NEDIC Helpline Helpline open until 9pm EST Toll FREE 1-866-633-4220 Toronto 416-340-4156
Image Credit: Delia Xenophontos
Too many people suffering from mental illness feel alone, embarrassed, and guilty because of the stigma attached to it. In honour of World Mental Health Day, I’m sharing my story to remind all those suffering that it’s okay not to be okay.
Image credit: unsplash.com
I stopped writing,
I started counting.
This piece was originally submitted to The Dialouge Projects on June 29th 2016.
Although I have struggled with mental illness for a long time now, sharing my story and just generally talking about my struggle with mental illness has always been something I’ve been really ashamed of and a part of my life I have always wanted to hide. But now, I have finally found the courage to share my story.
TRIGGER WARNING: the following material may be triggering for some individuals - please read with caution.
I want to talk about body image. It's something that affects everyone to some degree. Having said that, some of our brains have developed neural pathways that hone in on what others wouldn't even notice, such as a look or a comment made by someone else.
Photo taken by Maha Khan in Abu Dhabi.
TRIGGER WARNING: the following material may be triggering for some individuals - please read with caution.
I had a very strange childhood. I was born in Belarus and raised in the UK by my father’s mother, and learned many life lessons in very hard ways. I was raised by a grandmother who lived on benefits(British welfare) and enjoyed watching EastEnders (a British sitcom) all the time. She was an addict. My father eventually remarried and was absent from my life.
TRIGGER WARNING: the following material may be triggering for some individuals - please read with caution.
Unlike anorexia, which is characterized by discipline, restraint, self-sacrifice—traits that society upholds as virtuous—bulimia traffics in a consuming, corrosive sense of shame. After all, there is nothing respectable about gorging yourself past the point of physical discomfort. There is nothing dignified about jamming your fist in your mouth to induce vomiting. Habitually wrapping lies around your self-destructive behavior is far from honorable.
TRIGGER WARNING: the following material may be triggering for some, please read with caution.
When I look back on my life, I am amazed by some of the things I did and said when I was affected by anorexia. During eighth grade, I became a vegetarian for half a year. While I told my parents it was for humanitarian reasons, it gave me an excuse to only eat the side dishes at meals.
Originally Posted: World Eating Disorders Day
Isn’t it time that eating disorders get a day too? Well, they have: June 2, 2016 is the first ever World Eating Disorders Action Day.
.jpg)
If I had a dollar for every time I heard the words “Just Eat More” thrown at me- well, I might not quite be a millionaire, but I’d certainly have a lump sum saved for a rainy day. Those words would come from all sorts of people around me - my parents (initially), my friends, and the people I’d come to meet routinely at the gym when I told them about my eating concerns. Time and time again, I would be ‘advised’ to simply order more, or to grab an extra piece; or worst of all, a friend at a dinner party would do it for me and give me this look of victory, as if they had accomplished some sort of dignifying act of intervention. Thanks, but it doesn’t quite work like that.
.jpg)
We hear the statistics: one in five people have a mental illness but what does that say about the mental well-being of the other four? Mental health is more than the absence of mental illness. It’s a state of well-being. Mental health is something we all can benefit from working towards.
© 2014 NEDIC HOME LOGIN SITEMAP CONTACT US POLICY Design by Agents of Good