Cats and other things

I am sitting here on the floor with my cat, petting him and thinking. Petting an animal, or even being in the presence of one, can make a lot of things better. There is nothing quite like the purr of a contented cat. As I observe my kitty his ears got back and his tail starts to twitch indicating that he might not be in the mood to be touched or pet. In this moment I am jealous of him. It may seem weird and stupid to be jealous of a cat but who among us has not been jealous of some animal at some point in our lives? Cats are in tune with their emotions and it shows in their body language. That is something that is soooooo hard for me to actually do, and honestly it's not always safe for me to do. Cats are also really good at being selfish, another thing I often struggle with. I am so concerned with other people, their emotions and emotional well-being, being liked and taking care of others and not hurting people that it sometimes gets in the way of my needs and my recovery. While I recognize this, changing it is so hard. I am slowly learning, or trying to learn, to trust my instincts and intuition because it is often right and to allow myself to have needs and do what is best for myself. It's been a long and hard road to get to this point and I know I have a long way still to go but the point is that I am traveling that road at all, something I would not have done a few years ago. I know that there are certain things that are out of my control and that other people's actions are included in those. As I learn and walk this path to recovery I have gone back over memories and realized that not everything is my fault, despite what some people may say. It is such a relief to know that I was not the source of fights and other people's actions/reactions.

As I grow and learn more about how to take care of myself, I take tiny steps in my recovery and towards being my own person. This is a wonderful and terrifying thing. I don't really know who this person within me is. I know my eating disordered self very well, we have been extremely intimate for years but I don't know this healthy self and this fear is holding my back. I need to find a way to get past it so I can move on and not cling to my eating disorder, something that I have been really struggling with lately. It's hard when there is a constant tirade going in my head saying "i'm fat, ugly, stupid, worthless, unlovable, mean, evil, a bad friend/sister/daughter/student/girlfriend/person/human; i'm evil; i don't deserve recovery, to live, hope, happiness; people would be happier without me around; i'm a burden, a nuisance, a bore, annoying; i don't deserve anything; my life is meaningless; i wish i was dead; i should die; i have nothing worth living for; lose weight, lose weight; just a few pounds; food is evil and i don't need it; who cares if i ever eat again; am i really going to eat that/this; do i really need all this food; life's too much; this is too much food; i'm obese; no one will ever love me....." It's so hard to fight this all the time and keep my head up, to challenge and ignore it, to just function. I know I need to and I have a cheat sheet that I can look at for reframes and challenges but it's so hard to believe. Yes I can challenge and reframe these thoughts but I don't know how often I actually believe them and that is the most important part. I wish this was easier. I wish I had never relapsed. There is so much I wish but wishing will get me nowhere. I have to work hard and push through this. I have to have hope and trust that I will be alright in the end. I have to have trust that my team knows what they are doing and will not make me fat. I have to be open and honest and true to myself, whoever that person is. I have to be willing to change and face my fears. I have to accept that I will have days where I may not be okay or follow my meal plan or engage in other behaviors but that does not mean that I have to do so the next day or the next. I have to be strong and determined. I know that I am a very stubborn person and I can and will use that stubbornness and determination to my advantage. I need to accept that this may not be the last time that I go to treatment but it may also indeed be the last time. I will take it one day at a time because I cannot know the future and worrying and obsessing about it will do me no good. I do not need to worry about the next possible relapse right now but get through this to recovery. I will focus on this moment now and getting through this one rather than obsessing about the next and that way I will get where I am going, find out where I want to go and take the next step to get there.  

I Made It Through the Day

Today is the first day that I have been home and have not thrown up! This is so huge for me. I now know for certain that I can make it through the day here without having to throw up. I want to again make one thing clear. I do not purge. It is just that there are times when I have what feels like no control and I throw up without meaning or wanting to and it sucks. So for me to have done this is so important to me. I followed my meal plan and kept my food down. I have to admit that I did cut a corner a bit with my wrap today at lunch in that it was more like 1.5 starches instead of the required 2 but I am checking off today in the win column, on MY side instead of my ED's. I may still struggle and I may fall on my face but the important thing is that I will always, ALWAYS pick myself back up and keep going.

This Struggle

There are times when I passingly wish I was dead. There are times when I feel so full of life that I am bursting. Now is not one of the latter. For some reason my brain likes to think that death would solve all of my problems, that I would be free of my struggles and worries, that I would be at peace with myself and the universe. Well, as many have said, suicide is a permanent fix to a temporary problem. And I'm not saying that I want to kill myself, so don't take it that way, but my mind likes to send the thought through it every once in a while. So it's something I have to deal with. For some people this might sounds crazy and I realize that in the spectrum of mental health I'm probably not on the upper end. The important thing is that I recognize this and as long as I am recognizing this then I'm not too worried. I can still find reasons why my death would be more of a disaster and loss than anything else. I know that there are people who love me very much and care about me and I would never want them to go through the pain of something like that. So I keep forging on, praying that this will get easier, that I will be able to keep fighting off my demons. Life is not easy, nor is it fair and these are facts that I accept. All I am asking is for it to be a little more tolerable. Yes I am struggling now but I am trying to hold on to the hope that one day I will not struggle as much. Since I have been home I have not always been entirely honest with myself and I am working on that. I do not know if there has been one day that I have been at my house when I have not spontaneously thrown up. It is so hard for me to admit this and I have to say that it is not just that I am here with my parents because it has happened when I have been home alone. Part of my problem admitting to this issue is the fact that it has been so often misunderstood as me purging. I am not purging, I just can't seem to stop myself from vomiting. (Sorry if this is triggering to any of you who are reading this.) The other thing that I need to admit is that I do not always make up for what I cannot keep down. Part of this is because I am afraid that if I do I will throw it up again and it will just make things worse. The other part is my eating disorder telling me that if I eat it then it counts whether I keep it down or not. So these are issues to bring up now in therapy and with my nutritionist. I know that it is important that I deal with this, not just because of the issues with food and that I am not following my meal plan technically if I am not keeping the food down, but also because I can feel the damage I am doing. Specifically the other day when I think I tore something. The chest pain I have been having for years now has been linked to this issue of not keeping my food down. Today I jokingly said that my body's expiration date may be sooner than expected and I know that this will be true if I do not address this and get help for it. The problem is the shame. Everything comes with the shame. I know that my therapist and team will not judge me but I judge myself and that is the worst. So I start with admitting it and the next step is to try to be a bit easier on myself. I would not judge someone else who struggled with the same issue and I deserve the same treatment I show others. Today (it is technically morning) I will work on accepting where I am and moving forward. 

I Have a Name And It Is Not ED/Ana

I have a name and it is not ED, Anorexia, or Ana (though I am an Anna, two n's  not one, and not THAT ana). I have a name but I am not always that person. As I am continuing to work on recovery outside of treatment I find that it is much harder. There is no one around to watch me, no one to notice if I do not follow my meal plan, no one to check on me every hour, no one to stop me from exercising. Freedom is wonderful but it also means that I have the freedom to "engage in behaviors." (On a side note, I hat that term but I don't know how else to put it.) This freedom is a big responsibility. It means that I have to take charge of my recovery and that is an exciting but terrifying thing, partly because I don't know how much I really trust myself.

I know that in the past I have been a very good liar, both with myself and with others. If I want to get away with something, I will find a way to do so. However, I don't really want to get away with my eating disordered behavior and I KNOW I will not get away with fully engaging in my eating disorder. So what about just kinda, sorta engaging in it??? No. I know that I cannot do that either because there is no kinda, sorta engaging in it. There is no "just a few pounds," no "I'll just go back to it for a few days until I get where I want to be," no "I can just cut a few things," and no "forgetting" to have something or to follow my meal plan. These things are all signs that I am headed back to the dark place that I have worked so hard the past 5 to 6 weeks to change and overcome. Life now may suck because of my thoughts and moods but it is nothing compared the despair and hopelessness I felt before and the catch-22 I was in, nothing compared with the lose of self I experienced, nothing compared to the pain I was putting my loved ones in. So I keep working on reframing my thoughts, keep telling myself that I want recovery, keep on trying and sitting with the pain and discomfort. Because what else can I do? Yes I could engage but that would be pointless as I said. So I see my team and work on my issues to try to get back to who I really am, my values, my interests and learning and growing as a person. I am hoping that as I grow and learn who I am, things will get easier, slowly easier and maybe one day I will be happy and healthy and confident in my recovery and body.

Making It at Home after Discharge

Well, I did it. I survived life at Klarman and have returned home. It's not the smoothest transition nor the easiest. Being back in the environment I was when I was still sick is hard and I have had a few slips but I am moving forward. Yes it is hard but I have done this before so I know that I can do it and this time I have my boyfriend. Sure he is not living in Vermont anymore but he is my main source of support outside my treatment team and I know I can reach him if I need to and just knowing that he cares helps. While behaviors have changed drastically since I was last home, my mind is still the same prison it has always been. I find myself hating this body more than ever and morning the lose of my eating disordered one. I wish there was a switch I could flick to turn off my brain but sadly there is no such thing. I work and work on reframing my thoughts but I just keep doing the same thing over and over. I wonder if I will ever be "normal," but what is normal anyway?

Looking through my journal from treatment and before I do see the progress I have made and it gives me hope. I did a lot of very hard work in treatment and I know that I need to continue that work if I want to truly recover. Some of my first steps in treatment were to make sure that my scale was removed from the house and other methods of body checking were disposed of. The scale was the hardest thing to get rid of but I felt so much better after doing so. I still have moments of regret associated with relinquishing my hold on a means of monitoring my weight but I know it was the right decision. If I had my scale, I would be quickly back to where I was before treatment. As it is I have to resist the urge to purchase a new one. I feel so torn. Within me I have two sides at war and I am pulled between the two. I can't get my eating disorder to shut up or leave me alone. Since entering my range everything has just gotten so much worse. The notion of "just losing a few pounds" is so strong but I know what it leads to and I don't want to go there. I don't want to throw away all the work that I have put into getting to where I am. I keep trying to stay positive but some days I just want to hide from the world and disappear all together. Fighting that urge is sometime the only thing I can think about. I feel like I am losing energy to keep pushing through and I am hoping that I can get to a better place before I do.

Treatment Days

I'm sitting in the computer room at treatment on a website I'm not supposed to be on. I don't care. I have missed my blog and the sense of release and the ability to type out my feelings. Yes, I journal while here but for someone who is used to having her laptop whenever she wants it, not being able to blog is a huge adjustment on top of all the other adjustments I am having to make in my life. I wish that I could have my computer but I understand why we are not allowed to do so. Being back in residential treatment has been a difficult adjustment but I have settled in and met some amazing girls here. Yes there are the annoying and frustrating ones, the girls who engage in behaviors and trigger everyone else. There are the girls who do not follow the rules and the contraband smuggled in. However the overall feel here is nice now. Some major drama players have either been transferred or discharged and the place has settled into it's normal routine. While I am able to follow the meal plan and gain the weight they want me to, I am still having so much difficulty accepting the need for this weight gain and the changing body I am experiencing. I grieve for the body I once had, though it was unhealthy and unattractive, according to others. It is so hard to get past these feelings of self-hatred and loathing I have for my body. I know it will be a long process and it will be hard. I just hope that while I continue to work on feeling better about myself and my body I am able to remain on the track that I have begun and not slip back into old ways. 

Urges and Behaviors

Today royally sucked. I felt like I was on a roller coaster of urges. I think that for the first time I actually went through a binge/purge cycle. As someone who has always restricted this is extremely hard to admit and the shame of seeing my weight go up and down several pounds or more only made things worse. As I approach the time when I will enter treatment (still not 100% sure when but soon), it seems like ED tries harder each day to keep his hold on me. While I have stuck to ED behaviors the urge to wander into other possible addictions also leaves me wondering what is going on. Wave after wave of thoughts and urges leave me exhausted and confused. While the binge/purge behaviors take over my thoughts also wandered towards alcohol. While I am still several months under the legal limit my parents have enough alcohol in our house to do some serious damage. Only once or twice before in my life have I had the urge to drown everything in that "wonderful" poison, alcohol. I know that with my issues with addiction seeking solace in the bottle is out of the frying pan and into the fire as the saying goes.

Years ago, when my brother was dealing with issues related to alcohol, I made a promise to myself that I would not develop the same issues. Thankfully my stubbornness and that promise kept me from touching the stuff,  both in the past when I have had urges to over do it and today. I only hope that I will be able to use my stubbornness to help deal with ED urges in the future. However, it is this stubbornness that ED also uses to his advantage. It is interesting that the qualities we have can be used to help us and hurt us. I know I still have a lot to learn about myself. I also know now that I have to be constantly vigilant because ED is a tricky bastard and even when I think I know every trick he can play, he still has a few up his sleeve that I do not know about yet. I also know that behaviors will increase when I am home and around my parents.

This house is toxic for me. Tonight I came to understand my eating disorder and what helped create it a little bit more. It is interesting what can click on that light and open our eyes so we have that "ah ha" moment. Tonight I watched my parent fight, not an uncommon event in our household. However what struck me was the fact that meal time was used by my mother as a way of getting back at my dad. She was mad at him for reasons I will not go into and so, though she had already decided that she did not feel well and so was not going to have dinner (a topic for another day and another post), she refused to sit down with him while he ate. My dad, being the guy that he is, was rather oblivious to the motivation behind my mother's lack of a presence at the table until I asked her if she was coming and then if she was mad. The whole situation was stressful and frustrating. Yet it was also eye-opening and has made me grateful that I no longer live here full time. School may be stressful and difficult at times but at least I am able to be in a healthy environment of my choosing. As I grow as a person and continue on the path to recovery I hope to be able to learn how to remove myself from situations that only hinder my recovery and health. 

Struggling and Thoughts

So it comes as no surprise to me that having a scale is a bad idea which leads to much unhappiness, however I cannot seem to part with the damn thing. I am constantly stepping on and stepping off. My day or night is determined by what that number is. If it goes down it's good, up is bad. So as I start to eat in preparation for treatment my weight goes up. It does not matter how much or little it rises, each time it does I feel that self-esteem I already have so little of fall a bit more. I would give anything not to care about weight or how my body looks in the mirror. I would give anything to be free of this obsession. I do not know how many hours, days, weeks, months, years I have spent thinking about food, weight and my body. It makes me sad that I am so consumed with these issues. As a child I used to have fun and have a life. Now I find myself unable to enjoy times with friends and family because I am so self-conscious and food is part of every meeting. I think about how I can make it look like I had more than I actually did, if there is a way to get out of eating. I always scan the table to make sure that I am the one having the least. There is a running count in my head, a table of body types. If I am the skinniest one there I can feel good, if I am not then I am a failure. All I want is to be normal but try as I might I keep being drawn back into this pattern. Now it is time to get help to work on this but even though I know deep down that I need to go and get help, I am still fighting with myself constantly because I do not want to go. I am scared and sad. I don't want to miss my summer but I have no choice. I need to spend this time focusing on me and my needs and I need to learn that that is okay. While in treatment I have many goals but I still plan on working on things for the outside world. I will bring my GRE books. I will continue to write and journal.  I will do reading. There is so much that I want to do and I will find a way to do it. I know that by bringing things to do to treatment I will have a chance to practice balancing what I need/want to do and what I am able to do. I will be able to test my boundaries and limits in a secure environment and this is something I am excited and scared to do. At school, I constantly seem to be running from one thing to another and I need to learn balance. I cannot do everything all the time. I need to learn to say no and speak up when I am overwhelmed and most importantly, I need to learn to ask for help and advocate for myself. The first step in this, I believe, is doing something about the nutrition information that is posted on all food in the dining halls and the Vermont laws that require restaurants and chains to post calories. This is my next step of advocating for myself since I know that if I go back to school and have to face the caloric content of every item all the time I will relapse. It sucks but I know I am not the only one with this problem and someone needs to stand up for us all. 

Reflections Before Bed

Wow. So I have been really bad about posting here. I guess I have had a lot going on which explains why I have been lax in my blogging. A lot has happened since I was on here last. For starters, I have finished the semester. I made it! There were times when I was not sure if I would but I completed the year and just in time. I have been slowly and not so slowly slipping since I was discharged from Walden. While the time I spent there probably kept me able to be in school, it did not help me get back on track with recovery. I could say that I had so many external factors going against me this semester and that these were the cause of my relapse but that would not be entirely honest. I don't' think I ever really was able to deal with the issues that helped create my eating disorder. I was able to deal with the behaviors but the thoughts and feelings never went away. In someways it feels like this relapse was a ticking time bomb that was just waiting to explode. My low self-esteem, a major contributor to my eating disorder, was talked about but I never actually changed the way I think and feel about myself. It doesn't matter that people say that I am a good person or that I should feel good about myself, the plain fact is that I do not like myself, I barely tolerate myself. If someone asked me why this is I don't know that I could answer that question. There are many times, in fact most of the time, I cannot stand being in my body. This is a common feeling among those of us who struggle with body image issues and eating disorders so the knowledge that this is an issue for me is nothing new. What I want to know is why I feel this way and the fact that I cannot answer that question is frustrating. So, although I finished the semester, I do not feel that it was an accomplishment or that I should be proud of myself for that. The fact that I was able to remain at school is just something that I know I had to do and there was no option of not finishing. Tonight my dad said to me that I am a judgmental person; I disagreed with him. But if I look at the way I talk to myself and the standers that I hold for myself especially, and for others at times, I'd have to say that I am. So, armed with this knowledge I approach a new chapter in my life. Once again, I am going to residential treatment for my eating disorder, this time as an adult.

My labs and vitals indicate that, currently, I am medically stable. This is good news, though surprising news, for me and my team. While I am medically stable, I am in the worst place I have every been with my eating disorder in terms of weight and thoughts. Being at school granted me the freedom to do whatever I wanted. There was no accountability and so I could get away with anything. Except I wasn't really getting away with it, I was just postponing the inevitable and now I have to face myself and really look at the way I talk to myself, treat myself and view my body. I cannot hide any longer. Although my eating disorder is constantly trying to convince me that I am okay, that I do not need treatment, that I do not want treatment; objectively I know how much I need it. I keep thinking, well no one can force me. My parents don't have that power anymore. But really who am I hurting by refusing treatment when I know I need it. I would only be making life more difficult for myself and everyone who cares about me and loves me. As scared as I am, I need to face the truth: I need help. Admitting that is frightening and difficult. As someone who likes to be in control, who is the caretaker not the caretakee, someone who does not like to be told what to do, I know it will be difficult giving up this control and trusting my treatment team. I also have to realize that I am not in control anymore, I don't know if I ever was. All I have is the illusion of control and a body that will start to shut down, if it hasn't started already. Tomorrow I see my therapist I saw in high school. I know that it is going to be difficult. I am ashamed to return to her worse off than I was when she first and last saw me. I am afraid that I will disappoint her even though I know that that is not the case and the person I have disappointed is myself. I cannot help but feel that I chose to return to my eating disorder, that it is my fault. I do not know what this obsession with placing blame is a result of or why it is so strong, all I know is that it is there. The standards I hold myself to are unrealistic and impossible to achieve so why do I hold myself to them? Why do I clearly set myself up to fail? Again, I do not know but these are questions that I need to explore in therapy so that I can accept myself and start to move on with my life. There is so much more I want to write and say and do but for now I need to get some sleep. In the morning, perhaps I will see with new eyes. Perhaps I will be magically better. I smile and think to myself, 'If only it was that easy.' Although tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start, I know that the weight of today (no pun intended) will be there tomorrow, pulling me down, keeping me locked in a seemingly endless battle of wills with myself.

Imbolc, Purification and Re-Dedication

To those who do not know, I am pagan and tonight at our pagan/wiccan collective meeting we celebrated one of our sabbaths a day early, Imbolc. It is a time of cleansing, purifying and dedicating oneself. As I have been struggling through the past few (or more than a few) months I have been uncertain of my desire for recovery. I have become so entrenched in ED/Ana that I could not see where I ended and they began. With the reality check of the possibility of needing treatment and the realization that this could not be done while working part time and remaining a full-time student I have had to confront this demon head on. Over the break my doctor and I made plans for when I would come back to school that were delayed due to the fact that during our J-term, a time which has traditionally been a time to take fun classes, non-academic classes and such, our health center was closed. This provided the perfect opportunity for ED/Ana to step into overdrive. And so I found myself at the health center meeting with my doctor who was talking treatment ideas and the possibility of doing IOP. Still reality did not fully hit me until yesterday when I had my first appointment with a nutritionist since the beginning of college almost three years ago. Reality dropped on me last night and after a few panic attacks I was still unsure of how this was going to go. I knew what I had to do, I know what I have to do, but was still uncertain that it could be done. Well tonight the night before Imbolc I am cleaning out my head and dedicating myself to recovery.

"I will give myself the chance, the choice to live. I will give my body a voice, the words to speak its needs and take the time to listen. I will not allow myself to be drawn in to being with another but will make my boundaries known. I will allow myself to need and to satisfy those needs. I will be present in my body without judgment or critique. I will be seen, heard. I will give myself permission to exist, take up space and have a presence."

These are the words I wrote during out ritual and with these words I dedicate myself to recovery. I say good-bye to the demon that has made my life hell, turned me into a liar and taken over so much of my time and energy. I will not allow myself to suffer at its hands anymore. I may slip up. I may have bad days. I will make mistakes but that comes with being human. I will not allow a slip up turn into an excuse to go backwards. I am done starving myself to death. I do not want that life because it isn't a life. I have goals, plans, things I want to do, passions I want to pursue. None of this can be done with ED/Ana in my life. I am ready, I think, to embrace life again. I will start by doing all I can to follow my meal plan. Whatever it takes I need to do because there is too much at stake to allow room for failure. Failure happens only when you give up the fight and I WILL NOT stop fighting. I can't, my life is at stake and there are people who love me and care about me whom I cannot let down. I am a stubborn person, one way or another I will find a way to follow the path of recovery and take my life back.

Drink Me

In Alice in Wonderland she drinks the potion that shrinks her. I was reading Alice in Wonderland last night before bed and thinking about this. What is this obsession with shrinking and growing? Why does everyone want to be so small? Why do I want to be so small? Why do I want to disappear so badly that I am willing to starve myself to do so? I do not understand it. I just want to be happy. ED says that I can be happy if I lose weight I will be happy, but I know he's a liar. I know that he is a liar and yet I listen, why do I listen? Why do I believe him? I don't want to believe him. I don't want to do what he says and yet I do. Life is waiting for me and ED is standing between me and life. So what do I do? Well for starters I put together my team. I get a nutritionist, contact school nutritionist on to-do list; I see a therapist, contacted and seeing; I contact and see my psychiatrist, done; I see my doctor at home, also done; and I see up weigh-ins at school, again on to-do list. Okay so I have my team in place but ED has called for back up. He's go his favorite weapon, the Scale, which I can't seem to give up yet. Then he's got Ms. Perfectionist, Mr. Self-Doubt, Ms. Depression and a whole crew of others. It's a battle between the two teams and what are we fighting over? My life. So that little bottle that says "Drink Me," well I started drinking it. Now I have to ask myself if I am willing to put the bottle down and take a bite of the cake that says "Eat Me" and honestly I do not know which way it will go right now.

I want to do my best. I want to fight. I am trying. I want to live my life and be happy. Life is waiting for me and I and want to live it. I don't want be like this but the anxiety of eating is so bad. I hate how I feel even without eating but when I eat it is even worse. I look at myself in the mirror and hate every inch of my body. I need to learn to stop being so critical but how? I guess I should cover the mirrors in my room but it's so hard because I know how much ED loves the mirror. I want to return to recovery this year. I want to make this year different from last year. Life is going to be different. I am going to be different. I am. I am I am.

Family Dynamics

As a child I was always eager to jump into life and get wet and messy. I loved making mud pies and dancing in the rain. Thunderstorms were my favorite. I loved to feel the rain drops coming down and soaking my shirt. Life was full and satisfying. I was an innocent child, as most are, and I knew little of cruelty and pain but as I grew I saw more of the world and a darker side of life. Looking back I could not understand that it was abuse at the time but the times when my mother would spank me using "The Stick" was not normal. The time she slapped me across the face for "being sassy" was not right. I know that I blamed myself for these reactions of hers but they were not my fault. When my therapist first started talking about abuse I brushed it off as irrelevant and inaccurate but the more I look back the clearer the pattern emerges. Now this pattern was in part due to the generation gaps between my mother and my generation because she came from the "spare the rod spoil the child" time and to her I was indeed a spoiled child. My mother was always the one to get angry and yell or hit or punish in some way and so my relationship with my parents became dichotomous so that my mother was the "bad" parent and my dad the "good" one. Being at home for break has given me time to think about this and really look at the way my parents react to things. Christmas was a total disaster as I have mentioned already and it was interesting to see how it was my mother who did the slamming of the doors and walking out while my dad sat calmly by and watched. I feel like my dad has always been a watcher. He never really got involved in the dirty side of parenting when misbehavior or punishment was concerned. I know that my parents love me and want what is best for me they just cannot show it. My mother is very dramatic and I get a lot of my personality from her but my practice of internalization comes from my father. Seeing the two play their parts and interact can tell me a lot about myself, yet it is often difficult to sit back and watch the fights because like my father the watcher, I am also the mediator.

My dad does watch but at some point he will jump in and try to resolve the issue even if it only ends up in more yelling and unpleasantness. I am the same way. I hate fights. They make me anxious and scared and I just want them to stop. Yet the mediator never really ends up satisfied or happy in our family, partly because of the two main arguers, my mother and my brother. The two of them could fight or argue or debate until the end of time and neither would budge from his or her point of view. When the two of them are home the tension in the house is so palpable it permeates the atmosphere, making everyone on edge. I feel like whenever I am home I have to walk on eggshells and watch what I say as if there is a bomb ready to be set off by the wrong movement or word. In this setting it is no wonder that I am struggling. Yet the struggle started before I came home.

Even though the struggling did start before I came home for the holidays I was struggling this summer and perhaps that laid the foundation for the path I am on now. With my brother living at home and farming on my parents land a fight was sure to break out daily. The animosity left over from the summer lingers and taints any interaction between my brother and my parents. All I know is that the atmosphere in this house is toxic and has been for a long time. I wish that there was some way to change it but my mother and I, despite our similarities, cannot get alone for extended periods of time. My dad and I are okay because neither of us like fighting. My brother and I did not get along for most of my childhood. In fact he was somewhat of a bully to me when I was younger but we have grown closer over the years, however there are things that will always divide us and keep us from becoming really close. It's sad when I think about my family and how I cannot really get close or talk to any of them about the deeper things. Religion is nixed because I am pagan and they are Catholic and my general interests provide enough of a chasm to prevent and real connection from being formed. ED did not help. My eating disorder took advantage of an already broken system and severed all ties that I could have with my family members. Lies came between us, just as the lies that I told as a child to protect my developing identity left my parents stunned when I finally stopped acting like the child they wanted. I would like to try to get closer to my family but the years of pain and hurt I have suffered at their hands makes me very hesitant to crack that door open and let them in.

I never felt able to rely on my family for support so I built another family of friends instead. But now that I am in college and my friends from my childhood have gone in different directions and so I feel like my family has fallen apart and THAT may be why ED is stepping up his game and able to have such power over me and that is what I need to work on this semester, building my family at school, a safe and stable family from whom I can seek support and love and support and love in turn. Without this I will fail to get better and just keep getting worse. Now that I know one important key step towards recovery I have to have the strength and courage to put myself out there and maybe fall a few times and get hurt but pick myself back up and try again. I have already had multiple bad experiences with friends in college so I need to find a new strategy. I don't know how I will do it right now but I have to think of a way of connecting with people or I won't make it. I can do this and I will do this. I just have to keep reminding myself of those two facts.

Negative Energy and a New Year

"Through the Goddess, we can discover our strength, enlighten our minds, own our bodies, and celebrate our emotions." Starhawk

I know that I have just used this quote in my last post but I would really like to take some time to reflect on what this means. In struggling with my eating disorder I am denying myself more than just food and the nutrients that comes with it. I deny myself the energy to get things done, to have fun, to  live my life. I deny my needs and say that they are not important, that they can be set aside as easily as one casts away junk mail. I am denying my very right to exist. In not eating and working my body beyond the point where it can safely maintain itself I am seeking to disappear, to become unseen, unnoticed, invisible. I have to ask myself why, why is it that I allow myself to continue down a path that I know deep down holds only pain, betrayal, anger, frustration and so much more. What is going on within me or in my environment that has fostered the right condition for such self-hatred? Growing up Catholic I was always taught that we are made in the image and likeness of God, with the capital g, and as such are we not god-like ourselves? But no with the sin of two people we were supposedly cast out of paradise and made to live a harsh life. I do not claim to be a theologian but this does not seem like the act of a loving god. The old testament, actually, shows an angry, vengeful god who deals out punishments to his people for disobeying his laws. I think that this punishment is what I really took away from my religious education classes and this is what I experienced at home. As a child I was filled with so much fear that I hid things and did things in secret so as not to be punished for being myself. I do not seek to criticize any religion but for me, I need to work on my relationship with the goddess. I think that I have allowed the daily difficulties of life to get in the way of time spent in reflection. This is not wholly my fault. There has been a lot of negativity this past year and that is what I need to work on first.

Negative self-talk is a major problem. I can never seem to shake the critic in myself. I do not use the same critic when talking or thinking about others so why am I so hard on myself. I do not know the answer but I would like to make a fresh start this year. I am going to try to reduce this negative self-talk. I am going to work on staying positive and not letting myself get bogged down when things get difficult. This past year I had to deal with a lot of shit and I need to work on cleaning up the wreckage that was left in it's wake. Included in working on the negative self-talk, I need to start taking a step back from other people's lives. I love my friends but I seem to make friends with people who have a lot they are dealing with and I have learned that, though some day I may become a therapist, at this moment I am not equipped to handle all of the worries and trials of my friends. I need to learn to set boundaries if others are unable to set healthy boundaries themselves. I need to learn that it is okay to say no and that I need to take care of myself before I can even think about taking care of others. I have known this for a long time but this year I am making it a goal, a priority to carry the knowledge into action.

Boundaries themselves have always been difficult. I never seem to be able to have healthy boundaries with friends. I need to be able to say no, to define what is and is not appropriated in a friendship. So this year I am going to work on boundaries. Already I have been trying to set up strong boundaries with my mother. In the past we have had a lot of issues and I have felt that she is often invading myself, my very being. I have felt crowded by her and have been working to not let her get through my defenses. I have to do this before I can get better along with many other things. This is just the beginning. I know I have a lot of work to do and a lot of reflecting to do. I am going to make a commitment to take time each day to reflect and grow closer to my goddess and to myself.

"What the caterpillar calls the end the of the rest of the world calls a butterfly." Lao Tzu

Thinking

So today was rather productive. I heard back from a few therapists. There is a therapist who seems good. I am working on setting up an appointment with her. I am taking steps to ensure that I do not go back to how I was before. Everyday gets harder it seems. I am constantly fighting with myself. I know that it is not myself that it is ED I am fighting but it does not feel that way. I want to be skinny. I want to loose weight. I don't want to look in the mirror and see this fatty staring back at me. However I have got to remember that ED is a lying bastard who can warp my mind. He follows me everywhere I go. It's like I can't escape him. I just want to be alone and not have him in my head 24/7. I am going keep going trying. I am going to keep on following my meal plan. I am going keep fighting. I will. I will.

Why do I have to be like this? I hate the constant fighting and back and forth. I don't want to tie myself to ED but I do. I don't understand why this is happening. It could be the depression or being home or it could be going back to school. Last semester was really difficult with friends and I'm scared the same thing would happen. I don't want to make friends just to have them stop being my friends. I'd rather not go through that again. I just want to get better. I really want to be better.

Making Plans and Checking them Thrice

Okay, sorry for the cheesy title it just came out. Things are starting to get better. I'm having lunch and breakfast and dinner and following my meal plan almost completely. This weekend I head back to school and I'm trying to plan ahead for support down there. I know that I can see my therapist at school 15 times a year. I really like her but if I start to relapse or slip I think I may need to see someone more often than that so I have started doing research on therapists in the area. I really want to find the right therapist. I have had soooo many in the past 6 to 7 years and I have only liked my current therapist. I know that it is important to find the right person.  I have been researching and sending out emails. I really want to do this right. I want to have backup if things go badly. I know that it will be really stressful. I'm only taking 4 classes, as of now, but I'm working and I have an independent study project I'm doing with my psychology adviser. I am also getting involved with more clubs and organizations. I really want to make the most of this experience because it only happens once. Life is crazy at school and I want to have someone I can go to if I need to. I know I have friends who are here to support me but I've had some really bad experiences with friends at college in the past so I really want to have a therapist I can go to. Now I just have to talk with the parents so I can get permission to see someone.

I really want to have a good year and I'm really scared that ED will mess this up. I had a really bad semester in the spring after a bad semester in the fall. Last year I had two sets of friends dump me and I now I'm scared to make friends because I don't want them to do the same. I spent weeks depressed because I had no one to talk to make friends. The friends I have now are going abroad in the spring. I guess I will stick to my groups. There are some great people there but one of the friends who is no longer a friend is in one of my favorite clubs. I am not going to let her keep me from it though. I am going to get through this. I will have a good year and I will enjoy it. I am not going to let last year stop me from having fun and meeting new people. I'm going to do this. I am going to do the best that I can.

"The key to change ... is to let go of fear." -Rosanne Cash

"There are two mistakes along the road to truth ... not going all the way, and not starting." -Buddha

When the Lights Go Out

So looking back on the past week or so I realize that I've been depressed lately. I guess I still am but now that I recognize it I can work on turning on the light. I know that I have been struggling with ED and I've had a few instances of self-harm. I need to find ways to deal with these things. I need to work on dealing with my emotions and identifying them. I don't really understand how this happened. I thought that I was doing really well but I guess that I let my guard down and ED and self-harm saw the opportunity to come back into my life. Maybe it's just because I'm home around my family in which case I hope it all gets better when I go back. However I cannot expect a change in location and environment to change everything. I have to work on this. I cannot be blind-sided by my depression again. My plan: 1) start journalling/blogging, 2) talk to friends/family, 3) take time for myself, 4) relax, yoga, meditate. I will do better. I want to work on it. I want to be better. Most of the time. I am really fighting myself on this but I know that it's not myself that I'm fighting but my disorder/disease and I just have to keep reminding myself that that part that says it's me is not. I can do this and I will.

Reflections

Looking back at the years I spent deep in my eating disorder and struggling with self-harm, I find myself grasping for memories that do not seem to be there. Everything seems fuzzy and confusing. Blurry images and static are all that remains from that time. It is difficult to look back over the years of my life and not be able to recall, events, fond memories or anything but emptiness and it scares me. What was I doing with my life that I have lost years of living, years of memories? It makes me realize how much ED really took from me.

In those years where I was actively engaging in a relationship with ED and self-harm I completely lost myself in them. They became me and I them. Of course I have no memories to speak of as I was not myself, I was not Anna so Anna would not have those memories. With ED and self-harm by my side all I had to do was get through the day. There was no energy for anything else. It was all about surviving that moment. My focus was on food and cutting so even if I, Anna, was present in that moment all I would remember is food and cutting. Now that I am in recovery I want to make the most of my time. I want to make up for lost time and have experiences and make memories. I want to live to the fullest. I want to be myself and get to know who that is. I get to have adventures and try new things, something ED never let me do. I will work through my anxiety and not let it or ED hold me back. I don't want to look back on any more years and not be able to remember or see only fuzzy flashes of events. From now on I will do my best to just be.

Who Am I?

Who am I without ED?

I have asked this question many times and I don't really know how to answer it - or maybe I am afraid to answer it. For years I have allowed ED to define me, wanted to be defined as ED. It is scary to think of this question. For so long all I had was ED. He was my constant companion. He was always there for me. I could turn to him when I felt overwhelmed, unhappy, depressed, alone, scared, angry, etc. and without him I often feel lost. At times I run back to him, clinging on to the known but now my eyes have been opened; I know what comes with ED - fear, hurt, illness, weakness, shadows, emptiness, death. So what does this leave me? Who is this person left in ED's absence?

Well, there are many ways to describe me but does that really say who I am? I am Anna Elizabeth Smith. I am a daughter, sister, friend, granddaughter, niece, cousin, lover, girlfriend. I am a student. I am a pagan/wiccan. I am a MoHo. I am an alumna. I am a Leo. A cat lover. A reader. A writer. A poet. A fighter. A woman. A human. A Vermonter. A former Catholic and Catholic school girl. I am all these things but does that say who I really am? Am I more than this? How am I defined? Can I be defined? Is it a question of who I am or who I want to be? These questions challenge me each day. I used to be able to answer the question, who am I quite easily, I was ED but now I can be so much more and am so much more. Even if I cannot put words to it I know that I am more than my eating disorder and even when ED tries to walk back through that door I know that I am capable of more than being just ED.

Who am I? I am who I am. I am a human being in flux. There is no one definition for who I am. I can be defined by my actions, by my characteristics, by my relationships, by my place in society but I am so much more than all of those things. I am a living, breathing force. I am a free spirit in a body in the image of my Goddess granted the gift of life. My body, my life is holy and precious and I will not allow anyone to crush that or taint this gift. I have been given a chance to make a difference in this world and I would be foolish to give that up. ED will not weigh me down with his bullshit. He will not extinguish my light and life. I will not give him that chance. I see him for what he really is and I am stronger than him. I see him for the weakling he is preying on humanity and luring innocent and wonderful people into his abusive relationship, a relationship that if unstopped will result in death. I will not let him take me because I have learned one thing about who I am if nothing else. ED has taught me that I am strong, stronger than he reckoned because I fought him and I will fight him every day that I live and each day I grow stronger for the fight. So I may not know who I am in my entirety but I know enough and each day I have the opportunity to learn more.

Trust

Trust n. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

Trust is such a difficult thing. It requires faith, faith in a person or thing, faith that that person has your best interests at heart, faith that you can rely on that person or thing no matter what. In some ways I am a very trusting person, yet that has changed over time as everything does.

When I was a kid I had that kid's sense of wonder, faith and trust in all and everything. I knew that everything and everyone was trustworthy and I had nothing to fear. That changed as I got older. I slowly realized that depending on my parents, not the best idea. My friends I could always trust. Eventually I just stopped trusting people in general. It was around this time that I started finding my trust placed elsewhere, specifically my eating disorder.

My eating disorder offered me an escape. It offered me a safe place, someone I could trust. I put my faith in ED and everything was great. That is until my health and weight went dangerously downhill. And so it was that once again I had placed my trust in someone and again been betrayed. So now I am again learning to trust.

I am learning to trust myself, trust my instincts. I am learning to explore to overcome my fears by facing them. I always loved a challenge when I was younger and I am learning to find joy in the challenge once again. Most importantly I have found someone I trust who is helping me explore and helps me see when ED is trying to may a comeback. It feels so good to be able to place my trust in someone whom I know cares about me again. I love learning to let someone in, let someone see the real me. I want to stay like this. I want to get back to my life. I want to live my life without ED and I am on my journey to do so.