Can you really be “high functioning” with an eating disorder?
Sunset Beach Times on Maui (right before the pandemic hit!)
~Sure, maybe you’re maintaining good grades, perhaps even straight A’s
~Maybe you’re still keeping up with all those extra-curriculars, going to sport practice and/or volunteer and/or youth group
~Maybe you’re going out with friends, seeing concerts and watching movies together
~Maybe you’re even baking cookies with your grandma, memorizing lines for the lead in your school play, babysitting your lil cousin
~So to someone from the inside, you look like you’re living pretty well. You’re keeping up with academics while enjoying other activities as well as friend and family time.
~But getting a closer look deep down, no one may see the hidden anxiety, sleepless nights, fear over food and social gatherings, mental breakdowns, over-exercising, lying to family and friends, emotional guilt, and secret self-isolation.
~Living life in an ED is a very slippery slope. EDs thrive off of false highs and distorted realities. You think you’re fine. You think you’re living life, especially if you’re back at school, hanging out with friends and getting back to sport.
~EDs like to trick you into thinking that because you’re “high functioning” you’re fine and don’t need to recover. That’s just BS! Why stop at “fine” when you deserve so much more! Because just imagine how much more fulfilling and joyful and adventurous life will be without the ED. You will finally be THRIVING, not just surviving.
~You will create lasting memories of fun outings with friends and family, not of calories eaten or steps walked. You want to remember the laughter, the jokes, the stories, the adventures, the friendships, not the guilt, the fear or the isolation.
~You deserve free, unabashed, unconditional liberation. MAK said this perfectly: “only then will you realize that the life you might’ve convinced yourself was “high-functioning” was absolutely nothing compared to the fully-fueled and without-limits life that is waiting for you.”
~Remember that functioning & living are two very different things.
*Original IG post here
