34 (And none the wiser.,,.)

As I type this

I am sitting in the chemist

Waiting for my prescription to be filled

My doctor was back this morning

The kids are gone back to school

The radio is back to its usual schedule

Everyone has gone back to work

So all in all

Everything is getting back to normal

Just the way I like it

I guess I don't like the summer much

Maybe I would if we actually got a summer here 

But no

Autumn is my favourite season by far

We had a birthday dinner yesterday

Which was nice

My sister made my favourite dinner

Boeuf bourguignon

Delicious!

It was a relaxed laid back affair

Followed by tea and apple tart

People have me money instead of gifts

As I am going away in a couple of weeks

My mum did get me some beautiful Cath Kidson tea cups though

And white chocolate

And talcum powder

Which I love

I collected my meds 

And headed back down to the surgery to see Breda

It was a really good session with her

One where we acknowledged the positives that are happening in my life

She noticed my glasses 

And my piercing 

And said I looked really well

Which was nice to hear 

It used to be a case that when someone told me that I looked well

I had a mild panic attack 

But now

Now I am learning to accept the compliment in the spirit in which it was intended

Who'd have thought it...

I guess my look is changing 

During my addiction and ED

What I looked like just didn't matter 

I had no interest in clothes or hair or make up or my appearance at all

It's only really in the last year that I've started experimenting with my look

I guess now I know what I like 

I know what clothes suit me 

I'm a bit better at hair and make up 

As you know 

I go for the surfer type look

Even though I've never surfed a day in my life

I still like the look

I've changed my whole wardrobe in the last year

I'm much more confident in what I wear 

And how I present myself 

Breda also noticed my piercing 

She said it was a really good look on me

She also mentioned how it's great thstbibdm asserting myself 

And doing what is right for me

This is the great thing about being that little bit older 

I'm more confident in myself 

More sure of myself

I know my likes and dislikes

What suits me 

What doesn't 

I guess I'm now doing the experimenting thstbibfidnt get a chance to do in my twenties 

And it is such good fun!

I told Breda about being discharged from Mary

She thought that was great 

The only negative is that I haven't gone back to meetings yet

And she strongly advised that I do

I know that I need to

But I'm finding it really hard to go back

I know the longer I leave it 

The harder it will be

So my goal is to get to a meeting before I go away

I have such a good feeling that this year is going to be the best yet

I'm the most well I've been in years

And I plan to make the most of my health and well being 

As I said to Breda this morning

It has been a team effort to get this far

My family 

Friends 

Mary 

My doctor 

Breda

My psychiatrist 

You my fellow bloggers

Have all played an integral role in my getting well

I couldn't have done it without each and every one of you

If I could say one thing 

To all of you that are suffering right now

Please

Please 

Please

Don't leave it as long as I did to get well

I know a lot of you are in your early twenties 

Some even younger than that 

My own twenties were a right off

And when I was in the midst of my illness

I couldn't see a way out

Weight gain was a huge barrier

I resisted it so much 

I couldn't see any benefit to it

I was willing to risk my health

My happiness 

And my sanity

Just to stay thin

I can't lie 

Weight restoration is not fun

The discomfort

Clothes getting tighter

Bloating 

Feeling fat and greedy

But slowly but surely 

I began to see the benefits of weight restoration

My General health drastically improved

I no longer felt dizzy 

Weak

Exhausted 

It was like a fog lifted

Suddenly I could see more clearly

Think more clearly 

And also I got to buy all new clothes

To replace the teeny tiny clothes I used to wear 

My mood also improved 

I felt more positive and content in myself 

I know when you are in the throes of our illness 

Recovery seems like something that happens to others 

A foreign concept 

But if we could just make that leap of faith

I promise you that you will get back ten fold what you put in

I remember when I was getting clean from drugs

I decided to give myself six months

And really throw myself in to recovery

If after those six months I didn't like it 

I could always go back to my ED

It would always be there 

My recovery might not be

I guess the sane principle can be used with an ED 

We have nothing to lose 

Anyway 

Below are a couple of photos 

Me and my pyjamas this morning 

A couple of the cards I got

And the cups my Mother gave me

M 

Sunday

Although it is my birthday tomorrow

We are celebrating today

I say celebrating

More like a small family dinner 

That's what I wanted 

Something informal and low key

A get together with my nearest and dearest

Tomorrow I'll be 34

It's a big deal for me to even admit to that

For the first couple of years writing this blog

I avoided telling anyone my age

Because I felt ashamed

Ashamed that I was a woman in my thirties 

And I had made such a mess of my life

Now?

Well now I'm proud of my age

I proud that I made it this far

Yes I have little to show for my life

I don't have a partner 

Or children

A job

Or my own house 

What I do have is my health

And peace of mind 

And that outweighs anything else

34 

Another year 

Usually I would be clocking up the years of my illness 

But now I am counting my years in recovery 

By rights 

I should be dear ten times over

In the meetings 

They say people in recovery are hand picked 

I don't know if that's true 

But it's a nice thought

Anyway 

I'll post pictures of said dinner later on

Have a good Sunday.....

Freedom to live

Today I am really struck by the freedom I have to live

Watching the crisis in Syria

And all those poor refugees 

I realise how lucky I am to live in a country where I am free to do as I please

But not just free from prosecution

I am free from the my own demons

The demons inside my head

The demons that drove me to the brink of death

Free from the drug that held me captive for so many years

I was a slave to that drug

And I never let myself forget how bad things were when I was addicted to heroin

Never 

And of course my ED

Bouncing from anorexia to bulimia and back again 

The scary thing about these disorders is that we don't realise how sick and near death we truly are

I am one of the lucky ones 

I made it out relatively unscathed 

I think our thirties are a time when things either get a lot better 

Or a lot worse

I guess it's when you really grow up

And become an adult

Addiction took so much out of me

The getting and using 

Finding ways and means to get drugs 

I had the energy for it in my twenties 

But now

No way 

I don't have the energy 

Or the inclination to chase the dragon

Heroin brought me to my knees 

And burned me out 

Mentally and physically

And throw in an ED

And I was broken 

It has taken until now 

Until I turn 34 

To put the pieces of the jigsaw that is my life back together 

This morning I woke up

With a roof over my head

In a dry bed 

In a warm house 

My dogs woke me up

WAnting to go outside 

I have no pressing worries

The only thing in my mind is my upcoming birthday

And the family dinner we will have

I get up 

Throw on a hoody and slippers

Let the dogs out 

Put the kettle on

And make some toast 

I look out the window 

And see the mountains just beyond the back garden 

Every window in my house is like a huge wide screen TV

Showing the beauty and wonder of this beautiful country

I turn on the radio

And settle down with my tea and toast

Like I said 

I have no worries

I am not strung out 

I am not gasping for a drink or drug

I'm not weak from lack of food 

My body and mind are healthy 

My inner critic is silent 

I am at peace 

After a while 

I make my Mum breakfast and bring it down to her in bed 

Honey comes too

And Lea waits in the car

I chat with Mum a while 

Then I get dressed 

I am lucky enough to have plenty of nice clothing 

I scrub up well if I make an effort

Next I go and call my sister

She sleep upstairs

I think about how glad I am to have her home

After being in Australia for 12 years

How great it is to talk to her when ever I want

When we all ready 

We all pile in to my sisters car 

My Mum and sister in the front

Me and Honey and Lea in the back

We drive to the beach

For a brisk walk

As I watch the dogs running so freely 

And having a great time 

I think about how lucky I am to have such amazing dogs 

And how they have helped me so very much

They truly are my best friends 

We walk the beach

Then head down to the village

We visit the peace garden 

Which is so quiet and peaceful

We run our hands along the lavender

And cup them around our noses to inhale  the scent 

We sit on the bench in silence for a few moments 

And just for that minute

Everything is ok

And exactly how it should be

It's no fluke 

Or freak of nature that I am the way I am

I come from a long line of people who suffer from addiction and mental health issues

There are six in my family

Four of us have suffererd  with these issues

A few years ago

All four of us were in active addiction

It was a living nightmare

But now 

All four of us are clean and sober and well

And that is nothing short of a miracle

Today I am grateful

So very grateful

For coming through what I've been through

For making it out the other side

Along with my family 

I am grateful for the lessons I have learned along the way

I am grateful that I live in a country where freedom is a given

And I can live the way I want to

I am grateful for the people I have in my life 

My family whose unwavering support has seen me through so many bad times

The friends who have stood by me through it all

I am grateful for the professionals in my life 

My doctor

Mary

Breda

My psychiatrist 

Who have gone above and beyond their duty to help me

I am grateful to have two amazing dogs 

Who are always by my side

And have been there for me for the past ten years 

I am grateful for my health

Given all I have put my body through 

I know I am blessed to be as healthy as I am

I am grateful for my recovery 

For my peace of mind 

For my drive and determination for a better life

I am grateful that I was hand picked to be in recovery

That I have a second chance at life

I am grateful that I have a roof over my head

Food in my fridge

And a car to drive 

I am grateful to be part of this community

To call you all friends

For you to be part of my story

And for me to be part of yours

It's very easy to cruise along

Taking life for granted 

But today 

Today I am really feeling the gratitude 

They say to be happy 

You need to want what you have

Not have what you want

And I have a lot

More than a lot of people

I am so grateful for that 

Here are some pics from today....

Discharge

I saw Mary yesterday

After my trip to the dog shelter

I always like to see Mary

Our chats are always interesting and informative

We know each other well by this stage

I've been seeing her for four years now

Mary often reminds me of our first session

Her post was new

A position that was greatly needed in the community

Before Mary

ED patients were sent to General CBT

But Mary became a specific ED therapist 

So was geared more towards an ED patients needs

Mary often reminds me of the state I was in when I first saw her

I was broken

Both in body and mind 

In my mind 

This new therapy was the latest in a long line of failed attempts to get on top of my ED 

I had no expectations 

Very little hope

After all

I had been through therapist who told me that I 'wasn't that bad'

And another one who told me that I was 'emancipated'

My memory of those first sessions is hazy 

But then everything from that time was hazy

I was running off of fumes 

Underweight

Malnourished 

Mentally and physically weak

And of course it wasn't a case that I miraculously recovered

It was a long hard road

So many sessions of butting heads

Many many tears 

My walking out on more than one occasion 

I put up great resistance to getting well

My weight has fluctuated greatly over the years 

From emaciated to just about heslthy and back again 

I had a break from Mary when I went in to treatment

Another one when my weight became too low for her to see me

And another one when her post was  cut due to budget issues 

But I always went back

And Mary always made an effort to get me back 

I think you can probably guess where this post is heading 

Yes 

After four long years

Of highs and lows

Ups and downs 

Tears and laughter 

Mary informed me that she is formally discharging me

And not because I am not engaging in therapy

Or because my weight is too low to continue

Oh no 

It's because I am actually well enough!

I was actually gobsmacked

Because most of the time 

I consider myself to be a perpetual f**k up 

Me 

Queen of trouble and mischief 

Is actually being discharged

Because Mary considers me to be well enough!

At first 

In my head 

I panicked

I was like 

Noooo

I need you

Please don't go

I need Mary in my life

Sometimes she is the only sane person I speak to of a week 

But

She assured me that I have made great strides

And it's time 

We talked for a while

About the last four years 

And the progress that has been made 

In a lot of ways 

It happened quite suddenly

But I think in reality 

I had spent years laying the ground work

By going to therapy 

Months in treatment 

And generally preparing myself mentally for recovery 

I am just over a year in to my recovery

I am weight restored 

I feel good 

My mood is good

My health is the best it's been for a long time 

And I guess that it's now that I am feeling better 

That I realise how low and depressed I was 

I hated myself 

And resented life

I had a passive death wish

Not actively seeking death

But welcoming it if it came 

Now I am stable 

I can feel

And feint is no way as scary as I thought it would be

I'm now strong

Capable and able

And that feels amazing 

I'm now in the process of rebuilding my life 

And trying to find my place in the world

I don't equate beauty with weight anymore

And I am just finding myself 

My opinions

My style

My take on life

I'm a 34 year old woman 

I've been through a lot 

I've survived this long through sheer stubbornness 

And determination 

I've abused my body so much over the years 

I'm just happy that it hasn't given up on me 

So yes 

Next Thursday will be my last appointment with Mary 

Then I am on my own 

Standing on my own two feet 

I feel ready 

I think I can do it 

I really think I can 

Dog Shelter

I'm just back from my appointment at the dog shelter 

When I spoke to them on the phone the other day

They asked me to call in today 

To meet me

And to fill in some paperwork 

My Mum offered to drive

So I took her up on the offer

And we set off at about 10am

The shelter is about half an hour away

I haven't been there in ten years

When I picked up Honey

And brought her home

So I was really excited to go back

We arrived at the shelter just after 10 30am

Mum parked 

And I made my way to the office

The whole way down in the car I was thinking how I should take photos to show you all

But of course 

Once I was there 

I forgot to take any at all

I went through the gate marked 'Office'

And found myself face to face with a rather large Alsation

Beyond him I saw two little dogs

And beyond that two people

One of whom beckoned me in

The dogs gave me a great welcome

And as I sat down

The Alsation kept bringing me over a stick

Which I tried to throw for him

But was a bit difficult as we were in quite a small room

One of the ladies introduced herself as the owner of the shelter

And asked me how they could help me

I said I had been speaking to someone about volunteering 

At that point 

She produced an application form 

And asked me to fill it in

The form was the usual

Name 

Address

Etc 

At the end there was a question asking what type of work I wanted

It named things like dog walking

Cleaning

Laundry

I ticked them all

Except for garden maintenance

As I am no gardener 

I handed the form back

And the lady looked over it

All seemed fine 

The owner then asked one of the ladies working there to show me around

This was the fun part

Getting to meet all the dogs

The first dog I was shown was nothing short of freakin' adorable

The lady told me that he had been found abandoned in a shed

My mind boggles

As I don't know how anyone could do that to a living dog/cat/anything

I swear I wanted to bring that dog straight home with me

But I knew this would happen

I knew I would want to save them all

But I also know that my Mum would have a fit if I started bringing dogs home

So I will resist 

For now

The lady brought me around all the kennels

Introduced all the dogs to me

Some were giddy

Some were shaking with fear

Which broke my heart

Some had tried to climb out 

Some tried to eat me

But that's ok

I understand that some of them are not happy well adjusted dogs

But most of them just wanted attention

And I hope that I can do that

After the tour 

I went back to the office to thank them

The owner told me that I can ring them the day before I want to go down

Which is great 

As then it can be a different day each week if need be

All in all I am so looking forward to starting 

And all being well

I will start next week

Right

Must dash 

As have an appointment with Mary 

See you on the next post ...

Been there, done that, bought the blogger t-shirt

I was in town today

Meeting a friend from treatment for tea and coffee

Afterwards 

I was having a browse through the shops

When I spyed this t-shirt in Penneys

I'm actually sorry now that I didn't buy more to send to you ladies if you wanted one

If you would like one 

Do let me know

And I'll do my best to get you one

Anyway

Here it is....

ED Community

An anonymous writer left a very interesting comment on my blog yesterday

Posing a couple of questions

First

About the ED community

And does the idea of such a community help strengthen or weaken the fight against the illness?

And also

What role an ED should play in a persons identity?

I thought these were really interesting questions

And it's something I've thought a lot about over years

And I remember it being addressed in treatment also

First question

Does the idea of an ED community strengthen or weaken the fight against our illness? 

I think there is no simple answer for this

And of course every case is individual 

In my opinion

Our community can do both 

As we know 

Support is essential 

Both in the midst of the illness

And in recovery 

When I first started writing my blog three years ago

I was in a very different place

I wrote about fasting

And actively trying to lose weight

I can remember me and other girls encouraging each other to lose weight

And that is so dangerous 

Thankfully 

In my case 

That didn't last long 

And I saw that I was treading on thin ice

But at the same time

I craved to be with others like me

It was so important to me to connect with others in the same situation as me

This community has saved my life over and over again

And in a lot of ways has helped me recover and move on from my ED 

Our community is a mixture of people still in active ED

And those choosing recovery

And we seem to co-exist well 

Although I do admit

I've had to pull back from some blogs that are upsetting or triggering

That is nothing against the person

It's just very difficult to be around very ill people when you yourself are trying to get well

And of course when in recovery

You want to build a good foundation

And probably have more in common with those in recovery 

I guess this why Pro-ana is so prolific

There Is strength in numbers

You are more likely to do something 

If someone is doing it with you

Hence why people have 'ana buddies'

In a sick and twisted way

These girls are each other's cheerleaders 

It's something that fuels the ED

I remember when I was in treatment 

It was a psychiatric hospital

With an eating disorder recovery programme

The ED girls were on a ward called St. Brigids 

It was a mixed ward

So there were patients with other illness there too

Like anxiety or depression

There were up to eight girls on the ED programme at a time

We spent so much time together 

All day every day

And most of the time we were talking about food, weight and our EDs

Although this wAy works for some

It most definitely did not for me

Bring in such close contact with other sufferers made life so hard

I was constantly comparing myself to others 

That and the fact that our sole existence was wrapped up in the ED 

Made it so hard to make steps towards recovery

One thing that I noticed while in treatment

Was that if one person was doing well

The rest tended to do well too

But if one person was struggling

The rest struggled too

Why was this?

Well

We were all so in tune with each other 

And if one persons behaviours were very disordered 

That permeated through the group

But also if some one was making positive steps 

It was almost like it gave permission to the other girls to do the same

So I think being part of an ED community can both help and hinder

As ED sufferers 

We have to battle triggers every single day 

Triggers that can send us right back in to the arms of our ED 

So support is essential 

And very necessary 

I know that I couldn't possibly do this on my own 

No way

No how 

We crave to be around others like us 

So we know that we are not alone 

This can be both a blessing and a curse

I guess it would be like an alcoholic or a dug addict

In their addiction 

They spent all their time with other addicts

Whether they liked them or not 

They were on the same wave length

But when one addict gets clean

They absolutely have to change one thing 

And that one thing is everything

Including people, places and things

A recovering addict can not spend all their time with using addicts 

And expect to stay clean

As the saying goes

If you hang around a barbers for long enough

You will end up getting a haircut 

In the same vein

You are the company you keep

To answer the other question 

What role should our EDs play in our identity

This is also a great question

And again

Is something I addressed in treatment 

In the midst of our illness

Our identity and the illness become so emeshed 

I know when I was sick

My illness was my identity 

Everything else that I was was overshadowed by my ED

I was no longer a sister

A daughter

An auntie

A friend 

Now I was anorexic 

And precious little else 

I distinctly remember saying in treatment that I was so afraid to let go of my ED

As I didn't know what would be left without it 

I panicked about the fact that giving up my illness

Meant giving up my identity

When I was sick

I assumed the sick role

And when you have such a role for such a long time 

It's very hard to break away from it

For me 

I felt that my illness brought my family together 

And I worried that if I got well

Then I wouldn't be as close with my family

Because that's what happened when I became ill

My family came together 

And got very close 

So I feared the opposite would happen if I let my ED go

Eating disorders continue to be complex and difficult illnesses to treat

The person in question has to want to get well 

And will not get well until they decide to

No matter how much somebody wants it for you 

They can't do it for you

Support is essential 

I know I couldn't have got well without the support of various professionals, my family 

And of course you my beautiful blogger friends 

We alone can do it 

But we can not do it alone

As they say in the meetings 

I know for sure

That being part of this community has been a huge part of my life for the past three years

As you know 

I try to write every day

I spent copious amounts of time on blogger 

You girls are some of my best friends

I worry about our little community

As it seems to be ever shrinking all the time

Blogger seems to not be the place to be anymore

Instagram seems to be the cool place to be

But blogger will forever hold a special place in my heart

As its here that I started 

And I love to follow the stories of you girls 

Anyway

Let me know what you think about the questions posed in this post

And anything else on your mind.....