You Don't Have To Be Sick Enough To Deserve Help...

If you're reading this wondering whether you're "sick enough" to ask for help, I want you to stop for a second because that thought alone tells me you're struggling.

One of the crulest lies an eating disorder ever tells is that you haven't earned recovery yet, it whispers things like... "You're not underweight enough." Or "you don't purge enough." Or "wait until you get a little bit sicker." So you wait, you wait until you've lost more weight and until your life falls apart enough to finally believe you've earned help but here is the truth. The eating disorder will never wake up one morning and tell you, "that's enough now, you've done it." The finish line it keeps promising you will always keep moving.

Every time you reach the goal it set for you, it creates a new one that's how it survives. It keeps you chasing a version of "sick enough" that doesn't exist. I want you to think about this for a moment, if someone broke their arm would you tell them to wait until both arms were broken before going to hospital? No, of course you wouldn't! So why do we believe we have to completely destroy ourselves before we deserve support? You don't have to collapse, you don't have to be hospitalised, you don't have to fit somebody else's idea of what an eating disorder looks like and you don't have to be at your lowest point.

Recovery isn't a reward for being the sickest, it's support for people who are struggling. If you're struggling... that includes you. Your eating disorder wants you to keep waiting, it wants you to believe you're not ill enough because every day you wait is another day it gets to stay in control. Don't let it make that decision for you. Please don't spend months or years trying to prove you're worthy of help. You're already worthy not because of your weight, BMI or how little you've eaten but because you're human and you're life matters. One day you'll look back and wish you'd asked for help sooner, not later. Don't wait until your body is begging for help before you finally listen to your mind. You deserve support the moment you begin struggling.

With Love, Niomi 🤎