National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

This has been an important week bringing awareness to the community of the devastation of eating disorders. I had the opportunity as a member of the Recovery Ambassador Council for Eating Recovery Center (ERC) to take part in a fantastic event in Cincinnati, OH, earlier this week. Maria Bruce, a senior at Mount St. Joseph University, organized a Carpenters Anniversary/Tribute concert to pay tribute to Karen Carpenter and raise awareness of eating disorders today. It was a beautiful event that was attended by 1000 people and raised thousands of dollars for the Eating Recovery Center Foundation. The Foundation has an important role in funding eating disorder research, educating the public in various outreach endeavors, and most importantly helping to financially fill the need of some seeking treatment.

This year is the 35th anniversary of Karen Carpenter’s death due to complications from anorexia. Karen had a beautiful voice and struggled with her eating disorder during a time that very little was known about eating disorders, and the understanding of eating disorders was even less. Today, the stigma is less in seeking treatment than it was in the 80’s and research has allowed for better professional guidelines. However, millions suffer today from eating disorders, and eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.

Being a part of this fundraiser with Dr. Ashley Solomon, the director of Eating Recovery Center-Ohio, very special to me. The year that Karen Carpenter died from her anorexia was the year I began to struggle with my anorexia. It was the beginning of a long battle that has taken me many years to finally live in freedom from. Also, 9 years past to the day I stood on the stage at Mount St. Joseph sharing my recovery story, I had been sitting in ERC’s Denver treatment center. I had a powerful emotional moment as I stood offstage waiting to go out before the audience with Dr. Solomon to share about ERC, the Foundation, and the hope of recovery! I was overwhelmed with the understanding of God’s grace and healing in my life. In that moment I remembered the brokenness I felt when I entered ERC treatment. It was not my first time in treatment, and I had felt like a failure and disappointment to everyone….especially God.

In that moment off-stage I was overwhelmed remembering all of the people that had supported me in my recovery journey, of the hard work I had done to reach freedom, and of God’s unfailing, patient love. He was with me as a wrestled with my questions about Him, His character, and His plan for me. I walked out on the stage before all of those people with a deep-seated peace, filled with hope and gratitude.

I was also able to, the next day, as a Recovery Ambassador Council member, sit down with three different patient groups at the ERC-Ohio center. As an Ambassador, this is my absolute favorite job! Sharing that space with patients, offering hope and encouragement by sharing my recovery journey with them, fulfills me. I understand the fears they share with me, and we have good heart-to-heart conversation about what this recovery journey takes to be successful in finding freedom from the eating disorder.

So, even as this National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is finishing up, my hope and prayer is that more and more who suffer from this disease can reach out and seek help. Everyone deserves to live in freedom from an eating disorder. My passion remains to share hope and encouragement to those struggling, and speak of the deep healing that God has given to me along this journey.