February 12, 2024
'One death every 52 minutes is due to an eating disorder'
From a young age, I struggled to have a normal relationship with food. I was the smallest kid in my grade so getting picked on was nothing new to me. Short and small in size, an easy target.
At recess time, a teacher would sit with me to make sure I ate all my food. She was a real pain in the ass if you ask me. This didn't exactly help my image or reputation and looking back, I think this made me look like more of a freak.
I was 8 years old then, a care free kid with not a clue in the world. I had no idea what an eating disorder was at the time. All I knew was that I didn't like food very much, and for that reason alone I got ostracised and made fun of.
My Dad never thought much of it. My mother on the other hand was concerned, but she figured that I was just a fussy eater and decided that a teacher watching me at meal times was enough. That and appointments with the school counsellor.
I still remember my first session. Her name was Ms May. She used to wear knee length floral dresses with ballet flats and had a small handbag that she carried on her forearm.
She came to my class one day and pulled me out from my lesson. 'Hi Dree, I'm Ms May, the school cousellor' she said to me as we stood outside my classroom. We started to walk to her room at a slow pace but I wasn't complaining because that mean't I got to skip more of my lesson.
We finally reached her room and it looked like something out of an Ikea showroom for kids furniture . There were beanbags in the corner of the room, a small table with kids chairs and lots of interesting toys. We sat down on the sofa and she gave me a proper introduction followed by a couple of questions for me to answer about myself.
I don't remember much of the conversation after but one thing she said stuck with me to this day, like a core memory in my mind. she held out a roll of masking tape to use as a diagram. 'Imagine this is ur stomach, the inside of the roll right here would be ur stomach lining. If you don't eat properly, your stomach will start to digest itself and you will get a lot of tummy aches.' She explained.
Of course I didn't really know what she meant by that because well I was 8 and wasn't about to let a stranger tell me what to do with my body. She was really nice though and I really enjoyed our other sessions together. She would play games with me and I would get to tell her about all the hot gossip.
Like every kid, I had hobbies. I was more of an active kid and didn't excel in my studies so much. Instead, I did swimming, track and field and I loved to dance. I had tried tennis too and a bit of netball . Like I said i was an active kid but all this changed once I went to high school.
