My life Secret on BLAST!

Right now I feel as if this is my "coming" out to the world. I have kept a secret hid from most of the world most of my life. As I am about to enter a new stage of my life I feel as if I owe it myself to share maybe this part of my life... my struggle. 

I am an Eating Disorder Survivor 

This what seems to be taboo disease has been a secret for 15 years. Few close friends and family have been aware of my struggle. Those who are reading take this for what it is worth and if you feel the need to judge or hold anything against me well I am sorry. Why am I finally now sharing this with the world? I have kept this hid for 15 years and so have many close people around me. Why?  Why is this such a taboo subject? This disease is not always very noticeable it can be camouflaged very well.

I became the queen of camo when it came to this little taboo part of my life. In my early 20's drinking played a huge role in how I dealt with it. Yes I am exposing myself I am putting myself on blast for the 1st time ever. No one is perfect and in fact I am sure half of you who read this can say "Wow I'm not alone". 

So what is the 1st thing you think of when someone says "Eating disorder" ?
Let me guess... Kate Moss skin and bones? A girl who looks in the mirror and says "I'm fat" etc. A few might say a girl who scarfs and then barfs.

I bet you no one will say a  man who is who is obsessed with his abs so he works out 6 hours a day. Girls who have been raped or molested so all they eat is paper or an overly obese person who eats 4 dozen eggs,5 cheeseburgers and 2 gallons of ice cream because they are lonely.



Eating Disorders are one thing on the inside, but a totally other thing underneath.They are also stigmatized by the thin, and tend to leave out the thick.I think it’s wonderful that we dedicate a whole month to breast cancer, and that football players are wearing pink shoes, that everything from tic tacs to vacuum cleaners are colored bubble gum pink, and that everybody and the mayor are running half-marathons to raise money for a cure.

Here is my thing…My thing is, why isn’t that much effort and awareness brought to people who suffer from Eating Disorders?

Why isn’t Tebow wearing purple shoes, and President Obama painting the white house periwinkle? 

I guess it’s because people don’t realize the depth of what an eating disorder involves. That everybody is different and that unlike Cancer you can’t cut it out.

I’m not at all comparing disease to disease. What I am saying is that level of awareness should be equal.

Eating Disorders not only effect the person who is suffering from it, but like any other disease it effects those who love them.

They have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.

Approximately 7 million girls and women struggle with eating disorders · Approximately 1 million boys and men struggle with eating disorders Amount of people affected by specific eating disorders: · 0.5% – 3.7% of females suffer from Anorexia Nervosa in their lifetime

· 1.1% – 4.2% of females suffer from Bulimia Nervosa in their lifetime

· 2% – 5% of the American population experience Binge Eating Disorder

· 10%-25% of all those battling anorexia will die as a direct result of the eating disorder

· Up to 19% of college aged women in America are bulimic

about 326 every week die, so about 16,952 a year will die in total, which means
about 350,000 people die a year from all eating disorders.

I could go on and on with the facts..but the simple truth is that all of us who have eating disorders can talk about it next week, wear purple bracelets and pass out NEDA pamphlets while all the high up proffs go and speak about it over tea sandwiches somewhere.

We need more than that people. We need advertisers and marketers to be more aware of their effect on young girls. We need the editors of magazines with airbrushed supermodels to be more aware, and the mannequins in store windows to listen up. We need all the friggin Insurance companies who deny treatment to people with Eating Disorders everyday, leaving them to suffer or die. 

I am proud to be a survivor, but I am also disappointed to not be doing more!