By "us", I mean recovering addicts, alcoholics, and especially girls/women who are in recovery for eating disorder. I don't talk about the third subject much because it is so personal. It still has an awful stigma attached to it. So we stay silent. Silence kills...
In two days, we lost two of our own... Girls recovering from anorexia. One was a personal friend. Gretchen Elizabeth Gleason. She was a bright spot that helped me thru my lowest points (I haven't had an eating disorder relapse in a couple of years now). But then I distanced myself from her because she was slipping away and it triggered my own disorder. It scared me. It created an inner turmoil... This questioning inside me- like do we ever recover? I know now that recovery is possible, but we have to remain vigilant. I wouldn't slack on my recovery from alcohol so why would I slack on this? Thinking I can skip a meal or two this week, five next week, and pretty soon I'm back to my old ways. This is what killed my friend. She went to sleep and did not wake up. What is the scariest part of this all? She was on waiting lists for residential treatment. She wanted to get better. She was back in therapy, moving forward. And just like that, she is gone. Age 32. Gone too soon..
