Article by Morgan Maxwell
Even though we value looking good on the outside, it’s much more important to feel good on the inside. Confidence is truly the key and it’s sexy. Recently, DailyFashionista had the amazing opportunity to attend Eating Disorder Recovery Day. While there, we heard Chief and Marketing Officer of the Eating Recovery Center Douglas M. Weiss, Senior Clinical Director of Partial Hospital Services Eating Disorder Center Bonnie Brennan, Recovery center alumnus Savannah and Eric, TV actress Candace Cameron Bure, and singer/author of the book “Life Without ED” Jenni Schaefer all speak about the topic. Jenni and Candace spoke openly about their own experiences with their personal struggles. Jenni often refers to her eating disorder as Ed. She compares Ed to an abusive boyfriend; no matter what you do or how much you achieve, you will never be good enough.
Most of the time when people think of an eating disorder they think of the physical aspects of it. For example, an emaciated girl/guy (yes, men suffer from eating disorders, too) who just wants to be thinner. Eating Disorders are not only about food or body image. Food and body image are just symptoms of this tumultuous disorder. Often, this is about the underlying emotional pain that a person cannot deal with; instead they cope by numbing out the mental pain by not eating, overeating, purging, overexercising, etc.
After Full House wrapped, Candace Cameron Bure had a lot of changes in her life; she just turned 20, living in a brand new city, newly married, and a soon to be mom. Overwhelmed by the amount of change she was faced with, she coped with it by binge eating and purging. Jenni, on the other hand, had eating disorder thoughts or she refers to them as “Ed” since she was three years old. Eating disorders may be passed down from generation to generation. It has been said that genetics load the gun and society pulls the trigger. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. For women between the ages of 15 to 24, the mortality rate of anorexia is 12 times higher than any other cause of death.
Recovery is possible. At the Eating Disorder Recovery Day event, we heard many inspirational stories of hope and recovery. Candace spoke about how faith healed her during a trying time. She emphasized that it is important to get better for you. You have to know you’re worth recovery and worth the fight. At the end of our time listening to the panel we felt empowered.
