UNI WHILST DEALING WITH BODY ISSUES
Going to university and going to live in a city with no-one you know is hard enough but a lot of people will know that it’s 10000 x harder when you have any mental, emotional or physical issues to deal with on top of that. Having to go into a treatment programme for anorexia when I was 15 and only coming out of that when I was 19 has meant that I have gone to university with these issues still very much a part of my life.
When recovering from this kind of thing there is obviously the physical and mental element and when they don’t heal at the same time, which I think they never really do, is very difficult. Also, often after gaining back weight during recovery you can experience weight overshooting where your body gains back necessary weight plus more until your body resettles itself and goes back to normal and this to me is the hardest part. Whilst to anyone else you could appear a healthy weight, you know in your head what the extra (but necessary) weight feels like on you and how it can make you feel not like yourself. The extremely hard part is being able to sit with this, accept it and not rush the process of bringing your weight back down, because this process can take a much longer time than you want to accept.
Another lasting issue post-treatment is that you often have physical health issues, including (but there are so many) digestion, sleep and blood circulation problems to name a few. I really believe that coming to university with this is such a challenge and I know there are lots of people who are in the same boat. You are meeting new people who don’t know anything about you and wouldn’t suspect a thing, you’re thrust into a completely new dynamic where you are essentially left on your own to navigate university life still with remnants of your eating disorder very much there. A lot of people won’t realise, especially if they don’t know your past, that just to wake up and make yourself three meals a day can feel like the hardest challenge in the world and having to act like these are normal things that you don’t even have to think about is a hard act to keep up. However, I do think that going to a new city, meeting new people and just being in a different environment can be a massive aid in helping people have a new perspective on these kinds of situations, no matter what issue they are dealing with. I made a post on my facebook page in May 2018 when I left the treatment programme, urging anyone who resonates at all and if they want to they can message me and that still stands. I just think this post could make anyone aware if they’re not already that a lot of people are dealing with this when they come to university and like with all things, awareness is key.