Tag Archives: Eating Disorders

Trying to remember the ‘old me’

Posted on by
3

If you haven’t seen the featured image on this post then here it is again;

317260_10150288925371705_2419637_n

This was me in 2011 the night before I flew away to Norway for 6 months of volunteering, an impulsive but life-changing decision that I would definitely do again.

By this point in my life ( 20 Years Old!!) I had experienced my fair share of death and loss, anorexia, bulimia, self harm and abuse. Most recently I had experienced heartbreak and had moved back to the family home. I was getting by (luckily) by not having to pay rent and working a caring job and bar work and Christmas jobs at Marks and Spencer!!

Fast forward to me now and things are very different, but I do miss the ‘old me’ – I was sat thinking about this the other night and then it dawned on me that I could not really remember the old me.

The old me;

  • Happily worked at least 2/3 jobs as well as study.
  • Only experienced pain when I injured myself.
  • Was a little anxious but got on with things.
  • Could cope with 2 hours sleep and get up and head out for the day.
  • Exercised several times a week.
  • Had people around me.
  • Was motivated and enthusiastic about my future. ( The inability to get into Nursing or Midwifery at Uni started this downhill spiral).
  • Could get by day-to-day without anxiety, depression, illness, pain or life getting in the way.
  • Was happy (ish)

Don’t get me wrong there are positives in life now, but the fact that I looked back to remember the old me and I couldn’t, really hit me. Looking at 2017-Present Day it is difficult to see how a bout of anxiety and depression and other difficulties has made me change so much as a person and made me a shadow of my former self. Factors such as physical illness, workplace bullying, mental health and the realisation of what happened to me as a younger person throughout my life only just becoming a reality and really getting in the way has made me change. I am still unsure whether this change is completely good or not, yes I do get very anxious and depressed, I am in pain a lot of the time and struggle to get to sleep, stay asleep and function normally but I find it so hard to discuss these things as people simply do not understand. You can be the most caring person in the world but unless you have experienced certain things you really cannot understand them. I am tired, it is not tiredness that will be fixed by a decent nights sleep, although that would most likely help it is not going to cure everything. I lie in bed and have to have the tv on in the background because otherwise my mind is at 100000000 miles an hour, it hurts, it is tiring and sometimes scary and upsetting.

I am a shadow of my former self.

I am a working progress.

I do have a plan.

I am working on it.

Just bare with me.

8aeb9e9e9e48f55ca5f3a31c86dd2c92

 

Advertisement

Mental Health Awareness Letters – 27th May 2018

Posted on by
Reply

As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I had an idea to write a letter each day to a person, or group of people that have had an impact on my own personal health. The first portion of the month has been delayed, however I hope that I will catch up and there will be a daily post. Thank You for taking the time to read these and I appreciate any comments or support you can provide on each post.

Please remember that if you are struggling with your health, both physical or mental, there may be some triggers in these letters-please seek support if you find these letters trigger any distress. Look after yourself!!

Letter 27 – To those stupid numbers!! (I have no idea if the % in the featured image is right but I needed a fact so there you go – this is a huge step for me as it is an odd number!!)

I hate odd numbers!! You may know this about me or you may not!!

I started counting things when I was in my teens and had anorexia, at one point I counted rice grains!! It was that extreme and really hard to live with – especially when it was hidden from others, my best friend noticed I was thinner and some of the girls in school said I looked good when getting changed for P.E at school (I had gone from about 10 stone to 8 stone at this point in a couple of weeks). I almost got caught out once at school when I spent the lunch in a teacher’s office and she asked what I had for lunch and I said nothing, she left me some of her fruit and said I had to eat something, I think I ate an apple but I left the rest for her as I felt so bad.

I like things to be even and it really gets to me if things aren’t even, my car volume and TV volumes are the easiest things to control and I feel a fire burn inside when I do not have things in even numbers- I mean if there are odd numbers I have learnt to adjust,  I can cut them equally so 3 items would turn into 6 halves – but I do freak out if they aren’t all the same size.

Talk about frustration!

ad1