I Wish There Was A Warning
April 7, 2020
I just wish there was a warning.
I grew up seeing warnings everywhere.
Cigarettes, for how they could damage my lungs.
Gambling, for how addictive it can be.
Alcohol, it’s effects and steps to get help if needed.
Drugs, and how they could cause brain damage and death.
I just wish there was a warning. On every diet ad I’d ever seen. One that taught me the risks. That allowed me to know what my choices could entail.
You’d think it’d be obvious. But it wasn’t.
It seemed like health. It seemed like wellness. It seemed like self love.
It seemed… like my ticket to happiness.
When my bones started to show I felt validated. The smaller I got the more I had to document it. My photos were not moments of pride. They were moments of proof. That I was thin.
Even with a 95% failure rate, the majority of people who diet don’t experience a large negative long term impact, that I know of.
Yet the National Eating Disorders Association reports that 35% of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting and that 20-25% of those individuals develop eating disorders. It is far too common that eating disorders start off as dieting.
It is a risk.
And I just wish there’d been a warning.
I just wish we viewed eating disorders and disordered eating with the same seriousness as we do nicotine, drugs, gambling, alcohol.
I just wish I knew the risks.
And since they’re not fully in place yet, all I can give you is my story. A piece of it. A story of a girl who wanted to find happiness in her body, and thinness seemed like the answer to it.
I want you to know that while I still struggle, I can absolutely say, I feel better than I have in a really long time. Something I expected to feel when I was at my thinnest. But, as it turns out, came when I was willing to really love myself. The action of it. Food. Movement. Mental health.
I feel more beautiful and complete than I ever have, and none of it has to do with how I look.