| Our August guest speaker is Catherine.
Catherine grew up with the persistent idea that she wasn’t the right shape or size. School was a challenging time for her and she always felt different and not ‘one of the skinny, pretty girls’. The transition to University coincided with a relationship breakdown and looking back, Catherine feels that the stress of this time was a real trigger point for the Eating Disorder to begin to take hold.
Feeling lonely and depressed she began to over exercise and lose weight. Initial compliments about her change in appearance then turned to questions and concerns about Anorexia. Looking back, she can see how she was in denial of the fact an Eating Disorder had taken hold, but she held a glamourised view of the disorder and believed she could manage it.
She graduated from university, got a job and then decided to move overseas. Being away from her support network, the Eating Disorder took a further hold and things took a turn for the worse. The turning point for Catherine was her mother, a key support in her life, falling ill. This made Catherine face up to her fears and, now back in Australia, she began the road to recovery. It was slow progress but little by little she began to improve.
By this time, Catherine was in her 30’s and considered herself recovered. However, although she had reached a healthy weight, she was still restricting her food and trying to ‘manage’ her recovery within self-set rules around food and eating. It wasn’t until she was pregnant that she was able to confront the last part of her Eating Disorder. Today, Catherine is fully recovered and feels emotionally and physically stronger than she ever has. BodyMatters is thrilled that Catherine is coming to share her recovery story of determination, perseverance, courage and hope.
The Recovery Talk will begin at 5pm and run for 1.5 hours at a cost of $15 per person. It is important that you register and pay online for the group beforehand.Please register here. Registrations are capped at 10 people, if you intend on coming we encourage you to register quickly to avoid disappointment.
For those of you who are considering coming along for the first time, our Recovery Talks normally run on the fourth Saturday of each month, and are open for anyone suffering with an eating disorder or struggling with any kind of disordered eating to attend. We also welcome parents, partners, siblings, health professionals- anyone who is interested in understanding more about recovery. |
