This week I’ve spoken to very different people who have one thing in common.
Their lives
and families
and marriages
and dreams
have been ripped apart by eating disorders.
Not just anorexia.
Bulimia. Binge-eating. And the ones without labels that are just as serious.
A husband who’s quit his job and is now a full-time carer for a wife who wants to die.
An eighty year-old who has fought anorexia since she was a teen and whose daughter and now grand-daughter are sufferers too.
A young man who should be in the prime of his life, but spends his days locked in his room and exercising alone.
A thirteen year-old anorexic whose heart has stopped twice and is right now fighting for life in an intensive care unit.
I’ve spoken to a psychologist who says this: ‘No one with an eating disorder gets better by themselves’.
If you’re struggling, please – get help.
Thank you Emma. Thank you, because these situations are heartbreaking and awful, and to the world irredemable. The only person who can sort them is Jesus. Thank you for bringing him into these lives.
Thanks for showing Him in my life too. Thanks for inspiring me to at least try to be brave.
Emma, you rock. Just sayin’.
You’re a real encourager Lizzi: thanks. Please pray for these guys, esp the wee girl in hospital. x
you bet, lovely. And I’m going to pray for you too as you speak hope into lives without it. x
Thank you — I am growing tired of being brave and fighting the food lies. Lies that say ‘Food will fix that’ instead of ‘Jesus will fix that’.
(I’m supposed to be recovered and all better, though sometimes it feels like I’m only pretending to be better in front of people.)
VT – you’re right: it’s tiring to keep fighting. But that’s because the battle matters – it’s about life and death and an identity that goes beyond works or weight. It’s about a Lord who can be trusted and who carries us; not a slave driver who feeds us lies and takes everything we have.
Recovery doesn’t mean not struggling, (though by God’s grace the battles get easier or at least move to different ground). It’s about admitting we’re not all better and we need help. But that’s okay – and here’s the freedom. To be weak and real and to know ourselves utterly loved. Keep going sister. x