, and send to Beat, Wensum House, 103 Prince of Wales Road, Norwich, NR1 1DW.

Please include your completed paying in slip from your fundraising pack.

You can also Donate online by credit/debit card or Paypal – just select ‘Sock It to Eating Disorders’ from the ‘I would like to donate to’ dropdown menu.

Alternatively call 01603 753335 to donate by credit/debit card or send a text message to 70070: EDAW17 £3.

Your donations will help Beat answer more helpline calls and will help point people towards services which include a helpline, Online Support Groups, Message Boards, and a Helpline directory so you can look up therapists, support groups, and counsellors near you.

Check out the Beats Twitter feed for a great range of Sock It Selfies, and add your own using #SockIt.

If you have taken part in any fundraising events for Eating disorders Day we would love to hear from you.

Comment below or visit one of our social media channels.