A Little Reflection & Gratitude

Hi I’m Lauren and I haven’t had a moment to blog lately, but I wanted to share my personal mission as a future therapist: to stand up and fight the stigmas around mental illness that still exist in our society.

I struggled for years with an eating disorder and the psychological disorders that often accompany them: anxiety and depression. I’m not ashamed of the fact that my eating disorder took away the joy from some of the best years of my life, I’m simply proud of myself for getting help and getting through it. I am thankful to my team of professionals, my chosen family of friends, my biological family, and every single person who showed up to support the eating disorder community with me yesterday. A few years (that now feels like a lifetime ago), I thought there would never be a day of my life I wouldn’t have to carry the burden of my ED, I thought that I would always be at war with food and my weight, I thought I would never be good enough, smart enough, perfect enough to love, and I thought that the people who did love me were better off without me.

Now, I realize how wrong I was to think that, and how lucky I am. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few days reflecting over the path that life has taken me on and the reasons for it. I really want to believe I went through my little version of hell so that I can help other people through their own. Please reach out to me personally or professionally if you read this and you feel like you are in a place where you need a little extra strength to overcome the world around you right now. You deserve more.