Eating Disorders – The Wandering Daydreamer

I’ve already written a part one on the talks of self care, hence why you’re reading part 2, part 1 was more of a personal kind of talk, while this one will hopefully be talked about differently, in honor of World Mental Health Day, which is today (now yesterday) in case some of you didn’t know, don’t worry I actually didn’t know myself so if you forget or just genuinely wasn’t aware it’s okay, no worries, now my first write about self care isn’t up just yet, i’m still looking it over and reading it, it should be up before you see this though or you might see this one first and that one second,

I’ll try and keep it in order so it doesn’t get confusing, but I just wanted to let you know about that. I wanted to try and talk a little more about the importance of self care, because I don’t think people take it much into consideration and take it as serious as it should be, i’ve already stated in my first post how I have trouble with this, self caring isn’t really a big strong suit of mine, I find it weird, but i’ve realized how important it is to look after yourself. When it comes to self care, it’s surprisingly really difficult to keep yourself well, it shouldn’t be, but it is…..for some reason when it comes to our own well being, it’s a thought that is far from our minds, why!?

Well that’s a question that probably crosses our mind, yet it’s also a question that we tend to ignore if it does, now i’m not going to pretend that I know exactly what i’m talking about, because I don’t, I don’t really know much when it comes to self care, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you the ins and outs to it all, I’m actually just now learning about it properly myself, while having to adjust to it as well…..the only thing that I can say with it is,

As much as it may not seem like a big thing, it totally and definitely 100% percent is a big thing, most of us however ignore that fact and just continue to go about everything as if we can handle it all when in reality, that’s not always possible, we all have our breaking points and we all need a time and space to be able to just not deal with things for a bit, it’s well needed you know!? but in all seriousness, it is important to make sure you’re good and well, especially when dealing with mental health, I don’t think this can be expressed enough, people don’t think that mental health is a serious issue, but it really is, if you’re not well mentally, you won’t be able to be well in other aspects that are needed, everything starts with your mind.

If your mind is upside down and is just a complete mess, it’ll start to effect everything else around you as well, that’s why it’s important to make sure anything and everything that is within your headspace is filled with things that aren’t going to be harmful to you, easier said then done I know, believe me, I have a hard time keeping this in mind too, I struggle with Anxiety so my head is always being filled with so much it’s ridiculous!!

Some days are better than most, while on other days it tends to heighten and go into overload, it’s like having a whole lot of emails in your inbox and as you go through them all, you find most of what’s in your inbox, is just junk mail and so you go to delete them, but you realize you have a lot of junk mail then you know what to do with and you’re trying to figure out the best way to just get rid of it all, but you don’t know where to start and what’s actually important, so you’re just sitting there going through them all and although your concentrating hard on those emails, inside you’re freaking out and losing your mind just trying to get through it all.

The only thing with this email inbox is, it’s an everyday process and it seems like it keeps piling and piling and you wish you didn’t have to deal with it, but unfortunately it doesn’t go away, however it is maintainable, but it does come with some emotional and physical side effects…..

Sorry I think I went away from the topic for a bit, getting back on track, keeping your headspace clear from all things harmful and negative is a tough tasks to accomplish, it’s not impossible, it’s just hard. Anxiety though isn’t the only mental health issue that people deal with on a daily basis, people also struggle with depression, bi-polar disorders, eating disorders and so many other forms of mental health issues that’s out there……

Anxiety and depression are the most talked about in the mental health world, but those aren’t the only ones that people go through, it’s important to look at other issues just as much as we look at Depression and Anxiety, on the statistic outlook scale (hopefully that made sense) although they have different effects and are formed differently, they still connect in the same way, because they all stem from our emotions and thoughts.

It’s hard to wrap our heads around what causes some of us to have more of an effect then others when it comes to dealing with mental health, we all know it has to do with our brains and having some parts unlatched and disconnected from the rest of whatever is going on inside our brains, but when it comes to the science of it, it’s still a little complicated understanding fully, at least it’s one that i’m unable to explain properly to you guys.

But let’s not complicate things here, as much as I love and enjoyed science back in school, still enjoy it actually, also yes I know mental health is a more psychology related topic, then actual science, however you still use science with psychology i’m pretty sure, so it’s still in the same boat technically, don’t actually quote me on it though, because I know nothing alright.

Back to self care, because that’s what we were talking about here, it’s important to take care of yourself, plain and simple, I know it can be hard to take your focus away from everything and keep yourself from stressing and getting overwhelmed and that, but you have to know when to slow down and take a break at times so your able to function properly through the days, if you stop yourself from taking the time that you need to reboot and recharge you’ll end up crashing and breaking down to the point where you’ll find it extremely difficult to get back to where you left off…..

You don’t ever want to have it get to that point, so you have to try and keep a balance with everything, this coming from a girl where the word balance is nowhere near her daily vocabulary, it’s not even on a list, with that being said, self care is something we all have to try and practice, especially when it’s something that we aren’t really used to, it can be a challenge, but it doesn’t mean that it’s something not worth giving a chance, I mean it shouldn’t even be considered as an option, self care should be taken as an everyday kind of thing, but knowing how most of us operate……

We’re not always going to be able to look after ourselves the way we normally should, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still take care of ourselves. If we can’t commit to self care everyday, we should at least try and pick certain days throughout the week plus the weekend where we look at what we’re lacking or need improving on and do our best to work at that as much as we’re able to, so for example:

If you’re the type who struggles to relax or you don’t know how to, finding ways and practicing relaxation can help you to learn to take it easy a little bit more, plus it’ll keep your stress levels down while giving you the ability to clear away a good amount of headspace so your able to focus better.

This is something that I need to really practice a whole lot, because I don’t do that often, I would rather stress myself out then relax, that’s how much I give myself a break on things I feel I need to do better at, yeah…..but there’s a lot of ways to self care i’m sure and keep the chaos from becoming too chaotic, mental health and self care, should always go hand in hand, there should always be a balance between them, because without one, the other wouldn’t know what to do, so it helps to keep them together so that way you feel at ease, if not entirely, at least you know you’ll feel a little better with it.

All The Love ❤ ❤

~Lexa

Quick Note: I started this on the 20th of July, but had to do some more looking over and that, some of my original thoughts I kept in and some I added, I also removed some that I felt weren’t needed, I did my best on this topic so I hope it came out okay and I hope you enjoy the read.

Okay so this is a bit of a hard topic to discuss, i’m not sure how this post is going to turn out, but hopefully it comes out okay…….just a bit of a disclaimer warning, the topic that will be discussed in this post has to do with Eating Disorders so if this is a very sensitive topic for some of you out there and a bit triggering, I understand not wanting to read on, but if you’re comfortable and are okay reading upon this topic then by all means do so…..

When it comes to Mental Health a lot of people don’t really take it as seriously as it should or needs to be and it’s sad because, it’s important to treat it seriously, just because it’s not physical doesn’t mean there’s no effect and that it’s not still harmful……

There’s many different mental health disorders out there, although they’re different, they still share the same effect inside, however there are some that are much more dangerous than others, one of them being Eating Disorders…….i’ll be honest here, I don’t really know too much when it comes to eating disorders, but I have learned a bit about it,

By looking into it a little to get a better understanding and even getting some insights on what it’s like dealing with it and from the knowings of it and the effects it can have on you, lets just say it’s a real tough road walking down, especially when it comes to the recovery process of it.

Now i’m not sure how serious people take Eating Disorders, you would think it’d be one of the topics that is talked about a lot, but when you really think about it, we don’t really hear that much on it, which is a bit surprising because it’s something that should be payed more attention to.

Now I want to talk properly about this, because there’s a lot of things to eating disorders that not many are aware of, most people have a stereotype on it, which isn’t really fair because there are things with it that you won’t know unless you personally lived it, which a lot of us haven’t, but there are some that have or are living it right now and we don’t even know…..

What we may see it as, is completely different to what it actually is like, now my reasoning for wanting to talk upon this topic is for a few reasons, but also because of a video that I watched a few days ago, that was sent to me by my boyfriend who……well had a very similar experience with it…..

I won’t express too much on it though as it’s his story to tell, but he did say it was okay to talk about how he’s been though something similar to the story here……the video that i’ll be giving some insight on is about a Youtuber by the name of Eugenia Cooney, not sure how many of you exactly know of her, maybe you know her well or have just heard about her……a few days ago, Shane Dawson (another Youtuber) made a video on Eugenia,

I don’t know how familiar some of you are with Shane or if you even watch any of his videos, but he has a few series that he does, one of them is focused on helping people and sometimes even going back and revisiting pasts things that he hasn’t really been able to face before, it’s pretty good, i’ve watched a hand full of them……this specific video however, discusses Eugenia and her struggles with her Eating Disorder…….

I gotta say, this video has to be one of the most serious videos, Shane’s ever done and he’s made quite a lot…….I don’t know a whole lot about Eugenia Cooney, i’ve heard of her and have seen her before, but i’ve never actually watched any of her videos…..watching this video though, i’ll admit was really hard, it was also very emotional, I held my breath a lot watching it.

It’s kinda tough to describe this video, I feel it’s something you have to watch for yourself in order to really understand the situation and everything with it, but what I will say, is that you learn a lot from this while gaining insights to what it’s like for those who suffer from eating disorders, as well as learn on the different types of eating disorders and what kind of things happen with those types, if that makes sense!?

There’s a lot of mixed emotions in this video, although it’s very serious, there’s also some pretty nice light hearted and good moments within it as well, there was a few moments in the video that were a bit hard to watch, one of the moments was when they would show Eugenia’s videos….

Now I don’t know if it was a streaming kind of video that she did or a live chat event, but there was this girl and i’m not going to say what she said because you’ll see it in the video if you watch it, but…..

She started off with a very sweet and lovely comment to Eugenia letting her know how pretty she is which was really nice…..a few moments later however, she said something that…..probably shouldn’t have been said, it was that uncomfortable of a moment that I had to actually pause the video.

I mean i’m sure the girl didn’t intend for what she said to come out the way it did or anything, I mean you knew she was a fan of Eugenia and that she cared, she sounded like a very lovely girl, but I don’t think she understood by her saying what she did especially LIVE, the way she did……really set with Eugenia, like you could literally see the change of expression on her face and her eyes, it was one of the toughest moments to see in the video…..

Sometimes we don’t realize the things we say, as well as the way we say them, to us it may not be that bad…..however to others it’s a whole different story, especially when you see or know someone is going through something difficult that they may not be able to see or may not even know about……it’s important to really think about that kind of thing.

If you know or see someone isn’t well or they’re just getting well again, take a moment to really think about the things you’re saying before you find the words coming out of your mouth…….but i’m sure the girl didn’t mean harm with it, so no blame game here, sometimes we make mistakes, even if it’s the tiniest of ones, it happens, it’s just live and learn that’s all.

There were other moments that were a bit hard to watch, but a specific moment that I also wanted to talk about was not one that was hard to watch per say, but one that made me a bit nervous and that was when it came to Shane asking Eugenia questions on everything…..in the beginning of the video, there was this lady I can’t remember her name, but she was explaining to Shane the different questions you shouldn’t ask someone dealing with an eating disorder and the things you shouldn’t say to them…..

Watching the whole video, I was just nervous, thinking to myself “I hope the questions he’s asking are alright” luckily it all went well with the questions, even though the topic of it was hard as well.

I liked how comfortable Shane made Eugenia feel when he visited her and talked to her, it was real nice, i’m sure she was very nervous about doing this whole thing and talking about it as well, but it was good to see that there wasn’t any awkward moments with it.

There was a lot of moments that were very interesting to learn about within the video, if you want to check that out for yourself to get a better insight about Eating Disorders I linked it for you guys, it’s worth watching.

Watch the video here: The Return Of Eugenia Cooney

Continuing on the topic of Eating Disorders as a whole…..I can’t really say what exactly it’s like dealing with it, because i’ve never actually experienced it before, for people who have dealt with the disorder or are dealing with it now even, I know it’s not an easy topic to talk about it.

This is a real issue that shouldn’t be overlooked…….there are a lot of people who are secretly suffering with this and aren’t asking for help and that kind of thing is scary, because even though they aren’t directly asking for help, in way they are, only they’re going to say it…….

Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s going on in these kind of situations and unless you’re very close to someone, you won’t really see it, you might get hints here and there, but it’s not going to be something you catch on to right away……learning a bit about it, i’ve learned that people who suffer with eating disorders are really good at hiding it, again you may think you’re able to catch on to it quickly, but that’s not always the case.

Something i’d like to point out is that, when we think of eating disorders, our brains naturally and automatically think females suffer from it and that’s because it always been seen as and I know this is probably the wrong way to quote it and I apologize in advance, but it’s always just been seen as a “Female thing only”

When in fact that is faaar from the truth…..on the stereotype side of town, it’s like that, if you only knew the half of it though….because if you did, you’d find out males suffer from it too, maybe even more, we wouldn’t know about that though because a lot of the males that do suffer with an eating disorder, don’t speak up about it and that’s because there’s already a perspective on it, which isn’t right……

When you think of other disorders such as anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder all those things, it’s not just seen as a one sided thing, any person, guy or girl can suffer from them, yet when it comes to eating disorders, it’s only looked at on the females perspective and maybe that has to do with the fact that more females speak up on it, however that doesn’t mean that it should be normalized as just females go through it because that’s not true.

Males that suffer with an eating disorder, don’t really get taken that seriously causing most of them to suffer in silence when they shouldn’t have to……I don’t want to say it’s an image thing, however it kinda is in a way, which is sad because it shouldn’t be like that, we shouldn’t have it where if a male is struggling with an eating disorder they shouldn’t come out about it…….not trying to go away from the topic, but I will for a second,

Only because it’s the same as if someone was being abused, majority of the time, people will only see it from a girls perspective when in fact guys also get abused……yet we don’t talk about that and sometimes that can be one of the main factors of an eating disorder starting because of the way they’ve been treated before, but my point to this though is just like girls,

Guys too can be affect by it, just because we don’t hear much about it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening……we aren’t the only ones that go through rough times, although guys are built to be strong and protect and all that, we need to understand that they too have feelings and they also go through these kind of issues. We shouldn’t be shutting them out and making them feel as though if they do suffer from any sort of disorder or other things in general that they shouldn’t be allowed to share it or speak up about it.

It’s important to not only treat these kind of things seriously, but also treat each individual the same way, especially when dealing and suffering with things like eating disorders and that, everyone should have a right to express they’re emotions and feelings as well as things they’re going through.

We should never make someone feel as though their feelings don’t matter or that the issues they’re dealing with aren’t as important as someone else’s……there’s a lot to learn with this topic, things that may be seen as simple, aren’t always and when it comes to things we think we know on this topic or even someone, there’s a high chance that we have no clue, what we say and how we say it does have an affect, even when we see it as harmless.

Final Thoughts: We don’t know what people are going through and with this kind of thing it’s really important that we take it seriously and try to help in the best way possible, even if we aren’t sure how…….

If you know or sense someone close to you or someone you think needs help is suffering help them, try and be there for them, talk to them and if you’re worried or you aren’t sure what to do, there are people that can help and there’s even numbers to call.

If someone out there is reading this and is suffering with an eating disorder or recovering from one (GUY OR GIRL) know that everything is going to be okay and that there are people that can help you get better, I know it won’t seem like it, but you aren’t alone and again if you’re a guy or a girl whose just starting to recover or have successfully recovered,

I’m proud of you and i’m sure those around you, are proud of you as well (although I don’t know many of you) still, I know it’s a hard road you’re walking or have had to walk before and I know that even though there maybe some of you who have fought through this, I know that the journey of it will never be over as it sticks with you for life, but even though that maybe so, you should be very proud of yourself, not only for how far you came from it,

but also because you went through it and are still going through it, but have stayed strong and continued on, I know it’s not the easiest thing and I know that for some of you, there might even be a time where you fall into a relapse with it, but just know if that does occur don’t feel ashamed about it and don’t think that you did wrong, because you didn’t, you’re not weak or anything like that, it’s just a rebuild and process thing, but it’ll all be alright.

If there are people out there who have had someone in their life relapse or know someone whose relapsed, don’t scold them about it…..reassure them and let them know that you’re there for them, support and love them through those times, because believe me they’re already beating themselves up about it, they don’t need scolding or any of that, all they need is love and support.

There’s still a whole lot more to eating disorders than i’m able to explain, this was just my observation and thoughts on it from what I learned, again i’m no expert and have no experienced with it, the only people that can really tell you what it’s like dealing with it and the situation with it as a whole are the ones that have or are going through it……

If you have any thoughts you want to share or add to any knowledge that you think I should know on the topic of eating disorders go ahead, if there’s something I said wrong or messed up on, please do let me know, in the best way possible of course, I really would like to understand this better.

Last thing, if any of you out there, need a place to go to chat or anything like that, you don’t have to, but you’re more than welcome to here, but if you’re wanting or looking for a bit more help, here’s a few links to websites that might just be what you need and for those who want to understand more about this as well, I left some links for you as too.

All The Love ❤ ❤

~Lexa~