🌞 ITS SUMMA-TIME!!! 🌞

It’s time to celebrate. It is time for BBQ’s, pool parties, celebrations, and FUN IN THE SUN. While most of us are getting ready to relax and party this summer, some of you are feeling very overwhelmed. Today I am talking about ways to survive summer when you have an eating disorder.

Summer means:

• Pool parties 🏊

• Swimsuits 👙

• BBQ 🍔

• Graduation parties 🎓

• Get-togethers with friends and family 🎉

Again FUN STUFF, right? Not so fun for someone with Anorexia Nervosa. For someone with this eating disorder this sounds like a nightmare. The thought of wearing a swimsuit makes you want to run into a hole and die. You feel pressure and stress. You are lying awake at night worrying about how you will look in the swimsuit. You are consumed with how you are going to avoid eating foods at the party. You just want to be normal and not stand out – so you think about ways to fade away in the crowd.

Summertime and Swimsuit season are very overwhelming for someone with an eating disorder. Here is what you can do to help:

• Avoid body talk 🚫

• Refrain from talking about working out and what you ate 🏋️‍♂️

• Be non-judgmental about how other people look 👀

• Be non-judgmental about what you ate 🍽️

• Encourage eating all foods 🍕🥗

• Accept all body types ❤️

• Talk about deeds and not about looks 🗣️

• Understand that someone may not be comfortable in a swimsuit or shorts – support that a person can wear what they want as long as they are comfortable 👗

• If a person looks uncomfortable, offer to take the party inside 🏠

Let’s move away from talking about bikini bodies or summer bodies. Let’s focus on health and happiness.

Feeling fat is a lie the brain likes to use to make you feel terrible and awful. Our brains do not always get it right, so you don’t have to believe everything that pops up in there. You can choose how you want to think about yourself and your body. 💭

This is not easy, but it is possible.

You can learn to love your body and love your life. You can learn to challenge disordered eating thinking and behaviors. You can learn to have confidence and self-acceptance. If you find you are having trouble with this, please ask for help. There is a lot of good support and help out there for you. 🌟

If you find this information helpful please share. This is a very complex issue that cannot be addressed in a 5 minute video, but feel free to ask questions and comment. Perhaps there is something I can help clarify for you.

Still not sure if you have an eating disorder? Here is a self-assessment, https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/screening-tool. This quick tool is to help you determine if you have an eating disorder and if you should get help. Visit NationalEatingdisorder.org to find help and get more information.

Do you feel you struggle with an eating disorder? Get in touch with us.