Update

Good morning, afternoon or evening to you all. Wherever you are reading from. Morning my end.

Well, it's been a very long time and it feels good to write again. I was surprised to come on and see 10 followers. Yay!!!!!!! Welcome to you all.

I am reaching the end of my 'treatment' and don't know how to describe my journey Rollercoaster would be too simplistic, emotional would leave out everything else in between.

Maybe i will settle for enriching. Because in spite of all the ups and downs of it and the emotion, i stil fill enriched. Blessed and privileged to have spent months with fantastic women who all struggle with eating disorders and therefore seem to speak the same language as me. How i wish we did not speak the language of ED's. I have learnt a lot. Benefited from the expertise of others and the compassion of others.

And yet this post is tinged with sadness because i am ending my time in treatment on a very disappointing note. Firstly, i am disappointed with the way in which my time has been cut short and secondly, i am disappointed that this bitter ending has resulted in the ED once again rearing it's ugly head. I am filled with anger and frustration about the way in which my treatment has been curtailed but i am also glad that i am no longer under pressure to put on weight on a weekly basis and glad that i will no longer have to sit through another difficult meal in the treatment centre.

At the end of my treatment, i feel no better than i did at the start, to some extent and yet when i look back on my time, i know that i have improved, to some extent. In the following ways:

1) I no longer wake up with the sole aim of spending my days bingeing and purging.
2) I see a future of some sort in front of me. It's hazy but at least there's a glimmer of something.
3) I have fallen back in love with things which used to fill me with joy: nature and literature
4) I am abe to speak with more clarity about the way i feel and about the ED

But there is so much more to do and i feel like i will have to do this alone, albeit with the help of some therapy:

1) I still need to learn to include people in my recovery journey.
2) I need to learn to eat: unfortunately, treatment seemed to reinforce rather than break my negative eating habits in so far as lunch was so big (in terms of portion) that i became convinced that the amount i was eating was wrong. I don't feel that i will ever be comfortable with large portions but who knows......
3) I need to let go of my desire to hang onto this low weight (unfortunately, or fortunately for my ED mind, my weight is still quite low and i have strong desires to lower my weight, to undo the effects of treatment because the way my treatment was ended makes me feel that those who are supposed to be looking out for my welfare, are not really doing that. I feel mistrustful of a lot of the process so i want to undo any weight i gained and start gaining weight for myself, by myself). I know that a lot of this is ED speak, ED anger I recognise it as that but i still have this desire.


So. Where does that leave me??? Still out of work, still without a clear purpose in life, still struggling from time to time with thoughts of not wanting to continue with this life. But the difference is that at times, there is hope. And if that eternal flame of hope can continue to burn within the hearts of men, then life still holds an appeal.

I plan to write more, since i will have more free time on my hands. But for now, i bid you all farewell.

xx