Question by Claire: Question about eating disorders. ?
Hi. I’m 15 and have been on the rocky road to recovery for bulimia dice I went to inpatient/residential treatment from December-March. Before I continue, I just wanted to point out something: I absolutely HATE attention being put on me. I have never been considered popular & I’m completely okay with that. My eating disorder started in 8th grade as a way for me to cope with family drama & gain control and it escalated into a full blown addiction last year.

Anyways. I came back to school in April. None of the teachers & most of the students (.besides my friends) have never really cared or payed attention to me, and I’m fine with that. I’m generally a bit shy around people I’m not close with anyways. But when I came back, it was madness. All the sudden all these teachers were hugging me & stopping me in the hallway to ask how I was doing. I was ok with that except a lot of girls didn’t. Everyone knew me as “that anorexic girl” (even though I am actually bulimic) and apparently the other girls wanted some of that attention too. Now eating disorders are glamorous among the popular girls at my school & they look to me as their idol. I feel so awful. Now almost all the girls at lunch don’t eat anything and they all sit with me, which is super triggering as I am trying to recover. I try to move away but they are everywhere. Whenever I go to the bathroom they follow me, asking if I’m throwing up. One girl even had the indecency to ask me to text her a step by step guide on how to purge. Yes, i still purge and have my episodes because like I said, I am just starting recovery. But I feel like it is my fault that all these girls are trying to “catch” eating disorders. They don’t get how awful it is and how it makes your life hell. I can’t escape them because it’s almost all the girls at my small school. I feel like I am starting to lose progress and I am slipping back down again I am trying to tell them to back off but they won’t. What do I do?!

Best answer:

Answer by Daniel
Hi Claire,

If I were you I would try to educate them about how deadly and unhealthy eating disorders can be. I agree, being anorexic or bulimic is nothing to be proud of! There are so many detrimental consequences to having an eating disorder. I don’t get why so many of your friends want to follow suit! If I were you I would think about getting creative and making some sort of brochure, documentary, etc. that explains the dangers of being anorexic, bulimic, etc. I think education is key a lot of times. Try to do this, and maybe they will think twice before copying you!

On a side note, I hope you get better. I know how it feels to deal with mental health issues, because I’ve had to deal with it too in the past.

Good luck :)

Answer by Zestfully Clean
Well, a lot of people simply do not understand eating disorders. We’re living in a society where people are just trying so hard to lose weight. Our society rewards weight loss. The vast majority of people that I have dealt with who were losing weight, didn’t care about their health–they just wanted to lose weight.

Look at the questions in this section. How many people in this section actually care about their health, or even make an effort to do research on their health? If you asked, very few of them would say “because I want to be healthier.” It’s not about health, it’s about weight loss.

So it is no surprise that people don’t understand eating disorders. In a way, you really can’t blame them.

Don’t blame yourself for other girls trying to follow in your footsteps. For one thing, eventually, they are going to stop because they are eventually going to realize that by skipping lunch, they are just making themselves hungry and that they do NOT have an eating disorder. As you know, someone with anorexia doesn’t just wake up one day and stop eating, just as someone with bulimia doesn’t just wake up and decide to throw up.

You might just have to stop and explain to them that what you were doing was NOT dieting, or a way to lose a few pounds. Explain to them that bulimia is much like an addiction to something. Remind them that that is why you are RECOVERING, not being congratulated for weight loss. If they can’t understand that, then it may be time to reconsider the kind of people you are friends with. We all have to do that, eventually.

The best friends you can have are the ones who support you, and that includes friends who help you recover. In drug rehab centers, they will tell recovering drug addicts the same thing: if the people around you do not want to recover with you, you’ll have to find new people. And it’s 100% true. If you do not have everyone’s support, you won’t recover. Either explain to your friends that your disorder is not something to be copied, or surround yourself with new people who support you instead of trigger you

Give your answer to this question below!

 

Jackson private religious girls school vote postponed

Filed under: residential treatment for girls

Rabbi Ephraim Birnbaum — who is proposing the two-story structure on the 7.5-acre lot on Cross Street — is seeking a variance because a school is not a permitted use in the residential neighborhood of mostly 1-acre lots. In addition, he is seeking a …
Read more on Asbury Park Press

 

Wooton: Scary trend in drug usage by teens

Filed under: residential treatment for girls

Third was treatment — my favorite even to this day — which challenged belief systems with the hope of giving new insight on the world. And, fourth, was … Counseling, outpatient programs and residential programs were all that I focused on. At the …
Read more on Pomerado Newspaper Group

 

Epworth: 'Where kids find strength'

Filed under: residential treatment for girls

Families go to Epworth every year for multiple services such as emergency shelter, intensive treatment, family therapy, transitional and independent living programs, special education, foster family care, and prevention help, and also utilize its 24 …
Read more on STLtoday.com