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Aliyah's story
I am 17, and currently recovering from severe anorexia nervosa. For the past 5 years I have struggled and dealt with every form of eating disorder, bulimia and anorexia. I am now ready to recover, and get my weight up to a healthy weight. Each day is a struggle, feeling horrible after every meal but I want to get better.
When my weight got very low I couldn’t take anymore. Feeling tired, sick, having no energy and no concentration I gave in and decided to get help. I kept denying it for so long, but encouragement from my family and boyfriend led me to get help. It’s going to be a long slow hard process, but in the end it will be worth it.
I have aims and aspirations to go to Uni, and study psychology and help other girls with eating disorders.
It’s a horrible horrible illness. I used to over exercise, eat very little, eat loads and abuse laxatives, and be constantly sad yet all I wanted to do was lose more weight.
Now my weight has increased a little. To me it is a huge amount, but I can feel as I eat, I am starting to enjoy the food, and the bad days are just going to come and go. And with the help from my nutritionist, counsellor, and family and boyfriend I will get over it. After all food is essential to live.
I want to fully recover, and get anorexia out of my life forever!
Aliyah, 17
Remember that Samaritans 08457 90 90 90
and Childline 0800 1111
are there to talk to 24 hours a day.
Interview
This is where we could have interviews with people about them and how they deal with the tough stuff in life. Any ideas of who you would like to have interviewed? Let us know ypf@b-eat.co.uk
Spotlight
What's your name?
Lou
What's your job title?
Marketing Coordinator - Professional Development
What do you do at beat?
I promote beat' training course and conferences to professionals across the UK. Often even teachers, nurses or social workers tell us they can feel worried about supporting someone with an eating disorder. By attending a beat training event we can help them much more confident and knowledgeable about preventing, detecting and supporting anyone affected by eating disorder.
What are the others at beat like?
Having been here for nearly 4 years I can honestly say they're a really lovely bunch. Everyone who works here is really committed to campaigning for greater awareness and support for anyone affected by eating disorders and we still get a real sense of achievement when we see services developing and improving as a result of the work we do.
What's your favourite band?
Can I only pick one? Oh ok... The Pigeon detectives are pretty great right now.
Have a break
Eating disorders aren't fun at all and sometimes you can feel like you don't deserve to have fun or there isn't space in your life for it. You deserve to have a break - it is important for your recovery. Why not try playing these silly games for some light relief.
More ideas for having a break
It can be hard to let yourself take a break from it all for a bit. Here are some ideas for how you could take a break.
- have a warm relaxing bath
- read a book that helps to educate your brain
- challenge mates to a game you used to play when you were younger e.g. hide and seek!
Any more ideas? E-mail them in to ypf@b-eat.co.uk and we'll put them up!
