{"id":184907,"date":"2021-05-17T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=184907"},"modified":"2023-02-20T13:19:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T13:19:26","slug":"life-after-an-eating-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/05\/life-after-an-eating-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Life After an Eating Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As psychiatrists suggest a surge of eating disorders could be on the horizon, prompted partly by the pandemic, Cara Lisette reflects on what has helped her through her experience.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Image: Rachel Adams<\/p><\/div>\n

11 May 2021 – <\/em>When 30-year-old Cara Lisette had an anorexia relapse in 2019, she felt hopeless about the future. She was in her teens when first diagnosed with the mental illness, which causes people to restrict their food intake to a harmful extent. She has since relapsed \u201cevery couple of years\u201d and this time, she became convinced that she would never fully recover.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut so many people were telling me: \u2018I\u2019ve been there, and even when it feels like it\u2019s going to last forever, it won\u2019t\u2019,\u201d Cara says over the phone from her home in Southampton, which she shares with her boyfriend Matt, a cat called Panda and her rabbit, Luna. \u201cI didn\u2019t believe them. Now I\u2019m the one telling other people that even when it feels like it\u2019s impossible to get better, it isn\u2019t impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Cara, body image issues began at primary school. \u201cI remember being seven or eight and being really aware of how much space I took up, comparing myself to other children,\u201d she says. These issues \u201cbubbled away under the surface\u201d, but when she went to a much bigger secondary school, Cara found the negative comparisons happening more and more. \u201cThen my parents separated, which tipped me over the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After inpatient treatment, during which she sat her GCSE exams in hospital, Cara made a successful recovery, thanks in part to the \u201cabsolutely amazing\u201d nurses who cared for her. The experience inspired her to become a mental health nurse for children and young adults \u2013 a job she loves. \u201cIt\u2019s so rewarding, because if you can help people sufficiently in their adolescence and in their childhoods, you can change the trajectory of their whole lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Cara doesn\u2019t tell her patients about her own experience, it has given her a poignant understanding of what they\u2019re going through. She\u00a0also helps others by sharing her story. In 2013, she began giving talks to young people under the Time to Change mental health awareness campaign.\u201cIt was actually easier talking to a room full of strangers than talking to friends, because I didn\u2019t have to worry about judgement from people I was unlikely to see again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public speaking made Cara feel brave enough to share her experience on social media and on her blog, Cara\u2019s Corner.<\/a> When she relapsed in 2019, she worried that people who had followed her for her positive outlook and advice about recovery would tune out. Instead, she felt supported. She refers to a \u201cmassive community who appreciated my honesty, and that I wasn\u2019t painting a picture of recovery being really easy\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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‘The bigger picture can be overwhelming. So take things one day at a time,’ advises Cara.
Image: Rachel Adams<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Her pets helped too \u2013 Panda the cat is a \u201cmummy\u2019s boy\u201d and the fear of having to be away from him in hospital bolstered her determination to get better.<\/p>\n

Since being discharged from outpatient treatment in March this year, Cara feels a little nervous, but optimistic about the future. \u201cThis is the only time where I\u2019ve come to the end of treatment and felt like I\u2019m ready for it to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therapy this time, more than ever, has helped her tackle the root causes of her illness, allowing her to recognise how much restricting food has been about chasing a sense of achievement, \u201cespecially when I\u2019m not getting that from other places in my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m the one telling other people that even when it feels like it\u2019s impossible to get better, it isn\u2019t impossible.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She is now learning to see achievement in a more fluid way: \u201ctaking pride in good relationships and my career, rather than certificates or awards or losing weight\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among the things Cara is looking forward to is finishing a university course to qualify as a cognitive behavioural counsellor for children and young people. And she\u2019s excited for the publication of her self-help journal for people who have eating disorders.<\/p>\n

Her advice to others going through similar struggles? \u201cTake things one day a time. For me, thinking too far ahead, thinking \u2018I need to stay recovered for the rest of my life\u2019 \u2013 that just sounds absolutely impossible. The bigger picture can be overwhelming. So take things one day at a time, or even just one meal at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Go to Original – positive.news<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 May 2021 – As psychiatrists suggest a surge of eating disorders could be on the horizon, prompted partly by the pandemic, Cara Lisette reflects on what has helped her through her experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":184909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[793,2514,2515,2206],"class_list":["post-184907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-addiction","tag-anorexia","tag-eating-disorders","tag-positive-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}