I can only begin to imagine how difficult it must be to care for someone with anorexia. Firstly, you have to watch someone you love and cherish starve themselves and slowly begin to become a shell of themselves. Secondly, no matter what you say it will never be the right thing as you are talking to the anorexia not the actual human being. Thirdly, you have to be the “bad guy” and actively make someone you care about angry and frustrated when you insist they have to have that extra snack or mouthful of food. Finally, you have to be completely and utterly selfless.
I just wanted to write a small piece on behalf of all ED strugglers out there to say thank you to the people who looked after us and helped through difficult points in our recovery. Both my mum and dad were instrumental in my recovery; they were able to find amazing treatment for me before things got REALLY bad. However, my mum was my main rock. I am beginning to get a bit teary just thinking about how much she did for me.
My mum took time off of everything in her life to look after me. I feel a bit pathetic to be honest that at age 18 I needed my mum to care for me so heavily. Yet, without her I never would have got better so fast. She stopped work, put holidays on hold and scaled back social commitments for me. At the end of everyday she would listen to me talk endlessly about all the things I was learning about myself and my eating disorder. She had to put up with me refusing to finish meals she lovingly made because I couldn’t cope that day. Despite seeing her daughter look physically so unwell, she was able after a few months to amazingly hide and suppress so many of her own emotions and just care about mine. She helped me through panic attacks, she didn’t lose her temper when Kevin would push me to lose mine and she always put me about everything else.
Thank you mum because to be honest you are my hero.